64
27 See P.H. Hase "Bandits in the Siu Lek Yuen Yeuk", in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 32, 1992, pp. 214-216.
29 I am indebted to the interview notes of Dr James Hayes for this incident.
29 The traditional land-law of the New Territories divided the land-ownership rights into subsoil rights and topsoil rights. The topsoil landowner had the right to till the land, or to sell or mortgage that right. The subsoil landowner had the right to take a rent-charge from the topsoil landowner, and he resumed the topsoil rights should the topsoil owner fail. It was the subsoil owner who was responsible for paying the land-tax, if any. The British declared the system inappropriate, and declared the topsoil owners the sole owner, and personally responsible for the Crown Rent. For the Nga Tsin Wai sub-soil rights in Kowloon City, see J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op.cit. pp. 167-168.
30 See J.W. Hayes, The Hong Kong Region, op. cit, pp. 168-171.
31 The information in this section is taken from the Chan clan Tsuk Po, and from information given me by the Chan clan elders. See also B. Williams, "The Chan Family of Tseung Kwan O", in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 158-160, which gives additional material taken from the information given by the elders in the 1960s.
32 See J.W. Hayes, The Hong Kong Region, op. cit. p. 171.
33 See J.W. Hayes, The Hong Kong Region, op. cit. pp. 167-168.
34 For these inscriptions, see D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit, Vol. 1, pp. 75-78, 114-116, 184-188.
35 Information from the recently revised Tsuk Po.
36 Information in this paragraph is taken from the Census of 1911, and from information given by elders of a number of villages. See P.H. Hase, “Traditional Life in the New Territories: The Evidence of the 1911 and 1921 Censuses", in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 36, 1996, pp. 1-92.