DAIRY FARM POKFULUM.
271
In referring to the amenities of life enjoyed in Hongkong the other day, when a brief history of ice manufacture was given (6-9-33) it was pointed out that our predecessors in the Colony had for some years to depend on imported ice, which was gathered in the winter in America. However, clear the streams or lakes from which this may have been taken it is impossible not to think in terms of germs, possibly lurking in the original water, or else conveyed during storage, both on the ship, in its insulated holds, or in the Ice House. It may be assumed that sawdust or strawchaff were used and possibly used over and over again, as insulating covering.
It was also mentioned that the Hongkong Ice Company, Ltd. was eventually absorbed by the Dairy Farm, and this brings us to one of the amenities of the Colony to-day a constant source of milk of high quality and safe origin, as provided by the Dairy Farm Co. Yet the history of this company reads like that of some pioneering venture into the unknown for when the concern was started it had to break new ground, and the ultimate success of the project could not be definitely foreseen. Some old history of the milk supply of the Colony is therefore in order.
In the beginning there was no milk in the Colony except such as came from the native cows, and from buffalo-cows (still a source of milk in some of the Chinese areas). In those early days the dairying industry, as a cunning industry, was practically unknown and even preserved milk was not available. The local dairying industry, however, developed along the lines of the Chinese cow-stalls still to be found here and there both on the island and mainland, though it can be understood that the sanitary arrangements could not have been anywhere near as good as they are to-day. We have already seen (1-9-33) how vile the sanitation of the Colony was up to the Seventies so that pigs were reared in a large number of Chinese dwelling houses all over the city itself. Some idea on the first attempts at European control of the dairy industry is perhaps given by a reference, in 1880, to a "Horse Repository and Hongkong Dairy" located at Garden Road, to the rear of Murray Barracks, with J. Kennedy as proprietor. This place was better known as Kennedy's stables.
Nowadays we hardly like to dwell on the association of houses, stables and a dairy.
These were the conditions when Dr. (afterwards Sir) Patrick Manson, who became world-famous in medical science, began to take an active interest in the local milk supply, which led to the founding of the Dairy Farm.
Dr. Manson was in practice here in the Eighties at a time when a few Europeans kept their own cows for milking purposes, and he urged the necessity for a dairy which could supply the needs in the way of fresh butter and milk, of the steadily growing European population. He made a close study of the problem, inquired exhaustively into the prospects, eventually issuing a prospectus which set out in detail how he considered a company could be formed on a profitable basis. He received encouragement from the community and in 1886, the Dairy Farm Co., Ltd., was incorporated. Dr. Manson was appointed a director associated with him being the Hon. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Paul Chater, the Hon. Mr. Eneas Ryrie, Mr. Granville Sharp, Mr. W.H. Ray and Mr. J. B. Coughtry. By 1889 the company had been placed on a sound footing, paying its way, and requiring further additions of capital for expansion. Dr. Manson left the Colony that year.