627895-1899-Bills-read-first-time--Naturalization-of-Mak-Ngan-Wan-Hongkong-and-Shanghai-Bank-Amendment-Public-Buildings-and-Places-Amendment-Sung-Wong-Toi-Reservation-Dogs-Amendment-Vehicles-Regulation-Solicitors — Page 4

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 28TH JANUARY, 1899.

by the Governor as a place of popular resort and of anti- quarian interest: Provided, nevertheless, that if at any time hereafter it appears to the Governor that it is necessary, in the interests either of the Imperial Government or of the Government of this Colony, that such land should be re- appropriated either wholly or in part, it shall be lawful for the Governor to re-appropriate such land or any part thereof and to use the re-appropriated land or allow it to be used for other purposes than those above mentioned. Notice of such re-appropriation shall be forthwith published in the Government Gazette.

3. It shall be lawful for the Governor-in-Council, from Power to time to time, to make such regulations as he may deem make expedient for the maintenance of good order in the said Regulations. reserved land, and for the preservation, management, and

Penalty for breach. use thereof, and for the enjoyment thereof by the public, Publication. and to annex to the breach of any such regulations penal- ties not exceeding twenty-five dollars in respect of each such breach. Any such penalty may be sued for and recovered summarily under the Magistrates Ordinanco, 1890. All such regulations shall be published in the Gazette and thereupon shall have the force of law.

monument,

4. If any person injures or defaces any ancient monu- Penalty for ment, rock, memorial, or inscription, which is on or upon injury to any land reserved or appropriated under this Ordinance as ancient a place of popular resort and of antiquarian interest, etc. then such person shall, on summary conviction before a Police Magistrate, be liable at the discretion of such Magistrate to one of the following penalties, (that is to say),-

(1.) To pay a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, and in addition thereto to pay such sums as the Magistrate may think just for the purpose of repairing any damage which has been caused by the offender; or (2.) To be imprisoned with or without hard labour for

any term not exceeding one month.

Objects and Reasons.

The object of this Bill is to preserve au interesting an- cient rock-inscription which is believed to date back to the Sung Dynasty.

Dr. EITEL in the "History of Hongkong" (at pages 129 and 130) makes the following allusion to the inscription in question:-

"As to the history of Hongkong previous to the rise of the Tatsing Dynasty (A.D. 1644) very little is known. There is, however, on the Kowloon peninsula, and within British territory, an ancient rock-inscription, on a large loose lying granite boulder, which crowns the summit of a. circular hill, jutting out into the sea, close to the village of Matauchung, directly west of Kowloon city. This in- scription, consisting of three Chinese characters (Sung Wong Tong lit. "Hall of a King of the Sung") arranged horizontally, was originally cut about half an inch deep in the northern face of the boulder. The Chinese Govern- ment believe it to be a genuine inscription, about 600 years old. The original characters, having become nearly effaced in course of time, were renewed at the beginning of the present century (1807) by order of the Viceroy of Canton, the date of this restoration being recorded by a separate inscription the characters of which are arranged perpendi- cularly. The memories attaching to this inscription and to the whole hill, which still shows the outlines of the original entrenchments, are so sacred in the eyes of Chinese officials and literati, that excavations and quarrying were prohibited in that locality under the severest penalties. When the peninsula was leased and subsequently ceded to the British Crown, the Chinese Government specially stipulated that the rock-inscription and the whole hill should remain untouched. Nevertheless, quarrying has occasionally been attempted there since the locality came into British pos-

session.

Chinese history states that, when the Sung Dynasty was overturned by the invasion of the Mongols under Kublai Khan, who subsequently seated himself on the throne of China (A.D. 1280), the last Emperor of the Sung Dynasty, then a young child, was driven with the Imperial Court to the south of China and finally compelled

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