ENG-1963 — Page 46

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REVIEW

framework within which both private and public enterprise may make the most efficient and economic use of available land.

Sound land administration and development is based on accurate plans and maps. Article XXXI of the Royal Instructions requires that 'Before disposing of any vacant or waste land to Us belonging, the Governor shall cause the same to be surveyed . . . .'. Never- theless the survey of the Colony would appear in the early years to have been a very sporadic affair, lacking in policy and con- tinuity and greatly dependent on the personality and ability of a few surveyors; great reliance was placed on the military to provide maps. A Government officer known as the 'Colonial Surveyor' was appointed in 1843, but from the very first he appears to have been concerned mainly with the day-to-day task of selling land and setting out new roads, etc and being responsible for their main- tenance. In fact he gathered under his wing such items as gardens and afforestation and was not a surveyor in charge of a survey department, as was usual in other Colonies. The first known map of the Island of Hong Kong was produced by Lieutenant Collinson, Royal Engineers, in 1845. No record remains to show how it was surveyed, but it was obviously very useful to the administration as it was 'revised' 50 years later in 1895.

The City of Victoria expanded rapidly and various surveys at different-scales were produced to illustrate this expansion and the various reclamation proposals. In 1889 a large scale plan of the city was produced and printed in colour by Messrs Stanfords, the well-known English map-producing firm. During the same period various large scale plans were made of villages such as Aberdeen, Wong Nei Chung and Shau Kei Wan, mainly to determine land claims and to regularize title. Plans were also produced of develop- ment proposals at Kennedy Town and the first settlements on the Peak. In 1860, when the Kowloon Peninsula was ceded to the British, the treaty map illustrating the grant was only a rough sketch which would appear to indicate that no real survey across the harbour had been attempted at this time. Nevertheless, by 1863 a map showing the proposed new roads was published. Similarly, the leasing of the New Territories in 1898 brought a new burst of interest in survey and map production. The Govern- ment sought the assistance of the Survey of India to prepare plans of all land occupied by village houses or used for agriculture so