With reference to a state. ment published in the Municipal Gazette of Friday, January 22, 1982, that a portion of Cadastral Lot 174 on the corner of Ki and Foochow Roads woul: ing the current year become available for sale and that the Council would probably call for sealed tenders from intending purchasers in due course, notice Tehereby given that two sealed offers have been submitted to the Gouneil "already "and. that" the Gouneil will be open to receive further sealed tenders until noon an" Wednesday, dune 8, 1982.
'That was supported by commiuniqués to the same" effect issued to the local press and Published in the "North-China Daily News" of the same date; it cannot, therefore, be suggested that there was' any secrecy in the procedure adopted by the Council. There is, however, reason to believe that there was Some departure from the usual practice of making formal advertisement of the Council's intention. In the statement published in: the Municipal
ference is made to the property lat the comer of Chengta and Bubbling Well Roads. That forthcoming sale was formally advertised under the heading "Municipal Notification, No. 4224," on April 29 and May 6; it did not, however, take place, fact which has no bearing on the matter under argument. The important point is that while lone procedure was adopted with regard to the attempted disposal lof the Chengtu-Bubbling Well Roads property, a different method was pursued with regard to the site at the junction of Kiangse and Foochow Roads. It should further be pointed out that whereas the invitation for tenders for the Chefigtu-Bubbling Well Roads property was published on April 29, and gave until May 13 for the bids to be put in—an interval of a fortnight—in the case of the jangle-Foochow Roads corner site, the announcement of the willingness of the Council to consider offers appeared on June 3, giving possible purchasers only five days in which to formulate their schemes before June 8, the last day on which bids would be received.
Whether publication of such information as a Municipal Notification is sufficient to apprise possible purchasers of surplus' municipal property is matter of opinion, but there can be no doubt' as to the propriety of adopting two different methods for doing the same thing. Persons who might read the advertisement columns lof the Municipal Gazette, might possibly miss a statement in the hews columns and vice versa, land a change may serve to throw them off their guard. If it is true that persons likely to be interested in such surplus land of the Council's look for notifications in the Gazette, which is a well recognised place for such, then it must be notifications' which they should jordinarly be able to find and which should follow well defined rules thereby obviating any danger of their being overlook-led. "It should not be a notification one day and a "'news.story" the next, for it cannot be too strongly" emphasised that, in matters involving the sale of public property, established procedure should always Hollowed with the most metic Jculous precision. It is possible, with all justice, to go further Jand contend that not only should the form of announcement Istandardised but that the widest possible publicity of the Coun-Jcil's intentions should be given to such a standardised announcement. While all muni-Jcipal notifications are published in the Municipal Gazette, some jof them, by reason of their im: portance, appear in the advertise ing columns of the local press. It is contended that the sale of municipal land is of sufficient importance for that practice to be adopted. There is support or this in the practice adopted elsewhere, in Hongkong for the disposal of Crown Land, and in London where the London County Council advertises widely when it has properties for sale. [The reason is obvious. Every possible bidder for the land i wanted; in their competition the 1g8¢ likelihood of the best prices being obtained lies, and though it is not here suggested that the best price for the site in question was not obtained changes fin procedure must inevitably tend to create the suspicion that there is a danger of the best results not having been
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.