ENG-1963 — Page 135

7

Primary Production

AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE NEW TERRITORIES

THE New Territories became part of the Colony in July 1899 and work on a full survey of agricultural land started in June of the following year and was completed three years later. In 1900 a number of Land Courts were set up to hear the inhabitants' claims to tenure of their land. The Land Courts finished their work in 1905 and 354,277 lots, comprising 40,737.95 acres of agricultural land contained in 566 Demarcation Districts were confirmed by Government. Because they were too small and scattered to be given individual titles, these lots were recorded in Block Crown Leases for each Demarcation District and are known as Old Schedule Lots. Crown rents, replacing the old Chinese Imperial land tax, were fixed at the time of the lease, and have progressively declined in value so that in some cases they are now scarcely worth the trouble of collecting.

On 4th March 1904 all land not claimed at the time of the lease was proclaimed to be Crown land, leases of which could be sold at public auction, as in Hong Kong and Kowloon. New Territories lands acquired in this way are known as New Grant Lots. It has always been recognized, however, that most villages have certain prescriptive rights over the land around them, where they graze their cattle, cut grass, and bury their dead and no Crown land in the New Territories is put up for auction until the nearest villagers are given the opportunity to object. An objection, whether economic or geomantic, is usually accepted if reasonable.

The pattern in 1905, which largely continued until the expansion of development in the New Territories in the 1950's, was of small owners holding about an acre and cultivating their own land. In certain areas, however, such as Yuen Long, much of the best agricultural land was and is still owned by clans established for hundreds of years. By tradition a proportion of the rent raised from clan land is set aside by the clans themselves for the upkeep

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