HISTORY
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and the revised Governor's Instructions of 1865 forbade him to agree to any ordinance 'whereby persons of African or Asiatic birth may be subjected to any disabilities or restrictions to which persons of European birth or descent are not also subjected'. The protection of Chinese interests was the duty of the Registrar- General, a post created in 1845. His responsibilities grew, com- mensurate with the influence of the Chinese community until, in 1913, his post was re-named Secretary for Chinese Affairs. It was changed again in 1969 to Secretary for Home Affairs. The Tung Wah, a charitable Chinese institution founded in 1870 to run hospitals and generally care for the indigent Chinese, also became an important body representative of responsible Chinese opinion.
The entry of the Chinese into Hong Kong in large numbers was unforeseen and naturally little provision was made for it. A narrow strip of comparatively level ground along the foreshore was at first the only available land for building and Queen's Road approxi- mately follows the line of the original settlement. Expansion could only take place on the slopes of the Peak-as for example Stanley Street, Wellington Street and Caine Road, once a very fashionable area or by reclamation from the sea. By 1880 the city, particularly its Chinese quarters in Tai Ping Shan, Sai Ying Pun and Wan Chai, had become seriously overcrowded and insanitary. It was this which led to the development of the Peak as a residential area, particularly after 1888 when the Peak Tramway was built.
The earliest reclamation was the filling of a small creek in 1851, to make what is now Bonham Strand. Bowrington (1859) and Kennedy Town (1877) were built partly on reclaimed land. The most important reclamation was that in the Central District, begun in 1890 and completed in 1904, which added Chater Road, Connaught Road and Des Voeux Road to the city. Large reclamations were made in the Wan Chai area in the years 1921-9.
Increasing urbanisation led also to the problem of water, and the start of a century-long race between water supply and population demand. Prior to 1941 successive water schemes were inaugurated at Pok Fu Lam (1864), Tai Tam (1889), Wong Nai Chung (1899), Tai Tam Tuk (1917) and the Jubilee reservoir in the Shing Mun Valley in 1935, named in honour of the silver jubilee of King George V's reign.