An interesting lend case opened in "H. M, Supreme Court, on Tuesday, before Judge Grain, in the action of Huang Hing v. Boyd & Ca, of JAmoy and Formosa, tea merchants, Mr. K. E, Newman appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. M. Reader Harris for the defendants.
Mr, Harris said he understood the plaintiff was anxious for the: attendance of Mz, Thomas, the man-Jager in Formosa, and Mr. Smith, the manager in Amoy. Mr. Thomas was not in Amoy at the time with which this case was concerned, Mr, Smith was a prominent: member lof the Amoy Electricity Commission and the Municipal Council and: at present was engaged on important $2) business therewith and if his presence was required it would: be Inozessary to ask for an adjournment, On the other hand, Mr. Newman jscemed to think an adjournment {would prejudice his case, The Judge said that apparently the hope was to bring the case on before China New Year, but in any Jeoso the Court would adjourn over China New Year, so there would bo_no difference, Particulars of the case then were read, showing that the plaintiff, a merchant at Amoy and the sole survivor of the Huang family. there, claimed possession of land known as the Boyd Senior Mess, Kulangsu Lot 75, The action wi ment of arrears of rent, est at 8 per cent; a decian the property belongs to the Huang family and the return of it to him the family, Alternati ment of the present market. value, with interest at 8 per cent., or the price realised by defendants on resale of the: property, and interest at 8 per cent, The defence denied plainti('s right to claim, and also that they had purchased the land and subsequently resold it, Mr, Newman said his claim would be that the title deed was wrongly issued. In ancient times the whole of the island of Kulangsu belonged to the Muang clan. It now divided into lots, some owned bj members of the family and others by persons who had acquired them by "purchase, The area of tha island roughly was 1% square miles and the Iand in some places ha become extremely valuable, Defendants had been established in Amoy since between 1850 and 1860, "About 1860, by a scries of leases—six in particular, they secured certain plots of land from the Huang family, making up one harmonious whole and which com= prised Boyd's Senior Mess. The Test was used as a garden for the mess. Tt surrounded by a [stone wail and bordered by the sea in many places, whilst roads had been cut round it. At one comer there was a rocky hill known to the Chinese as the Black Talking Bird, the formation being supposes feom certain angles, to repres that bird.
The firm paid an annual rent to the Huang family on the various plots as folows:—2 mow, rent $16 er annum for seven years; 1 mow, $4, for 10 years; 1 mow, $6, for 10 years; 1 mow, $9, for 10° years; 1 mow, 82, for 10" years; unstated fron, $10, for 12 years. Paymen' for the foregoing was made in advance for the full term, except as regards the fifth. The' defence admitted that they got $95,000 on the sale.
"Phe terme of the leases were that they could he carried on at the expiry of the firat period and they were continued, rent being paid up to 1908 or 1905. One clause of the leases was that "the ancestral grave shall not be demolished or violently stepped on." Tt had been Jasserted that part of the land was transferred in 1902 by the wife of one member of the family, but factually she died in 1886.
'A curious point was that, ale though the defendants claimed to have purchased the land, they continued to pay rent for some years Jafterwards. In 1902, the defendants obtained what known as a "white deed" for the property. Of the four persons mentioned in. it, ithe Huang family claimed that two never existed to their knowledge in 'Amoy and the other two died at least 10 years previously. There was no suggestion that Messrs: Boyd & Ca. were parties toa fraud, but it' might have boon that there was a fraud by someone out side. However, neither Jdceds" nor "rod deeds" corresponded to the regulations laid down for securing a Taotai's title deed in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.