Sessional_Paper_1905 — Page 208

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Increase of Staff.

9. In November, 1901, a second Registrar was appointed; but the Registrars were not given a "limited jurisdiction in undisputed claims." The Chinese staff was from time to time substantially increased. The account of the expense of the Land Court (see para. 15) will be an index to this matter, the extra amounts in the Estimates there shewn being expended mainly upon the Chinese Staff. At Tai Po I have had as many as fifty Clerks at one time and an out-door staff of one hundred and forty. These were all persons temporarily engaged and have probably familiarised every village with the methods of the settlement.

Demarcation.

10. The time spent on demarcation could not have been appreciably shortened. The regular obstacles are described in Mr. GOMPERTZ's report for 1901 (c.f. Gazette 1902 p. 701) :-

"The main obstacles to the quick progress of demarcation are as follows :—

(a.) The Chinese staff of the Land Court has to work hand in hand with Indian Surveyors; and neither party understands the language of the other.

(b.) The holdings are in many cases very small, in some villages they

average more than 100 to the acre.

(c) Holdings near the boundaries of the New Territory often belong to persons resident outside British jurisdiction and the owners occa- sionally neglect to come forward and furnish particulars of their rights, even after being specially summoned.

(d.) On Chinese holidays and festivals, and during seed time and har- vest, information has been less readily forthcoming than at other times.

(e.) In the case of poor pieces of hill cultivation, that have paid no taxes to the Chinese Government, the squatters are reluctant to lay claims that may be made the basis of taxation later on.

(f.) The divergent interests of local clans and peasant cultivators have given rise to fears on both sides as to the intentions of Govern- ment."

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The demarcation work commenced in June. 1900, and finished in June, 1903.

Judicial Work.

11. The first judicial sitting of the Court was held on 20th February, 1901. By the advice of the Law Committee of the Legislative Council the start was made in New Kowloon, the Full Court-Mr. POLLOCK and Mr. GOMPERTZ-sitting in the Eastern portion of New Kowloon all the summer of that year. The plan pursued was to first deal exclusively with conflicting claims. The superficial result for the first three years 1901-3 was thus small in extent compared to the immense mass of undisputed material awaiting consideration. But, when Mr. GOMPERTZ resigned, the absence of difficult disputes facilitated the quick settlement arrived at by the three new Members.

Chief Problems of the Settlement.

12. The outstanding features of the settlement problem are noted in Mr. GOMPERTZ's first report (Gazette 1901 p. 919):-

(1) Many large tracts of land are now claimed by persons who have never paid Crown Rent on them, who never reported their occupation, such as it was to the authorities, and whose claims have never been in any way recognized by the Chinese Government,

(2) Very many persons have been paying under the name of tax annual sums to families who professed to be giving an account of these sums to the District Trea- sury but who as a matter of fact very often did nothing of the kind and who in many cases had no real title to more than a very small fraction of the territory over which they collected this rent.'

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