ENG-1963 — Page 50

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REVIEW

been largely set aside for the ship-breaking industry and present trends appear to indicate a preference by industrialists for locations on the southern water frontage of Kowloon and the New Terri- tories, stretching from Junk Bay through Kwun Tong, Ma Tau Kok, Tai Kok Tsui and Cheung Sha Wan to Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan and Castle Peak.

Reclamation

Victoria harbour, the raison d'être for Hong Kong's foundation, formed the focal point around which the original settlers clustered and around which the banks, business houses, the shipyards and later, the factories were built. Hemmed in by hills both north and south, the population became concentrated on the limited flat or less steeply sloping land available along the coast. Expansion was only possible by reclamation into the sea and by higher buildings upwards into the sky. Both these processes have taken place over the years but despite this the land has become so congested as barely to serve the demands made upon it by its many occupants. The solution has been sought in still further reclamations now extending beyond the harbour and into the New Territories.

The first praya reclamation scheme was partly carried out in 1851, but aroused the opposition of lessees who not only claimed marine rights but extended their boundaries over the foreshore absorbing such land as could easily be reclaimed. This delayed matters; but despite this and the destruction of the original praya wall by a typhoon in 1867, further land was reclaimed at Kowloon Point and at West Point at about this time. Twenty three acres were reclaimed at Causeway Bay in 1884, and a year later a similar area at Kennedy Town. In 1887 the Land Commission recom- mended further reclamation to alleviate overcrowding in the city. In 1890 came the Praya Reclamation Ordinance and a year later Mr Paul Chater, later Sir Paul Chater, initiated the reclamation of an area of 65 acres extending two miles westward from Murray Road along the northern foreshore of the Island.

During the next 80 years, reclamation continued; the largest schemes are those at Wan Chai (90 acres), Tai Kok Tsui (54 acres), Kai Tak (205 acres) and Sham Shui Po (66 acres), all completed around 1930. Since the war, reclamation and large formation schemes have together made available some 2,060 acres