HISTORY
the security and sanctuary of this Colony. The population rose by leaps and bounds and by 1855 was estimated at 72,000, and by 1861 at 120,000, taxing housing accommodation and all the other amenities with which the city had been provided.
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An early reclamation scheme (1851), on a part of which the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corpora- tion building stands to-day, was found to be insufficient and was extended, while the city spread rapidly. New schools were established, to provide better educational facilities for the Chinese, among them the Anglo- Chinese College. As a matter of fact the establishment of the Board of Education as early as 1845 showed that the British were determined to make this an important aspect of the Colony's activities. More markets, better policing, the problem of water supply, additional hospitals, sanitation all pressed for attention and were tackled with energy and determination. Hong Kong rapidly took on the aspect of a modern town, and with the increasing importance of trade the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce was formed, in 1861.
The Convention of Peking of 1860 added the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters' Island to the Crown Colony, and provision was made at Kowloon for accommodation for a part of the garrison. This was followed not long afterwards by the establishment of the Union Dock Company and the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, the latter eventually absorb- ing the several smaller dockyards in Hong Kong and expanding into one of the largest employers of labour in the Colony. The early development of Kowloon owes a great deal to this important enterprise.
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