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NOTES AND QUERIES
TA KWU LING,
WONG PUI LING AND THE KIM HAU BRIDGES
In Volume 29 of the Journal, I wrote a paper on the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz, and its place in the history of the Ta Kwu Ling area'. That paper discussed the war which took place about 1860 between the Ta Kwu Ling villages on the one side, and Wong Pui Ling on the other, over the bridges at Kim Hau*. The paper suggested that, before the war, the Cheung clan of Wong Pui Ling both owned the ferries which carried traffic across the two arms of the Sham Chun River at Kim Hau, and was the politically dominant force in the area. The paper suggested that the Ta Kwu Ling villagers were successful in the war, and that the political influence of Wong Pui Ling was rooted out from Ta Kwu Ling, the villagers of that area demonstrating their independence by building bridges over the river crossings on the line of the old Cheung ferries.
Recently, three documents have come to light which show that the dispute between Ta Kwu Ling and Wong Pui Ling was more complex, and lasted longer, than this. The documents in question are a petition to the Provincial Governor of Kwangtung from the Sha Tau Kok (Tung Wo Yeuk) and Ta Kwu Ling (Shing Ping Yeuk) villagers, dated 10th day of the 2nd Moon, 10th Year of the Republic (March, 1921), a second petition from the same group to the Provincial Governor, probably dated about a year later, and a letter in reply to the second petition from the Provincial Governor. These documents show that the second river crossing was only bridged in the mid 1920s, and that enmity and sporadic violence between the Ta Kwu Ling and Wong Pui Ling villagers lasted right through from 1860 until then. A translation of the second petition is given below; the first petition makes the same points, but less fully.'
A Petition from the gentry of the Tung Wo (CFT) and Shing Ping (41) Yeuk of Po On County, Chan Sheung-yan (B469(1)), Lei Tsok-san (†), Ng Wai-kit, (NMLS), Wong Tsuen-tan (EPF) and others, whose place of original residence is legally registered in the tax registers.
* See Map
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