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C. Scramble over land in Kowloon
Although scrambles over land was not new to this region, it was in the context of the British occupation of Hong Kong and Kowloon that the last major disputes over land holdings in the Kowloon peninsula took place. In 1860, when south Kowloon passed into British hands, the Dangs of Kam Tin, with another branch of the larger clan, were held to possess 276 acres of the 452 acres of land for which registered land documents were produced to the Anglo-Chinese Land Commission (Hayes 1983:87-88). The re-registration of land is a likely occasion for disputes. Besides, as a result of the development of the port of Hong Kong, the land in Kowloon doubtlessly appreciated sharply in value.
It is from an anecdote about Dang Ting-sam that we learn about the dispute between the Kam Tin Dangs and the Ping Shan Dangs over the rents from Kowloon Tsai. In the words of the informant, they scrambled for the rent. There was fighting between them. In the fighting a ha-yan of the Kam Tin Dangs killed a mou-geui-yan of Ping Shan. The ha-yan, whose name was Ah Chiu, had been sent to Kowloon Tsai to take care of the rent collecting. He was staying at a house his master kept for this purpose. The military degree holder of Ping Shan wanted to infringe upon the rent. He came to the house to make a claim that the land had belonged to him. Soon the fighting began. He was killed by Ah Chiu, who was not as strong as the mou-geui-yan but was very clever. The Ping Shan Dangs sued the Kam Tin Dangs for this. Chi-Naam made use of his skill [and connections?] to get Kam Tin out of the trouble. He was allowed to see the written complaint from the Ping Shan people. After reading it he offered 500 taels of silver to the official to let him add three strokes to the document. The original complaint said yung fu seung yan ("caused injury by using an axe"). Chi-Naam added one stroke to the character yung, and altered it to lat, "[an object] fell off". So the accusation had become "an axe fell and injured a person". Because of the alteration, the Kam Tin Dangs did not have to pay compensation for the killed man's life, they only had to pay a fine.
D. The land re-registration of the New Territories
Much of the land of the Kam Tin Dangs was lost when the British government started the re-registration of land holdings.