[ { "id": 207533, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 301, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n293 \n\nThe former had been purchased in 1859 at a Government Land Sale by an Austrian, Gustav Overbeck (later Baron von Overbeck), a partner in the firm of Dent and Co. In the following year, Lot 607 was granted by Government to the Berlin Women's Society as a site for their foundling hospital. The trustees were Overbeck and the Rev. Johann Ludwig Ladendorff. \n\nNew trustees were named in 1869, and of these, three were German merchants; Berthold Friedrich Johann Schwarzkopf, founder of the firm of Blackhead and Co., Friedrich August Julius Menke, of William Pustau and Co., and Gustav Overbeck. The other trustee was Ladendorff's successor as Superintendent of the Foundling Hospital, Rev. Ernest Klitzke. \n\nIn 1892, Lot 624 was purchased by the Government. The remaining lot was registered in the name of the Director in Hong Kong of the Berlin Ladies Mission for China, incorporated by Ordinance No. 12 of 1889. At the time of the First World War, the property was administered as alien property. Finally, in 1925, it was surrendered to Government. \n\nAs residents of an English colony with a predominant Chinese population, those for whom English or Chinese is not a first language tend to organize groups where they can use their mother tongue. A German Club was organized in Hong Kong in 1859, and by 1867 a recognized German church congregation was meeting regularly. \n\nGerman church services had been held previous to 1867, however. A report of the Berlin Society concerning its activities in 1858 mentions the baptism of a certain Lydia (Wei-mong) “at a German service at Victoria”. The Day Book of the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, of the Basel Missionary Society, notes on May 19, 1861, attendance at a German service on Morrison Hill, where the premises of the Berlin Society were located before they occupied \"Bethesda\" in July, 1861. Another Basel Society missionary, the Rev. Philip Winnes, in 1858 reported, \"I preached to the German sailors, for there are always ships arriving from Hamburg and Bremen. Also this year a poor German established a German Inn for sailors, where always a few people are staying until they can find employment. In this inn, I preached until the sailors had had enough, and that they had quite soon.” (Heidenbote, March, 1858, p. 15).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213220, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "21\n\neconomic growth of the colony \"While naturally trading for their own benefit, they think that they may justly claim to have contributed in no small way to the development, growth of prosperity of the Colony, and in their capacity as peaceful traders they consider themselves and their businesses a valuable asset to the community It has taken decades of hard work to create such an asset which they consider particularly valuable to the Colony since they have as impartial traders been instrumental to a great extent in attracting to this part business from all quarters of the globe thereby promoting British trade more than that of any other nation.\" As reasonable as this argument might seem to those who could differentiate between trade and politics, it found no sympathetic response among those who were responsible for the defence of the island and the patriotic call of God and King (CO129/144, p.573 No.520005)\n\nThe letter was signed by the following firms with the date of their founding:\n\nSiemssen and Co. 1848\n\nArnhold, Karberg and Co. 1865\n\nMelcher and Co. 1866\n\nSander, Wiele and Co.\n\nF. Blackhead and Co. 1854\n\nReuter, Brockelmann and Co. 1846\n\nGarrels, Borner and Co. 1860\n\nWilliam Meyerink and Co. 1889\n\nCarlowitz and Co. 1866\n\nDeutsche-Asiatische Bank 1900\n\nCarl Bodiker and Co. 1860\n\nRaderkers and Co. 1868\n\nThe Medical Hall 1853\n\nJebsen and Co. 1894\n\nBerblinger and Co. 1908\n\nBume and Reif 1905.\n\nFerd. Bornemann and Co, 1888\n\nKruse and Co 1868\n\nC.M. Schellhass\n\nHans Schubart\n\nG. Prien 1880\n\nUlerup and Schluter 1905\n\nChina Export Import and Bank Compagnie 1856\n\nCharles J. Gaupp 1859", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213243, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "44\n\nPeter Jebsen in 1908 established a business of repairing ships, boilers, machines etc. at Kowloon under the name Witzke and Co. In 1912 they mortgaged their property in Kowloon to Johann Heinrich Jebsen and Jacob Friedrich Christian Jebsen, then residing in Germany (PRO Hong Kong, Surrendered Deeds Series 11 B. No. 171). Both Witzke and Co. and Jebsen and Co. were liquidated in 1914, but Jebsen's returned to Hong Kong in the 1920s.\n\nUlderup and Schluter opened an establishment in Hong Kong in 1906 as general merchants, engineering agents and motor boat builders. The partners were Johannes P. Ulderup and Carl Schluter. When Jebsens returned to Hong Kong after the Second World War, Mr. Ulderup was head of their machinery department.\n\nBerblinger and Co. was founded by A. Berblinger and W. Otto in 1908 and was liquidated in 1914. The firm of Hugo Fromm opened in Hong Kong in 1908. In 1914 its manager was A. Jaharand, George Prien was an assistant in Blackhead and Co. in 1902 but in 1908 he set himself up in business as a dealer in cigars and tobacco. In 1914 his shop was in the Hong Kong Hotel Building. F. Wendt had an office at 6 Ice House Street in 1902. His business became Wendt and Co. in 1908. The partners in 1914 were F.A. Wendt and W. Melchers. The aerated water firm of Hill Bergdahl and Co. was liquidated in 1914.\n\nSeveral firms in existence in 1914 appear to be German but were not on the list of those placed under liquidation. Heuser, Eberius and Co. is listed in the 1914 Hong Kong Directory but both its partners were not in Hong Kong at the time. Mr. Heuser had retired from the firm in 1911, and a year later the remaining partner, Gottfried Fritz Eberius committed suicide (HKT 1 Mar. 1912).\n\nThe firm of Lamke and Rogge was formed in 1890 as shipbrokers by Johannes Lamke and Carl Heinrich Rogge. Mr. Lamke had been an assistant in Blackhead and Co., and then Arnhold, Karberg and Co. In 1885 he had his own shipbroking office until he and Mr. Rogge became partners. Mr. Rogge began his business career in Hong Kong with Melchers and Co. In 1914 Lamke and Rogge are listed as ship, freight and coal brokers. The directory also lists Robitske and Reis (Grossmann and Co.), merchants, 12 Des Voeux Road Central. No partners or staff are named. Christian Friedrich Grossman became a partner of Kirchner, Bögger and Co. in 1867.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213244, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "45\n\nBefore that he had been an assistant in Siemssen and Co. He went into business for himself in 1875 and two years later took on as a partner his brother Gustav Adolph Grossmann (DP 19 Jan. 1878). Christian Friedrich died in Hong Kong February 1899. A few days before his death Alexander Heinrich Alfred Finke became a co-partner (GG 7 Jan. 1899). Mr. Finke had been an assistant in the firms of Stolterfoht and Hust 1892-1895, Stolterfoht and Hagan 1896 and Lauts, Wegener and Co. 1898.\n\nShips and Stores\n\nBackhard and Company\n\n Friedrich Johan Berthold Schwarzkopf, a ship's captain who took the name Blackhead, was in China by the year 1853 for in February of that year he was married at St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, to Sarah Bullen, the youngest daughter of William Robert Bullen of West Hackney, Middlesex, England (FC 19 February 1853 and St. John's Cathedral Marriage Register No. 131, 16 February 1853). He was an assistant in the firm of Murrow and Stephenson. He named his first child, who died in infancy, after William Murrow. Mr Blackhead began business on his own. In 1856 he opened a ship chandlers store on a hulk at the Whampoa anchorage on the Pearl River (FC 24 July 1856). His store shop \"Hornet\" was an old sailing vessel turned into business premises.\n\nWhen hostilities broke out between Britain and China over the Arrow lorcha incident at Canton, and foreign shipping had to leave Whampoa, the “Hornet” was moved to the Hong Kong harbour. Mr. Blackhead began building warehouses and an office by the seaside at the foot of Aberdeen Street. In September 1860 the company announced it had removed its ship chandlery, sail making and auction business from the \"Hornet\" to \"those new buildings lately erected in Queen's Road West, opposite Messrs. Gibb, Livingston and Co. and next door to offices of Messrs. Phillips, Mone and Co.\" (FC 13 September 1860).\n\nJohn Morris was admitted a partner in March 1860 (GG 31 March 1860) but he died in January 1861 (FC 21 Jan. 1861). He held a one third share in the business (PRO, Probate File No. 19 of 1861 [f/104]). Captain Henry A Bell was in charge of the business at Whampoa in 1860 and 1861, but Mr. Blackhead was the sole proprietor of the company until he left Hong Kong in 1872.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213245, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 67, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "46\n\nHe was then described “as perhaps the oldest foreign resident of the colony” (Daily Advertiser 23 Apr. 1872). Shortly before his retirement John Henry Smith and Frederich Rapp were admitted as partners in the firm,\n\nJohn Henry (or Johan Heinrich as it is given in one record) Smith remained a partner until his death at Genoa, Italy in June 1890. He was on his way back to Germany after a visit to Hong Kong with his wife (DP 21 June 1890). His will, which had been written in Macao in 1873, states that he was formerly of Cappelen, Germany. In his will he left all business of ship chandler and auctioneer and commission agent at Macao in trust for his wife Lizzie Smith of New York\" (PRO Probate File No. 29 of 1891 [4/8201]). By the time of his death some seventeen years after writing his will he had disposed of his interests in Macao. They were taken over by A. Muller in January 1875 (Macau Boletim 2 January 1875)\n\nChristian Friedrich Rapp (or as he was usually known Fritz Rapp) was admitted a partner in the firm of Blackhead and Co. in 1871 and his interest ceased some six years later (DP 2 Oct. 1877). He then went into business on his own as auctioneer and commission agent with an office on Zetland Street (DP 16 October 1877). Mr. Rapp died in Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1895. His tombstone in the Old Residents' Section of the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley states he was born at Stade on 30 January 1841. In his will he appoints his wife Mei Ho (May) as guardian of his children: Kwai Tsun otherwise Gustave, King Tsun otherwise Hermann, Sham Tsun otherwise Fritz, Shui San married to Mr. Li, Shui Yee and Shui Sun. In a codicil written on 1 December 1894 he states his daughter Shui Sun is now called Johanna Rapp and that one of the executors he had named, Hemrich Hoppius, was ill and likely to die. In his place he appointed Heinrich Gartels (PRO Probate File No. 7 of 1895 [4/1008]).\n\nBlackhead and Co. in 1886 were agents for the Kerscheldt Ice Depot. The ice was manufactured at the Saki Distillery on the Shaukiwan Road (DP 1 April 1886). In the same year they announced plans to build a wharf adjoining their coal godowns, then in course of erection, at what became known as Blackhead's Point in Tsim Sha Tsui (DP 3 April 1886). The account of the firm's Jubilee published in the Daily Press 31 March 1905 stated the company was the largest of the coal merchants in Hong Kong. The coal godowns and wharf later passed into the hands of Butterfield and Swire and were known as Holt's Wharf. The site is now", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213246, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "47\n\nthat of the New World Hotel. A soap factory was built on Shaukiwan Marine Lot which the company purchased at a Crown Land Sale in 1890 (DP 29 June, 6 August 1890) In a series of articles on Hong Kong Industries published in the Hong Kong Telegraph the writer chides British reluctance to invest capital in Hong Kong and cites the soap factory as another case in which German enterprise had outstripped that of the British (HKT 10 September 1895)\n\nAt the time of the forced liquidation of German firms in 1914 the partners of Blackhead & Co were F H Hohnke, then of Hamburg, E H Thiel and J E Danielsen. Hohnke had been a partner since about 1888. At about the same time a son of the founder joined the firm. After Germany acquired the concession at Tsingtao, Mr Hohnke went there to open a branch of the firm (DP 7 March 1905).\n\nGerman Watchmakers\n\nCharles Weiss, Gaupp and Co\n\nThe first shopkeeper in Hong Kong with a German-sounding name was Charles Weiss. Aberdeen Street second in the list of foreigners on the China coast published in the Chinese Repository in 1845 gives his nationality as German. In May of the previous year he advertises himself as \"Charles Weiss, Chronometer and watchmaker from London and Geneva, Oswald's Hill opposite Gibb, Livingston and Co.\" This would be in the vicinity of the present Aberdeen Street (FC 24 May 1844) Two months later he moved a bit down hill to the corner of Graham and Wellington Streets (FC 24 July 1844) His brother Alexander A took charge of the business in 1853 during a temporary absence of Charles (FC 6 July 1853). Charles left Hong Kong permanently in 1856 and transferred his business to Henni Vaucher, formerly of Canton (FC 2 June 1856) Henni Vaucher was either French or Swiss; he had been a clerk in the watchmaking firm of Bovet Brothers and Co at Canton from 1851 to the time he took over Charles Weiss's business. He died of chronic diarrhea a year after moving to Hong Kong (FC 6 Nov 1857).\n\nLouis Heermann was an assistant in the shop of Charles Weiss from the year 1854. After the shop was closed upon the death of Henni Vaucher, Mr Heermann opened his own store on Queen's Road in February 1858 (FC 1 Feb 1858). While in his shop notice Mr Heermann calls himself", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216104, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 403, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "337\n\nMeters, flyovers and service charges\n\nIt was not until 1962 that Hong Kong had its first parking meters and at about the same time service charges were first levied in restaurants. Also at this time, in spite of high immigration figures, unemployment consistently stood at well below two per cent. Inflation was negligible. The Territory saw its first flyover, outside Saint Teresa's Church on Prince Edward Road in Kowloon, in 1963.\n\n‘One damn thing after another'\n\nIn the early 1960s, we are referring to a time when something like 30 million inhabitants died of starvation on the Chinese Mainland. This was as a result of the failure of the 'Great Leap Forward.' There were long queues in Hong Kong post offices sending food parcels to relatives in China. All in all, the 1960s was a challenging decade and, as one government servant phrased it, 'It was one damn thing after another.' But the Territory was a great survivor and frequently managed to come back stronger than ever.\n\nTyphoons\n\nWhen I first arrived in Hong Kong my boss told me there is a bad typhoon every seven years. In fact, there is no set pattern if you check as I have. An estimated 11,000 people died in the 1937 typhoon, more than the 8,750 total Allied forces, Japanese and Chinese estimated to have been killed when the Japanese attacked Hong Kong in December 1941. There was an inadequate typhoon warning system in those days. Up until the 1930s a gun was fired from Blackhead Point, in Kowloon, either when a typhoon was approaching or when the mail ship arrived. Not infrequently, the two events were confused.\n\nTyphoon Wanda, in 1962, is sometimes remembered as the last typhoon from which bitter lessons were learned on how to batten down. It coincided with a high tide, with an 11-foot rise in water level and a storm surge that caused bad flooding. This happened right up to Tsang Tai Uk (the big house of the Tsang family), the fine, Hakka walled village at the end of Sha Tin Hoi (Sea). This Hoi has long since been reclaimed. With Wanda, something like 2,000 ships and small craft were sunk or damaged. There were 130 deaths. With gusts of 164 mph", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216222, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 521, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "455\n\ncould sometimes hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. At the time one could still hire a sedan chair and four coolies to carry one up to Conduit Road. There were half a dozen or so parked regularly in Wyndham Street, in Central, up until the late 1950s. The fare was 30 cents for each 15 minutes with a 30 cents surcharge. The working life of a chair coolie was said to be eight years.\n\nAs with many houses in Conduit Road at the time, 41 Conduit Road had a superb view and, long before the days of cross-harbour tunnels, one of the pastimes of children was counting the number of ferries they could spot. Between the two World Wars an eccentric Englishman who lived in Robinson Road, not far away, did not own a clock. He used a telescope to tell the time from the clock tower then standing in Pedder Street. In the \"good old days,\" more than one British Governor used the activities in the harbour as a barometer of the strength of the economy. We are talking of times, up until the mid 1930s, when a cannon was fired from Blackhead Point, in Tsim Sha Tsui, to let residents know when a typhoon was approaching or, alternatively, the mail ship had arrived. Occasionally, inhabitants were not sure to which of the two events the firing referred!\n\nWhen the FCC vacated the premises the final days had come for the old mansion at 41 Conduit Road. In 1960, it was bought by Cheng Hing Realty and, in 1966, rebought by Court Properties. As with so much of Hong Kong it was a case of 'Hungry for the new forget the old.' The old building was demolished and the site remained empty for some time. The sale price was reputed to have been $13 million. The site was then redeveloped. In the summer of 1970, there were 1,200 applications to purchase the 400 flats at Realty Gardens. My wife and I were successful in the ballot and we took possession of our newly completed flat in Venice Court, for which we paid, in mid 1972, the princely sum of $114,000. Prices were still low after the property slump brought on largely by the drawn-out 1967 riots. My flat has been a splendid investment. We let it for the first four years, unfurnished, at $2,000 a month. We moved in ourselves on 1 March 1976.\n\nAlthough I can see a narrow strip of the harbour and Stonecutters Island (an island no longer) from my bedroom window, my flat at Realty Gardens in fact faces south. It is thus shielded from the cold north-easterly monsoon in the winter and receives the benefits of the cool", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]