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British ignorance of their position under Chinese law and practice, and incoming Chinese settlers' disregard of it. In 1858, their land at Tsim Sha Tsui, on account of its proximity to Hong Kong and its fine position on the harbour, was being occupied for all manner of business by persons who gave no thought to paying rent to the Tangs. They caused a public notice to be prepared, which found its way in translation into the English language paper the Friend of China on 24th July 1858. This was two years before this part of Kowloon was first leased, then ceded, to Britain in the course of the year 1860. The printed version was as follows:
"Tung Wing-Fook-Tong [sic] of the Sun On district, was formerly sole proprietor of the Island of Hong Kong, and of the hills and coast of the North Side of the Harbour under the general name of Tsin Shat-Choy
Lately Tung Wing-Fook-Tong petitioned the Magistrate of Sun-On to examine Tung's claim to Tsin Shat-Choy and the Magistrate issued a proclamation declaring that Tung Wing-Fook-Tong is the real owner of the Property.
51
The editor of the newspaper was not sympathetic, being downright sceptical of the Tung (Tang) claims to Hong Kong:
"As to his having been a Lord of this Isle, as well as of Tsim-shat-choy," he wrote, "in a word, we do not believe a word of it".
Indeed, he went further, dismissing the unfortunate Tangs as being 'mythical as the Hong Kong agents for Holloway's pills' 52
Yet the fact remains that the Chinese records corroborate the Tang family's claims to Hong Kong and much else, and their exchanges with the various Chinese authorities at the district, prefectural and provincial level in the 1840s reveal some essential characteristics both as to their own situation as owners of Hong Kong and as to the mind and operation of the imperial bureaucracy. The Tangs were essentially absentee owners, entitled through the registered ownership to be regarded as the true owners of the sub-soil and eligible to exact a rent charge from tenants on it."3 The officials with whom they dealt in the course of pressing their
121
British ignorance of their position under Chinese law and practice, and incoming Chinese settlers' disregard of it. In 1858, their land at Tsim Sha Tsui, on account of its proximity to Hong Kong and its fine position on the harbour, was being occupied for all manner of business by persons who gave no thought to paying rent to the Tangs. They caused a public notice to be prepared, which found its way in translation into the English language paper the Friend of China on 24th July 1858. This was two years before this part of Kowloon was first leased, then ceded, to Britain in the course of the year 1860. The printed version was as follows:
"Tung Wing-Fook-Tong [sic] of the Sun On district, was for- merly sole proprietor of the Island of Hong Kong, and of the hills and coast of the North Side of the Harbour under the general name of Tsin Shat-Choy
Lately Tung Wing-Fook-Tong petitioned the Magistrate of Sun-On to ex- amine Tung's claim to Tsin Shat-Choy and the Magistrate issued a proclamation declaring that Tung Wing-Fook-Tong is the real owner of the Property.
51
The editor of the newspaper was not sympathetic, being down- right sceptical of the Tung (Tang) claims to Hong Kong:
"As to his having been a Lord of this Isle, as well as of Tsim- shat-choy," he wrote, "in a word, we do not believe a word of it”.
Indeed, he went further, dismissing the unfortunate Tangs as being 'mythical as the Hong Kong agents for Holloway's pills" 52
Yet the fact remains that the Chinese records corroborate the Tang family's claims to Hong Kong and much else, and their exchanges with the various Chinese authorities at the district, pre- fectural and provincial level in the 1840s reveal some essential characteristics both as to their own situation as owners of Hong Kong and as to the mind and operation of the imperial bureaucra- cy. The Tangs were essentially absentee owners, entitled through the registered ownership to be regarded as the true owners of the sub-soil and eligible to exact a rent charge from tenants on it."3 The officials with whom they dealt in the course of pressing their
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