CO129-290 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [1-4] — Page 559

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Enclosure 2. in hy

TRANSLATION O F PETITIO

C.0.

13875

IL MAY

543

We gentry of the 39 villages of the Tat Tak

Community of the Ping Shan District bag to present this hum-

ble petition stating the cause of the recent trouble and heg-

ging for pardon.

Last month His Excellency the Governor of Hong-

Kong issued instructions for the erection of a Police matshed

in our district. At that time we had not received any procla-

mation from the British Government nor from the Chinese Go-

vernment so that through want of information we became suspi-

cious and unsettled in mind. A few lawless rascals spread wild

reports which misled the villagers. They said that the Fung-

Shul of the district will be injuriously affected by the

erection of a matshed and that when the territory is taken

over by the English Government a Sanitary Board will be creat-

ed; that a poll tax will be levied; that licences will be re-

quired for keeping domestic animals; that our marriage customs

and funeral ceremonies will be altered; that the cutting and

gathering of firewood will be prohibited. The ignorant villa-

gers believed this to he true and the feeling of alarm hecame so general that the inhabitants of Kam T'in, Ün Long, Ha Tsün, Shap Pat Heung, Castle Peak and other villagers determined to

make things difficult for the British Officers.

We your humble petitioners were at first misled but afterwards came forward to explain matters and give good advice to the inhabitants. But they not only would not listen

to