Old Hong Kong-3 — Page 191

NEW TERRITORIES (Contd.)

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Futau Chau and Slope Island. (b) Another district to be hereafter called and known as the 'Southern District' to include that portion of the New Territories situate on the mainland as is delineated and shown on a plan marked "Southern District Mainland" dated the 21st day of February, 1909, signed by the Director of Public Works and countersigned by the Governor and deposited in the Land Office of this Colony, and the remainder of the Islands in the New Territories not included in the Northern District. And it is further ordered that the office be situate at Tai Po in the New Territories and the Office for the Southern District shall be situate in the City of Victoria, Hong Kong. The new Order is retrospective having taken effect from February 21, last.

ADMINISTRATION ON MAINLAND

The New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898, and by 1899 had been duly taken over. The history of that process, including the pacification which was found necessary at the outset, has already been given in these articles. It can well be realised that matters did not proceed very smoothly at first, and it is interesting to see what the initial four or five years of British control had been like. In August, 1903, the Government Gazette published a despatch by His Excellency the Governor (Sir Henry Blake) of considerable historic value, forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies giving the annual report on the New Territories for 1902. In the course of the despatch it was stated:

The reports forwarded with my previous despatches mentioned in the margin will have shown the steps taken from the hoisting of the British flag at Tai Po on the 16th April 1899. It will be remembered that on the taking over of the New Territories we found a population roused to a spirit of active antagonism by lying reports carefully disseminated apparently with the concurrence of the Chinese authorities. The attacks made upon our troops were easily defeated, and active hostilities ceased after two engagements to be succeeded by a period of distrust, happily not of long duration.

The district of San On, north of Kowloon Peninsula, leased to Great Britain under the convention of 1898, has not enjoyed a good reputation. Armed robbery on shore and piracy in the surrounding waters were too common to excite comment; locally powerful clans levied tribute from outlying cultivators, and settled their differences with rival clans by a ready appeal to force without the intervention of any Chinese official. Might was right, and during the journey through the district of Mr. Lockhart, then Colonial Secretary, after the suppression of the outbreak, the small villages expressed a hope that they would be protected against the bullying to which they were subjected by the larger villages.

The first thing to be done was to ensure peace and to generate as far as possible among the inhabitants the feeling of personal security. Military posts were established on the frontier in commanding positions, and military and police co-operated in a system of patrols. The locations of permanent police stations were determined, each station being connected with Hong Kong by telephone, and the division of the New Territory into districts was undertaken.

The Territory was divided into eight districts, which were sub-divided into forty-seven sub-districts; the village elders, who were the natural leaders of the people, being appointed district elders with judicial power to deal with petty cases in their several districts. At the same time Mr. Lockhart was given a general controlling power over these district courts with co-ordinate jurisdiction. I (Sir Henry) was under the impression that these powers would have been appreciated by the elders; that the courts would have been resorted to; but as a matter of fact, the elders displayed no anxiety to take the duties upon themselves, and from the beginning, the community showed perfect confidence in Mr. Lockhart.