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police and troops who proceeded to the place preparatory to the ceremony of the 17th were attacked by large numbers of Chinese ap- parently under military direction. Reinforce ments were at once sent out and formal posses- sion of the New Territory was taken over n the 16th, so that our position should be made perfally regular. After two engagements, la which the Chinese displayed considerable courage in acting against regular troops, and suffered some losses, the opposition collapsed. That these attacks upon our forces were encouraged by the then Viceroy there can be little doubt. My inability to permit the Chinese Customs to continue to function within the limits of the Colony was deeply resented by His Excellency, and he refused to send a Chinese official to be present at the ceremony of hoisting the flag on the 17th April. In consequence of the evidence of the complicity of the Viceroy with the leaders of the attacks upon our troops it was decided to occupy that portion of Samchun Valley lying to the north of the boundary line including the important market town of Samchun. This was effected by a joint naval aud military expedition which met with no opposition, and the district was held for a month by a military force under command of Major Prendergast. B.E., who acquired the confidence of the people; insured the security of their persons and pro- perty; assisted them in making good roads; and ultimately, under instruction from Her late Majesty's Government withdrew from the district amid demonstrations of good-will from the inhabitants, to whom the presence of our troops had brought freedom from taxation, security of their property, and a market for their produce. Order having been restored, the ques. tion had to be reconsidered as to the system on which this apparently fr.rbulent population of the newly acquired territory should be governed. Two courses presented themselves-repression, or co-operation. The leaders of the people had been almost to a man detively engaged in the operations against us, but if these leaders were put aside and degraded from the position of local consideration and authority hitherto enjoyed by them, we should have been face to face with a hostile population, without the means of communicating with them through trusted local intermediaries whose assistance I have had is so essential to good government. some experience in coercion. In certain situations it becomes necessary. 1 ut it engenders an ever-deepending distrust, atropaies local interest in preserving order, and with the lapse of time becomes day by day more difficult to abandon without danger to the public safety. I felt besides that these leaders would not have been guilty of such egregions foily had they not be ieved the scandalous statement of our intentions that ware so freely circulated, and, believing them, I could not withhold a meed of gym athy for misguided men who dared to fade in open fight an over- whelming power in defence of their customs and their homes. I therefore cose the latter course, and, with the able assistance of Mr. Stewart Lockbart, whose excellent work in the pacification and arrangement of the New Territory is well known to the Honourable Members of this Council, I met the elders and gentry of the districts at Tai-pò Hu and Ping Shan, disabused the 'r minds as to their fear, divided the Territory into eight districts and forty-seven sub-districts, and appointed the fillage elders as district elders with judicial power to deal with petty cases, giving at the same time to Mr. Lockhart a general controlling power with coordinate jur.sdiction. As a matter of fact the elders, being satisfied of our fast intentions, have nerer exercised their jurisdiction, but have left these cases to be dealt with first by Mr. Stewart Lockbart, and, after his r turn to the duties of Colonial Secretary, to Mr. Hallifax, Police Magistrate at Tai-po Hu, whose services are more frequently in demand as an arbitrator than as a magistrate, his decisions being readily accepted. The establishment of police stations was proceeded with at once, and a main read laid out which has since been constructed to Tai po Hu, a distance of 18 miles, at a vost of $225,183. This excellent road gires Ropero the centre of the Now Territory, and obviates the necessity of communicating by sea, &, passage not unattended by danger in rough or foggy weather. The construc-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
to
November 21, 1903.
tion of the road was carried out without | performance of official duties, and freedom from difficulty or opposition, the claims of owners that official rapacity so prevalent under the whose lands were acquired being settled at Chinese system. Of this there was gratifying once by arrangement or arbitration. Having evidence in 1901 during the serious disturbance arranged for police stations and the patrol of in the district adjoining the New Territory the territorial watera surrounding the 39) when the people who, two years before,
faced our miles of n-wly acquired coast line, to check had
troops with arms in their the prevalent robberies ashore and aflat, a
hands, ssut a deputation of elders request that I would send out ti trigonometrical and cadastral survey was entered upon, the services of a staff of surveyors and the frontier a small military foros to prevent demarcators having been obtained from the the entrance of disturb re of the peace, with Surveyor-General's department of India. The whom they were no longer in sympathy, trigonometrical survey has been completed. desiring to pursue heir avocations with the and 345,926 lots have been demarcated. A quiet and security to which, as British subjects, Land Court was established to deal re.dily they had become accustome1. But in laying and inexpensively with the holdings claims, the foundations for the development of the of which 165,231 have been presented 10; New Territory. the great possibilities of which the Land Court. The principal cultivation have yet to be fully realized, we must not of the Territory is rice, but there is also forget the rapid growth of Hongkong and its In 1898 the Colony of considerable cultivation of sugar, and, shipping trade. B in the Tsin Wan district, pineapples are grown. Hongkong contained 251,400 inhabitats, its I found on inspection that the sagar canes were assessed value was $4.511,947, and the total of a poor quality, and the pineapples of inferior shipping entered and cleared was 17.265,78)
tons. flavour, while the primitive stone-mills in use In 1903 the popula io", including leave a large percentage of juice in the crushed the New Territory, as estimated by the megasse. A aunber of canes of the best Registrar General, is 433,660, the assessed varieties were obtained from Java and Penang value $8,749.613, and the shipping 23,027,455 and have been distributed to the sugar farmers, tons. The Revenue, which in 1898 was and two Chatanoaga steel mills were also 82, 84,84), is estims ed for the current year imported, and lent to large growers for at $1,583,295, and, in the Estimates accepted experiment. Good varieties of pineapples by you for 1904, thanks to the largely increased were imported from Ceylon for distribation. tender for the Opium fagm, it is stated at While the cultivated lind is now practically 86,208,308. In whatever direction we turn we confined to the valleys it is evident from the find a Colony instinot_with_boundless activity. reclamation of Western Praya is terrracing of the hills that they too yielded their The share of wealth-giving crops in the past, and I completed. He Eastern Praya reclamation
demands delayed by have little doubt that suitable cultivation will is only
by the be resumed in the future. In the meantime Admiralty aud War Office at heme that this over 170,000 fir and camphor trees have Government considers unreasonable and hopes been planted, and experiments are now being to have modified. All around the Kowloon made with the Agave Rigida, or sisal hemp Peninsula great schemes of reclamation are in plant, that may yet, I hope, introduce an progress. At Quarry Bay a graving doox is important industry into the Colony, while being constructed by Messrs. Butterfield and the establishment of succulent grasses on the suit Swire, that will be capable of docking the able hill sides ought, if successful, to oa lougwyrgst ships afloat; while another dock is being towards solving the question of the supply of fresh constructed by the Naval Anthorities in the meat to Hougkong. Near the town of Un long very heart of the City. I wish that I could I found ou my first visit a settlement of about congratulate you upon the latter, bat, Lowever 25 lepers, who were compelled to live in the we may deplore the injury to the city by the middle of an extensive swamp, on a slight severance of its continuity by the Naval elevation approached by a rongu causeway, and Dockyard, must not forget that almost under water in rainy weather Here protest
made by the Colony until these afflicted people had built, of pieces of
work
ad. of construction had bourd, miserable shanties that afforded no pro- vanced considerably and a large amount of Even DOW the tection from rain or the chill winter winds. money had been spent.
the Here they huddled together night, while by day Admiralty are prepared to hand over
the Colony, but on con. they approached the villages where though not dockyard to permitted to enter the houses they were charit- ditions so onerous that even by this wealthy ably supplied with food Hard by was community they could not be accepted. Stil, thirty millions of unoccupied hill with a well at its base. Here the expenditure of some a sufficient area was walled off, enclosing the dollars in the execution of the works on the well, and small houses have been erected by the Naval Extension and Quarry Bay dooks cannot Publi Works department, hat afford shelter fail to increase the prosperity of the Col ny. from cold and rain. The lapors still obtain Nor bas the Government been remiss in Pab.ic their food from the neighbours, or from Works. During the term of my administration their families, aud the segregation is practically 82,711,5 9 have been exp-nded on Public Works
in effective as
The reservoir at Wong-nei- more pretentious and Extraordinary. expensive establishments, while the victims of chong, of a opacity 33,00,00) gallous. has this terrible disease have not perpetual impri- been completed, and the reservo.r and gravita- tion scheme or Kowloon is being carried ont at an estimated expina of $8 5,0 10, initial works are in progress for the new Reservoir at Tytam Tak, to hold 1,200,0 10,000 Blake Pier has been built, and gallons.
new Law Courts the foundations of the Bre now ready for the superstructure of which the foundation stone was laid on the 12th instant. The founda- by me
new western market tions of the large have been completed and 'the superstructure of the latter building has been begun, while a contract for that of the former has been let and for the new harbour offic. A site has been acquired for the new post office, and plans for it have been prepared and approved, and a con- These tract for the foundations has been let. important buildings will be pushed forward without delay. But the absorbing question tat has exercised the minds of the community to a greater extent than all others is that of sanita- tion. This question has been debated year by year as in each recurring year plazuo claimed its victims by hundreds, and malaria scourged the community. In May, 1902, the visit to the Colony of Professor Simpson and Mr. Osbert Chadwick, C.M.G., resulted in vainstle the defective construction of reports on Chinese houses, and in pursuance of their · recommendations a consolidated Public Health
28
an
sonmeut added to the miseries of their most miserable lives. At Tai pó, the headquarters of the New Territory establishment, a Chinese qualified medical practitioner has been stationed, whose err ces have been freely availed of by the inhabitants, and who is the public vaccinator of the district. The question of Education has been carefully considered. A school is about to be established at Un-long where English will be taught, and the provisions of the Education Code are being extended to the Vernacular Schools of the various districts. I have re- capitulated the general lines of policy in the New Territory, as on their soundness will depend the anccess or failure of this assimilation with the Colony of a large agricultural population with a reputation for turbulence; suspicious of foreigners, and with a rooted objection to any interference with their settled habits or customs. It is yet to soon to judge of the results, but so far they are promising. The number of crimen reported in the year 190 was 539, and this year 257, which is equal for the ntire year to 342. Within the same period we have been able to reduce the poli e force from 171 to 104. Thanks to the firmness, faicuees and tact of the public officers im- mediately dealing with the people, confidence has beer established, and the inhabitants have learnt to appreciate the benefits of the honest
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