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behind the Sham Yam Tso (holding 0.55 acres of arable land, with the trustees the grandsons of the pivotal ancestor, plus a further 0.60 acres held jointly with two other trusts where the Sham Yam ancestor's brothers were the apical ancestors), and the Wai Wing Tso (with 1.09 acres of arable land, with the trustees being the great-great-grandsons of the pivotal ancestor).
All the above trusts can be called "family trusts", designed to make family land-holdings more flexible. There were, however, also a few genuinely ancestral trusts. The Shing Tat Tso was set up in the name of the Founding Ancestor of the Ngs, and it owned the Ancestral Hall, two houses in Kowloon Market and 0.78 acres of arable land. The houses and arable property were designed to provide adequate income for the clan's ritual needs, including the maintenance of the Ancestral Hall. As with many other clans, this, the highest and most revered of the ancestral trusts, was left by the Ngs without excessively large land-holdings, as villagers felt that the income from land held by the High Ancestor should be used only for ritual and other entirely worthy purposes; it would be improper to give the trust more land than would be needed for this, to avoid the trust becoming involved in money-lending, or other less desirable practices. The prime ancestral trusts of the Lis and the Chans (the Li Shing Kwai Tso and the Chan Chiu In Tso) shared with the Ng Shing Tat Tso the ownership of the Tin Hau Temple and the Village Office within the walls: the Li Shing Kwai Tso also owned 1.09 acres of agricultural land.
Aggressive land-buying and speculation were left by the Ngs to other trusts, and especially the Sz Ko Tso (this was the trust to which all members of the junior three descent lines of the Ngs belonged, which equalled about a third of the clan). This Sz Ko Tso trust was certainly involved in money-lending on mortgage. This was common throughout the New Territories, and allowed the trust in question to acquire land when mortgages were foreclosed. It was doubtless to avoid the temptation of involvement in this business that the Shing Tat Tso was kept to a relatively small land holding. The Sz Ko Tso owned in 1902 a large house in Kowloon Market, and another large house in Sha Po, and no less than 8.73 acres of arable land. A large block of this (1.19 acres) lay in the heart of the Po Kong village land, and must have come to the Tso by foreclosing on mortgages taken out by one or more of the Lams of Po Kong. There were also trusts in the
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behind the Sham Yam Tso (holding 0.55 acres of arable land, with the trustees the grandsons of the pivotal ancestor, plus a further 0.60 acres held jointly with two other trusts where the Sham Yam ancestor's broth- ers were the apical ancestors), and the Wai Wing Tso (with 1.09 acres of arable land, with the trustees being the great-great-grandsons of the pivotal ancestor).
All the above trusts can be called "family trusts", designed to make family land-holdings more flexible. There were, however, also a few genuinely ancestral trusts. The Shing Tat Tso was set up in the name of the Founding Ancestor of the Ngs, and it owned the Ancestral Hall, two houses in Kowloon Market and 0.78 acres of arable land. The houses and arable property were designed to provide adequate income for the clan's ritual needs, including the maintenance of the Ancestral Hall. As with many other clans, this, the highest and most revered of the ances- tral trusts, was left by the Ngs without excessively large land-holdings, as villagers felt that the income from land held by the High Ancestor should be used only for ritual and other entirely worthy purposes it would be improper to give the trust more land than would be needed for this, to avoid the trust becoming involved in money-lending, or other less desirable practices. The prime ancestral trusts of the Lis and the Chans (the Li Shing Kwai Tso and the Chan Chiu In Tso) shared with the Ng Shing Tat Tso the ownership of the Tin Hau Temple and the Village Office within the walls: the Li Shing Kwai Tso also owned 1.09 acres of agricultural land.
Aggressive land-buying and speculation were left by the Ngs to other trusts, and especially the Sz Ko Tso (this was the trust to which all members of the junior three descent lines of the Ngs belonged, which equalled about a third of the clan: the name is ). This Sz Ko Tso trust was certainly involved in money-lending on mortgage. This was common throughout the New Territories, and allowed the trust in ques- tion to
acquire land when mortgages were foreclosed. It was doubtless to avoid the temptation of involvement in this business that the Shing Tat Tso was kept to a relatively small land holding. The Sz Ko Tso owned in 1902 a large house in Kowloon Market, and another large house in Sha Po, and no less than 8.73 acres of arable land. A large block of this (1.19 acres) lay in the heart of the Po Kong village land, and must have come to the Tso by foreclosing on mortgages taken out by one or more of the Lams of Po Kong. There were also trusts in the
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