212
NOTES AND QUERIES
24. a. Several tales contain information regarding land tenure. For instance, an elder of the 3rd Fong who related the Tang Hei-sui () tale (see Sung p. 253), mentioned that members of the Tso () established after his death each received 100 Tam Kuk each year till 1898, indicating extensive holdings.
24. b. As mentioned above, the Kam Tin Tangs virtually owned the Pat Heung Valley (even the suspect Cadastral Surveys confirm this).* They also possessed land around Yuen Long and further south, Shun Fung Wai (). Ancestral land on Hong Kong Island totalled approximately 1000 Chinese acres, and clan land (shared among the five fongs) in Kowloon was extensive (200 acres in Cheung Sha Wan alone).
25. Land was either communally or privately owned. The former ("communal ownership") is divided into a number of categories, the most important of which are Tso () and Tong (). Tong land is appropriated in the literary name of an ancestor (hence early confusion of Tongs as literary clubs). Unlike Tso, the joint holders need not be descendents of a common ancestor. Hence, while Tso land exhibits "vertical solidarity" within a fong across class boundaries, Tong land establishes horizontal ties across fong within class boundaries.
26. For the uses to which ancestral land is put, see the material from the Nam Yeung genealogy and the section on Land Tenure ("varieties of Tenure") reproduced from the Hong Kong Government Gazette, No. 26, 28 April 1900. I would here simply like to add two further uses of ancestral land: 1) defence funding and 2) financing ritual ceremonies. On the former, see Enclosure 7, no. 172 from Extension of the Boundaries. [I add here what might appear superfluous; ancestral land increases in direct proportion to the distance from Kam Tin. Private holdings predominate within the heung itself]
27. As we have seen, the Kam Tin Tangs acted as "unofficial" government of a large section of San On county. One of the essential elements to this system of control was their status as tax-lords. The former is thus explained in Cecil Clementi's report on his work in the New Territories in 1905-1906: "On the recommen-
“Suspect" because they do not always reflect the pre-1898 situation: owing to decisions about ownership made by the New Territories Land Court.
212
NOTES AND QUERIES
24. a. Several tales contain information regarding land tenure. For instance, an elder of the 3rd Fong who related the Tang Hei-sui ()tale (see Sung p. 253), mentioned that members of the Tso (in) established after his death each received 100 Tam Kuk' each year till 1898, indicating extensive holdings.
24. b. As mentioned above, the Kam Tin Tangs virtually owned the Pat Heung Valley (even the suspect Cadastral Surveys confirm this).* They also possessed land around Yuen Long and further south, Shun Fung Wai (M). Ancestral land on Hong Kong Island totalled approximately 1000 Chinese acres, and clan land (shared among the five fongs) in Kowloon was extensive (200 acres in Cheung Sha Wan alone).
25. Land was either communally or privately owned. The former ("communal ownership") is divided into a number of categories, the most important of which are Tso (4) and Tong (*). Tong land is appropriated in the literary name of an ancestor (hence early confusion of Tongs as literary clubs). Unlike Tso, the joint holders need not be descendents of a common ancestor. Hence, while Tso land exhibits "vertical solidarity" within a fong across class boundaries, Tong land establishes horizontal ties across fong within class boundaries.
26. For the uses to which ancestral land is put, see the material from the Nam Yeung genealogy and the section on Land Tenure ("varieties of Tenure") reproduced from the Hong Kong Govern- ment Gazette, No. 26, 28 April 1900. I would here simply like to add two further uses of ancestral land: 1) defence funding and 2) financing ritual ceremonies. On the former, scc Enclosure 7, no. 172 from Extension of the Boundaries. [I add here what might appear superfluous; ancestral land increases in direct proportion to the distance from Kam Tin. Private holdings predominate within the heung itself]
27. As we have seen, the Kam Tin Tangs acted as "unofficial" government of a large section of San On county. One of the essential elements to this system of control was their status as tax- lords. The former is thus explained in Cecil Clementi's report on his work in the New Territories in 1905-1906: "On the recommen-
“Suspect" because they do not always reflect the pre-1898 situation: owing to decisions about ownership made by the New Territories Land Court.
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