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a door through which the western world traded with the East, particularly China. Import values of incense wood increased. In 1846, 131 tons of sandalwood were imported from New South Wales, 12 tons from Kuang-tung and 5 tons from Lombok and Bali." This might not seem impressive at first sight, until one considers that the total amount of import from New South Wales was 550 tons carried on 6 vessels, so that sandalwood constituted approximately a quarter of the total. In 1847, the quantity of imported sandalwood from New South Wales grew to 228 tons, almost double that of the previous year.'*
No direct mention can be found of local incense milling and joss stick manufacture during this period, although the export table for 1848 given in the Hong Kong Blue Book does make a distinction between trade in incense logs and incense powder. In that year, incense exports from Hong Kong to ports on the east coast of China consisted of 48 tons of sandalwood shipped in 213 packages, and to Whampoa consisted of 25 casks of powder and 318 logs while another 144 tons of sandalwood were sent to other places in Kuang-tung.
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It is possible, therefore, to speculate that incense wood milling evolved in Hong Kong alongside the lumber trade in incense wood, probably as an attempt to reduce the bulk and weight of the logs. At that time, incense wood was ground by stone hammers operated by water power. Such hammers could be worked in pairs or in groups of five to six. The idea was to grind the incense wood by means of an overshot wheel. The axle of the water-wheel rested on a cross beam and was held in place by wedges within the place where it was to revolve. When water was conducted through a leat onto the bamboo boards of the wheel, the wheel turned, causing the cross beam to revolve. The revolution of the cross beam, in turn, caused the hammer to rise slowly and then fall with a crash. As a result, the continuous raising and dropping of the hammers onto the wood would grind it up into powder. This idea of incense milling was taken from the overshot wheel used in irrigation, as outlined in the Nung chêng ch'üan-shu," and is similar to the process used in pre-industrial Europe for the fulling of woollen cloth, and the working of iron blooms.
Yung-yen has referred to water milling in Heung Fan Liu (**) in Sha Tin in the late Ming Dynasty." This is possible, and it is even likely that there was incense milling in the area in and after the eighteenth century. However, the first positive evidence of incense milling in Hong