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ICE IN HONG KONG
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There is often interesting history behind the most commonplace features of everyday life. Let us, in this hot weather, when we call for iced drinks, ponder on the history of ice in Hongkong, and contemplate the time, when the Colony was founded, that such a necessity of our lives was a luxury unknown to our predecessors in Hongkong. It was not long, however, before natural, unmanufactured, ice was available in the Colony, and was sold at reasonable rates, but it had to be imported, and we can be thankful that it is possible now to get a cheap and safe supply of ice at all times, independent of shipping vagaries. The exact date when the first consignment of ice arrived is not known, but that it was being imported regularly a few years after Hongkong was founded is evident from the following extract from an old record dated 1847:
"Ice is imported from America by a local company, and retailed to casual purchasers at five cents per pound. The ground on which the Ice House stands (a substantial two-storied building erected by subscription and vested in the hands of a committee) was a free grant from Government for a term of 75 years, on condition that the public hospitals should be supplied at the lowest rate of retail. Ice is delivered between the hours of 5 and 7 in the morning and 2 and 4 in the afternoon, and an average quantity of 700 pounds is consumed daily."
The company referred to was the Ice House Company, which was established on April 17, 1845.
Another interesting fact that emerges from this is that Ice House Street was so named from the "ice house" situated there, and this was a store for imported ice and not a factory, as the casual observer might think.
It is understood that the old ice house was located at the bottom of what we now call Battery Path, on the corner just before the rise in the street from the Queen's Road junction. This old block of buildings, one of the oldest in the Colony, still stands, built against the hillside. It must be remembered that in the days before the reclamation in the centre of the town, the seafront was only about a hundred yards from the storehouse, so that the transport of the ice from the ships to the storage rooms was an easy undertaking.
On looking up this matter of ice a little further, we find that the first local manufactory of the commodity was opened in the Sixties, but that ice was still being imported in the Seventies, in opposition to the Hongkong product. The pioneer manufactory does not appear to have lasted long; it was situated in Spring Gardens (Wanchai), in those days a select locality, for in the Seventies a rival, and larger concern, managed and partly owned by the expert who had operated the first factory, was started at East Point.
In the Eighties, again, the Hongkong Ice Company, Limited, was founded, and this concern was eventually absorbed by the Dairy Farm Co., leading to our present excellent supply of ice.
There is something of a fascination in tracing these successive stages of development through their respective periods, and I give extracts below which have served as pointers on the journey of research.
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We have already noted the fact of ice being imported from America in the Forties. This continued for at least twenty years before somebody thought of manufacturing the stuff locally. The earliest mention of manufacture is found in an advertisement in the Hongkong Mercury (since defunct). In its issue of June 9, 1866, appears the following:
"From this date (June 6, 1866) the undersigned are prepared to supply those who may favour them with their patronage and support with best manufactured ice, made by steam, without the use of chemicals, at the rate of four cents per pound." (Note the cheaper rate than heretofore). The advertisement is signed by the "Ice Manufactory, Spring Gardens," otherwise "Messrs. McDougall and Co.'s Engineering Establishment."
In another part of the paper is a "write up" of the concern, newly-opened, mentioning that the manager was a Mr. Kyle.
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