Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 655

Appendix No. 1.

LAND COURT,

SIR,

HONGKONG, 15th March, 1902.

I have the honour to forward herewith my Report on the work of the Land Court up to the 31 December, 1901.

Judicial and Semi judicial Duties,

1. The operations of the Court fall naturally into two main divisions.

Section 3 of Ordinance 18 of 1900 provides that "all claims to land in the New Territories sha *** be heard and determined by a Land Court." Section III and succeeding sections provide for th jurisdiction and procedure of the Court and allow for Appeals to the Full Court in certain cases. Thi is to say, that in all disputed claims, the Court has to take the evidence of the parties concerned and finall to adjudicate between them. This is, in fact, work which is purely judicial and might have been di charged by the Supreme Court of the Colony had that tribunal possessed the necessary leisure. Tł Land Court has also further duties, in the exercise of which its functions are rather those of a speci Commission, as when it examines into and allows or disallows, for one reason or another, as against th Crown, claims which are not contested by rival claimants but which require careful scrutiny in orde to ascertain whether the titles are such as would have been recognized by the Government of Chin On this side of its jurisdiction, its functions are also within the scope of the Ordinance and might, think, be classed as semi-judicial in their nature.

Ministerial Duties.

Altogether apart from, however, and outside of the jurisdiction imposed by the Ordinance, it h been necessary to undertake operations of considerable extent calling for the employment of a larg body of men and the disbursement of considerable sums of money. These duties which are perhap best classified as ministerial have for their object

(1.) The preparation and collection of claims in such manner as to ascertain clearly which ar those in which there are contesting parties and to winnow out the disputes from th great mass of uncontested claims.

(2.) The formation of a Crown Rent Roll based upon those among the claims, perhaps 9

per cent. of the whole, as are not disallowed by the Court.

Seeing that this latter or ministerial portion of my duties has been somewhat extensive, and seein also that in order of time it is necessary to make preparation for the presentation of claims before th hearing and adjudication can conveniently be proceeded with, it may be advisable to deal in thi Report first of all with these ministerial functions of the Department.

2. It is, of course, obvious that a claim to land is, in its very nature, dissimilar from a suit to recove money. Supposing, for instance, that A. B. comes forward and declares his desire to lay claim to certain field, it is impossible for the officers of the Court, without a map of holdings, to determine th situation of the land he professes to claim. Even if A. B. produces a survey plan purporting to sho his own holding, still without a general scheme showing the relative positions of all claims within th District, there is no means of knowing what other persons have claims conflicting with that of A. B.

On taking up my duties in June, 1900, I found that there were indeed available the exceller cadastral or field to field maps of the Indian Survey extending over approximately one-half of th cultivated 'land. No holdings, however, were shown on these as it had been manifestly impossible fc the Survey Field Staff, who were Indians unacquainted with Chinese, to make any enquiries as to th ownership. A Chinese demarcation staff was, therefore, got together as fast as suitable men could b enlisted; and by the end of 1900 had reached a complement of 88 men. Gradually, however, it becam apparent that, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the New Territory with its thousands of miny holdings, it would be necessary to largely increase the Cadastral Staff unless the estimate of the tin necessary to complete its operations was to be very considerably exceeded.

In June, therefore, His Excellency determined to telegraph to India for 29 additional Field Surveyor and to authorize a corresponding increase in the strength of the Chinese Demarcation Staff, which the present time comprises no less than 190 men divided into Field parties of 4 men: three coolies and one Demarcator to each party.

Demarcation.

3. The duty of a Demarcator is to discover, in the first instance, the owners of cultivated ground, o of ground showing signs of recent cultivation. He is accompanied by an Indian Surveyor who insert each holding on a map under his directions. Every holding is numbered; the numbers appearing or the map as far as possible in consecutive order. Tickets bearing these numbers, together with a description of the holding are issued to all persons claiming an interest in the land; and full particular of ownership are entered it a demarcation register kept by the Demarcator. A medium of communi cation is thus established between the people and the Court.