It might be mentioned that before Blake Pier came to be constructed, what was known as Pedder's Wharf was for a good many years in use. The following extract from the Hongkong Telegraph of September 3, 1883, is interesting:
"Pedder's Wharf is the principal, in fact it is the only public landing place in the Colony. It is a miserably attenuated wooden structure, affording the community neither protection from the heat nor shelter from the rain.
In size it is not one half large enough for the traffic of the city. From morning to night the flights of wooden steps are crowded with steam launches, men-of-war gigs and cutters, ships and house boats and native craft of every description."
Wyndham Street and Arbuthnot Road are two "puzzlers," I cannot trace any person so named, connected in any way with Hongkong, and official records do not appear to have anything relating to the origin of the names on file. Various alternative suggestions might be made, but nothing definite is known.
Can any reader oblige with the required information?
The name Zetland, as might be surmised, is connected with the local Masonic order, and Lodge Zetland in the East. At the top of the street of that name is still located Zetland Lodge, the headquarters of local freemasons, and a brief reference to the origin of the name is justified, for the benefit of readers who are not of the craft. The lodge itself is called after the Earl of Zetland, who was, in the old days, Right Worshipful Grand Master of England. He succeeded to this rank upon the death of the preceding Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex. The Earl of Zetland died in May, 1873, mourned by all masons of the time. The street indubitably was so-named in his honour.
En passant it might be mentioned that freemasonry was organised in Hongkong in June, 1845, and Zetland Lodge was founded on December 8 that year, so the history of masonry in the Colony goes back eighty-eight years.
Duddell Street we have already noted (see 21-8-33) was named after the gentleman who was appointed Government Auctioneer in 1857, after a fairly lengthy residence in the Colony. Mr. George Duddell came here soon after the place became a British settlement, and in 1844 obtained the monopoly for selling opium in Hongkong, a privilege which was then farmed out by the Government.
Kennedy Road was named after one of the most notable administrators of the Colony, Sir Arthur E. Kennedy, who came here in April, 1872, and governed for exactly five years, leaving in 1877. Incidentally, this proves that Kennedy Road was quite new at the time the map was drawn (1872-3), and must have just been named after the recently-arrived Governor. Arthur was noted as the first Governor of the Colony to establish regular social intercourse with the prominent Chinese merchants of the place, inviting them to Government House functions and other functions, despite opposition from some of the European community. He also encouraged the Chinese to take their grievances to him personally, and this opened the way to more easy administration of Chinese questions, though occasionally it led also to a snag, when the Chinese populace's expectations went counter to the administration's policy.