[
    {
        "id": 214060,
        "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-1997",
        "page_number": 128,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "95\n\nwith impounded water being conveyed through a 2.2km-long 2.5m-diameter tunnel, mainly in granite, and by a 5km-long conduit winding along the northern shore of the Island beneath Bowen Road to the first two slow sand filter beds above the city, and thence into the service reservoir located at a lower level. The distribution system involved laying, between 1890 and 1892, some 30 kilometres of 75-350mm-diameter cast-iron mains together with the installation of a system of fire hydrants. Major fung shui problems were encountered during the tunnelling works, rumour being that children were to be selected for burial alive to ensure success; fortunately no ritual sacrifice was needed!\n\nOn an uncontoured 1895 version of Collinson's plan (1845), there is an interesting feature clearly marked “overhead tram\" extending 2.3 kilometres between Quarry Bay and Quarry Gap. It seems likely that it would have been used to transport materials and, perhaps, workmen associated with the early Tai Tam reservoir works. As part of the Tai Tam scheme a further small high-level reservoir at Wong Nei Chong was completed in 1899. Around this time the Braemar reservoir (now Choi Sai Woo Park) and further smaller reservoirs near Quarry Bay were built, primarily to meet the needs of the large commercial Tai Koo sugar refinery and dockyard complex.\n\nWith the population already rising to about half a million, three further concrete dams within the Tai Tam valley, the largest Tai Tam Tuk being 50m high, and associated reservoirs were completed between 1904 and 1917. The upper (42m high) and reconstructed lower (20m high) concrete dams, the latter being previously a privately-owned dam built in 1890 for a paper works, impounding the Aberdeen reservoirs were later finished in 1931 and 1932 respectively, thus completing the last economical water storage development on the Island.\n\nAfter the turn of the century engineers were already looking to the New Territories to increase the supply of water for Kowloon, which had hitherto been dependent on two wells located to the north of Yau Mai Tei. As a result, the 35m-high concrete dam for the Kowloon reservoir was completed in 1910 and three further reservoirs in the vicinity were completed during the period 1925-1931 by which time the population was already approaching a million. A commercial reservoir was also built early this century to the south of Lung Wo Tsuen to provide water for Rennie's cotton factory at Junk Bay.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214582,
        "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-1998",
        "page_number": 440,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "409\n\nthe community as a shining example of a native son. He certainly helped bridge the vast gap between Victorian, colonial society and the Chinese community and he frequently presented - and clarified the often-misunderstood Chinese viewpoint. One gets the impression that, in spite of his western background he was still at heart very Chinese. In spite of having an eminent pastor father, the Reverend Ho Fuk Tong (Ho Tsun Shin), he was not opposed, for example, to concubinage.\n\nIn the same way that Sir Kai Ho Kai was a son of whom Hong Kong could be truly proud, so too the author's family has roots going back in the Territory for a number of generations. As a true Hongkongese, Choa has had a lifetime of experience as a physician, scholar and senior government administrator. He is a long-time, life member of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. Such a background fits him admirably to write such a book. It has been well researched, contains a wealth of detail and is a good read. Understandably, with limited information in some areas, this account is often more about the times in which he lived than Ho Kai himself. But that does not detract from the value of the book.\n\nAs one of Hong Kong's true sons Sir Kai Ho Kai deserves to go down in history, during an important period, as one of the few Chinese who was able to leave his indelible mark. The book, together with its epilogue, bibliography and 11 appendices, should be on the shelves of every serious researcher of Hong Kong history.\n\nAt the same time the book is a good product, on good quality paper with clear print and a stout, attractive cover, unlike so many books published today. Although some of the 25 illustrations, which are mainly photographs, are more common, there are some the reviewer had not seen before.\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Susanna Hoe, The Private Life of Old Hong Kong: Western Women in the British Colony 1841 - 1941, Oxford University Press (1991), pp. 293; and Univer-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]