466
CHANGES IN THE BUSINESS AND RESIDENTIAL QUARTERS OF
HONGKONG.
Residents of twenty-five years' standing will readily recall the time when Queen's Road almost as far as the Cross Roads was occupied by European hongs and stores, the princi. pal portion of the European business quarter being westward of the Clock Tower. Gra- dually the Chinese crept in and the Euro pean business establishments moved east ward, until' at the present time we find the latter chiefly occupying the space between the Clock Tower and the Cricket ground. A further change is now setting in and the removal of the Club a few months hence from its present premises to its handsome new edifice on the Praya Reclamation will mark the commencement of a radical shifting of the pivot of commercial life in Hongkong, for round the new Club all the principal business firms in the colony will be clustered. This is not mere idle prophecy but a matter of fact, the arrangements having been in a large number of cases already made. At
the extreme east of the Reclamation we
→ [December 17, 1896–
above the centre of the
will be abandoned more and more to Chinese occupa⇒ tion.
·
an
com-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
of seven these buildings has already been contracted for on leases of from five to twenty-one years, and on the remaining corner lot a temporary, building has been There is also another prospective develop- erected for the accommodation of the Japan ment dependent upon the Reclamatio Specie Bank during the two years that will to which reference should elapse before its permanent offices on one of We refer to the low level the other blocks will be ready for occupa- the Reclamation is comple tion. With the next section of the Recla- be long before a tramway runs mation, that to the westward of Ice House nedytown, the unoccupied portio Street, some delay is unfortunately being will then be rapidly built over An equal experienced owing to the continued settling development may be expected at East of the foundation of the stone wall, and and along the Shaukiwan Road, which until firm bottom is reached and the settling fair, like Kennedytown, to become a ceases the construction of the wall cannot, facturing district. A difficulty that still according to the present ideas of those in in the way, however, is the fact that t authority, be proceeded with. Two years the military cantonments the only hence is the earliest time at which it is con- of communication is the narrow sidered at all likely that building operations Road. A tramway along such a can be commenced upon the ground to be thoroughfare might, as has been reclaimed and it may be much longer, but tended, do more to regulate notwithstanding this some leases have al-ricksha and chair traffic than to i ready been concluded for the buildings to but however that may be, it is a serious be erected and negotiations are in progress triment to the town that the thoroughfare for others.
between east and west should afford such With the Reclamation in front of the central limited accommodation for the part of the town little progress has as yet traffic. The remedy of course would been made, but at Seiyingpoon and Shek- the extension of the Praya in front have the new hong of Messrs. BUTTERFIELD tongtsui (West Point) a long stretch has the naval and military property, and SWIRE, already well advanced towards been completed, a large proportion of which improvement that has been so long advocated completion and in the building of which has been built over for some time and on
in vain that hope of its ever being various features new to Hongkong have the remainder godowns and Chinese hongs plished has almost been abandoned. Tho been introduced to render it proof against are being erected as rapidly as the ground subject is, however, once again under con- fire, white ants, and all other destructive becomes available, and in several instances sideration. The Imperial authorities, as is agencies. Next to this comes a lot the marine lotholders have entered into well known, contemplate making a very ex- purchased a month or two ago by the special bonds with the Government in order tensive reclamation in front of North Bar Hongkong Land Investment and Agency to obtain speedy possession of their lots. racks and the Naval Yard, and in the event Co., Limited, on which a building is to The activity in building is pressing on the of their doing so they might consent to the be erected the whole of which has labour supply, and bricklayers who formerly extension of Connaught Road to the junction already been let on long leases. The adjoin-earned twenty cents à day can now com of Arsenal Street and the Praya at Blue ing site to the westward is to be occupied by mand twenty-seven cents.
Buildings. With a road like that and a the new Telegraph Offices, with the building While the business quarters are thus tramway along if the eastern would no of which rapid progress is being made. This extending over the Reclamation an longer be separated from the central lot does not reach quite back to Connaught almost equally noticeable change is district as it has hitherto been and Road, and the piece of ground behind it is taking place in the residential distri- great progress might be expected in that the last remaining Government lot undis- bution of the population. The well-direction. The tramway and the new road posed of. We then reach the new Hongkong to-do Chinese have for some time past being are, however, things of the future; but as Club, with its frontages on the New Praya, developing a taste for European and semi- regards the immediate present the activity Connaught Road, and the as yet unnamed European houses, and the movement has in building, the rapid utilisation of the street to the westward, while a private lane been increasing in strength year by year, Reclamation, and the extension of the separates it from the Telegraph Offices to until now the European residents about the residential districts on the upper the eastward. This completes the section in Caine Road district are beginning to feel betoken great public confidence in the con- front of the Cricket Ground. To the west the pressure rather uncomfortable and are tinued prosperity of the colony. of this the reclamation is deeper, giving casting about for houses in other directions, two blocks instead of one between the old but at present there are few eligible houses and, new prayas.
Commencing at the east- vacant. To meet this demand the Land ward the first two of these, those in front of Investment Co. and other capitalists are the City Hall are reserved for the new Gov-erecting a number of houses on Kennedy,
At the meeting of the Legislative Council ernment offices, the one between the Old MacDonnell, and Bowen Roads, whieh bid fair Praya and the Connaught Road being in- to become, after the Peak, the chief Euro- held on Monday various topics of interest tended for the Post Office, Treasury, etc., pean residential district in the colony, its were raised, which we propose briefly to and the other, between Connaught Road situation rendering it especially convenient refer to seriatim. In the first place, the Hon. and the New Praya, for the Law Courts in respect of the change taking place T. H. WHITEHEAD has given notice of his and Land Office. On the opposite side of in European business quarter. intention to ask at the next meeting whether Wardley Street are the two lots belonging Pedder's Street and old Pedder's Wharf the Government will appoint a Commission to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, which may be taken as practically marking to report upon the advisability or otherwise are to be reserved for tennis courts, as the the extreme eastern limit of the exten- of substituting for the present Opium Far Board has decided that it would be inexpedient sion of the Chinese business quarter; bonded warehouses and a fixed duty, on all to have buildings erected between the present
opium not bona fide exported in a raw state. Bank and the water frontage; but whether
This is a large and important question which it will be possible to adhere to that deter-
should receive close attention at the hands mination with the land worth $8 a foot ac
of the mercantile community. The farming cording to present values and likely in a
system is necessarily attended with abuses few years to be worth $12 a foot remains to
and in various ways interferes with business. be seen; with the other changes in progress
On the other hand, the establishment the chances are that in course of time
bonded warehouses might be taken as the Bank will have to consider the ex-
thin end of a wedge that mig
the freedom a of the port. pediency of itself moving forward, as its
break up present entrance from Queen's Road will
is therefore one of a choice of evils, but the be away from the chief business thorough
bonded warehouse system would at least fare. Between the Bank's lots and Ice
have the recommendation of being free from House Street are the two immense blocks
the moral objections attaching to the Opium- belonging to the Hon. C. P. CHATER,
Farm. on each of which four piles of offices are to be erected, making eight in all. The Occupation of the whole of the floors in
the
-
levels
INTERESTING TOPICS IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
(9th December)
he
east of that will probably be exlusively European, except that the section of Queen's Road Central from Pedder's Stree- to Ice House Street may possibly be extensively occupied by Chinese shops, the European stores moving forward on to the Old Praya. But for all practical purposes the Reclamation east of Ice House Street will be the European quarter, and from that the residential district now being developed in the neighbord of Union Church and above it can be reached without passing through any portion of the Chinese town, while the distance is short and the tramway affords easy conveyance for the hill part of the journey.
We come next to the Military Contribu The European community will therefore naturally look for their tion Bill, in moving the second residences in that direction and the terraces | which the Acting Attorn
me The case