REVIEW
15
the New Territories. The Chinese reported that on 29th July 1896, waves dashed over the lighthouse buildings, flooding the fresh water tanks and completely carrying away the derrick used for landing stores, while spray reached the lantern 225 feet above high water mark, pitting the panes with sand and gravel.
Further increases in the amount of shipping using the port led to the appointment of two boarding officers in 1870, and this was the start of the boarding office, or port control office as it is known today. No information is available on their qualifications, but it is likely they were ex-policemen or soldiers, in keeping with the normal recruitment practice at that time.
Emigration of Chinese continued throughout the eighteen- seventies, with an average of 35,000 emigrants leaving Hong Kong annually; strangely, approximately the same number returned. Despite the ordinances designed to stop abuses, difficulties still existed in controlling emigrant ships. This is borne out by the harbour master in his annual report of 1867, in which he says that vessels were sailing with only 20 passengers on board but surreptitiously embarking large numbers of Chinese beyond Green Island. Lieutenant Thomsett went on to say that he intended stopping this practice immediately, but apparently he was not particularly successful, for he was later charged by the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy,- with being remiss in the examination of emigrant ships.
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The silting up of the harbour appears to have been mentioned for the first time in 1875, when it was pointed out that the small pier projecting from the naval yard was practically high and dry at low tide and stores being landed there often had to be dragged over the mud. The surveyor general, Mr J. M. Price, proposed a reclamation scheme in front of the naval and military areas, but it was never carried out because the Admiralty and the War Office refused to contribute toward the cost.
With the building of the Suez Canal and the opening of telegraph links between Hong Kong and other parts of the world it was no longer necessary for importers to keep large stocks of goods in the Colony. Consequently the large godowns at East Point and Wan