NOTES AND QUERIES
139
A translation of the original Chinese petition is in the Hong Kong Public Records Office, Colonial Secretary's Office File for 1893, No. 849. The petition naturally presented the views of the local population—or at any rate those of its leaders—and omitted any reference to the traditional relation of the Chan clan to the temple.
The matter was referred by the Magistrate to the Squatter's Commission. Its hearings are recorded in a Summary of Reports of Squatters' Commission, a manuscript volume in the Library of the Colonial Secretariat. The Commission effected a compromise. It recommended that Government grant a lease of the temple site to five persons, two to be nominated by the Chan clan, two by the Public Worship Committee of Ap Lei Chau and one by the Registrar General. The Ap Lei Chau Committee was permitted to retain the caretaker they had placed in charge after their expulsion of the caretaker employed by the Chan clan, but he had to share the income of the temple with the clan.
The former caretaker felt the decision was unjust. It kept preying on his mind until he became unbalanced. One day in November 1893, he left Ap Lei Chau in a small boat intending to visit the Land Office in Hong Kong to get satisfaction. Some of the villagers pursued him hoping to prevent him from reopening the case. As they neared his boat he jumped overboard and was not seen again. However, later, his body was washed up opposite the temple. As the account published in The China Mail, 10 November 1893, comments, it was "a circumstance which is regarded as not a little strange".
Hong Kong, October 1973.
CARL T. SMITH
NOTES AND QUERIES
139
A translation of the original Chinese petition is in the Hong Kong Public Records Office, Colonial Secretary's Office File for 1893, No. 849. The petition naturally presented the views of the local popu- lation--or at any rate those of its leaders--and omitted any reference of the traditional relation of the Chan clan to the temple.
The matter was referred by the Magistrate to the Squatter's Commission. Its hearings are recorded in a Summary of Reports of Squatters' Commission, a manuscript volume in the Library of the Colonial Secretariat. The Commission effected a compromise. It recommended that Government grant a lease of the temple site to five persons, two to be nominated by the Chan clan, two by the Public Worship Committee of Ap Lei Chau and one by the Regis- trar General. The Ap Lei Chau Committee was permitted to retain the caretaker they had placed in charge after their expulsion of the caretaker employed by the Chan clan, but he had to share the in- come of the temple with the clan.
The former caretaker felt the decision was unjust. It kept preying on his mind until he became unbalanced. One day in November 1893, he left Aplichau in a small boat intending to visit the Land Office in Hong Kong to get satisfaction. Some of the villagers pursued him hoping to prevent him from reopening the case. As they neared his boat he jumped overboard and was not seen again. However, later, his body was washed up opposite the temple. As the account pub- lished in The China Mail, 10 November 1893, comments, it was "a circumstance which is regarded as not a little strange".
Hong Kong, October 1973.
CARL T. SMITH
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