Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 585

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I wish to acknowledge my obligations to the interesting Memorandum on Land published in the Colonial Secretary's report dated 7th February, 1900.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

The Honourable J. H. STEWART LOCKHART, C.M.G.,

Colonial Secretary.

Appendix No. 2.

H. H. J. GOMPERTZ, Member of Court.

SIR,

LAND COURT, HONGKONG, 27th June, 1901.

I have the honour to submit a report upon the ownership of Tsing 1 (Chung Hue) Island, On the 4th August, 1900, a Notification was published in the Government Gazette fixing 1st October, 1900, as the last day on which claims to land in this and other Islands would be received by the Court.

Notices (three) in the usual form had already on 30th July been posted in the Island itself, and on 14th August the Honourable Captain Superintendent of Police undertook to impress on the inhabitants the importance of reporting their claims in due time.

It was not, however, until October 10th or nine days after the limit of time had expired that the first claim was filed for Ts'ing J, and others came in gradually until the 2nd May this year, by which date 77 claims in all had been received.

This is a good example of the apathy of the country Chinese and their apparent indifference to

their own interests.

Judging from the experience of the past twelve months it seems that nothing but demarcation will really stir up more than a very small fraction of the population to report their claims. Until they have actually been called out into the field and seen their holdings put in on a map they prefer to put off the evil day hoping possibly that they may remain forgotten until the evil day has passed and the unwelcome attentions of Government have been relaxed or diverted in some other direction. The result of course in such a case is that all owners of land become trespassers against the Crown and that such rights as they might have hoped to establish lapse and become vested in the Government.

2. It is now my duty to submit for His Excellency's information a short report as to the nature of such rights as appear to have existed in the Island before the Convention.

Seventy-six out of seventy-seven-the total number of claims received—are such as call for uo special remark. In No. 74, however, it appears that the members of a branch of the Tang family of Kam T'in claiming descent from our Tang Ku Nam lay claim as his descendants to the whole of Ts'ing I Island.

I have taken special pains to go thoroughly into this case because it seems a very typical example of the curious and unwarrantable pretensions to the ownership of very large tracts of country which are perhaps the most striking feature in the economy of what we call the New Territory.

It appears from evidence I have taken that no members of this family reside on the Island- that they have no cultivation there or houses, nor have they any other interest than the collection of a fixed annual rent charge from the cultivators. This rent consisting nominally of 40 piculs of grain is regularly commuted into a money payment based on the current price of padi in Hongkong at the Winter Solstice. It is not pretended that this payment has ever been increased within the memory of any of the inhabitants, although it is quite certain and is freely admitted by the cultivators that additions have from time to time beeu made to the area of land under cultivation. Its incidence is shared among the various family cultivating padi on the Island according to the area and value of their holdings.

3. I made enquiries of both parties as to how the payment originated in the first instance and as to what explanation of its continuance was generally accepted among themselves.

The Tang family replied that the whole Island has been their property for the last 200 years, but that they bave never demanded any larger payment because of their knowledge of the poverty of the inhab- itants. The cultivators on the other hand declare that they have been saddled with this payment because their ancestors-the pioneers of cultivation on the Island-were few and uninfluential and therefore unable to resist the demands of the powerful Tang family for a payment to which they were in no way entitled.

4. No deed was produced by the Taug representatives at the time of my examination into their claim, but they put forward a Certificate in the form usually issued by District Magistrates when land changes hands in China, wherein mention is made of 66 mau of land. The land however is described as being situated in three different localities, namely, Ngau Ku Tun, Ts'ing I Island and Ts'uen Lung, and there is no indication as to what the area is in each place. Some tax receipts for the year before the Convention-the 24th year of Kwong Shui-show a tax on 98.5 mau, but as land all over the district may be put on the same receipt little reliance can be placed on this figure as a guide to the ownership.

It seemed therefore impossible without a reference to the San On Magistrate to ascertain definitely what the real amount of interest might be that was really possessed by the Tang family, and matters being thus at a dead-lock I thought it advisable to wait for more light.

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