[ { "id": 205346, "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-1967", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "LAND AND LEADERSHIP IN THE H.K. REGION OF KWANGTUNG 101\n\nLockhart calls them in his 1898 report on the New Territories.18 He states that the council for the Eastern Tung embraced most of the leased territory and sat in the market town of Sham Chun just north of the 1898 boundary. One imagines that men such as the three who form the subject of this paper might have been members. Here I have had the benefit of conversations with a former mandarin, now deceased, who served as a Chou and then as a Fu magistrate in Hupeh for some years before the Revolution of 1911. He told me that the councils of the poorer districts were augmented by prominent non-literati of the type to be found on Lantau, the normal restrictions on scholar membership being waived in order to secure the presence of persons who carried weight in their localities. If practised in San On this realistic approach, in part occasioned by the need to obtain their help in chasing in and securing the payment of the land tax, would probably have brought in local leaders like Chan, Cheung and Kung.\n\nI must record that this is conjecture since no information on their participation in the council, their work there, and their relations with the district magistrate and the true gentry of the District has yet turned up though I am by no means sure, given local conditions, that it ever will. However an account of these men would be lacking unless one hinted at the possibility of their participation in local councils, especially as it is probable that the rural gentry of Lantau and similar fringe areas in South China and elsewhere in the Ching period were similar in origins to these three men.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The New Territories were ceded by the Convention of Peking signed on 9th June 1898; for the text see The Hong Kong Government Gazette for 8 April 1899, pp. 552-553—but were not occupied until the following year. The boundaries were not discussed until March 1899, and some hostilities took place in March and April of that year when the Hong Kong Government took possession of the New Territory. See Sessional Papers 1899, No. 32 \"Dispatches and Other Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong\" and No. 35 \"Further Papers relating to Military Operations in Connection with the Disturbances On The Taking Over of the New Territory\".\n\nThe Romanisation used in this article is in the Cantonese form. For place names see A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. (Hong Kong Government Printer, 1960).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205868, "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-1969", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "168\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\ntributed to the resolution of an outstanding problem of understanding by presenting this detailed analysis. This could now lead very profitably to a systematic analysis of the informal social system of Chinese lineage villages which operates this formal structure. Baker himself provides some hints that the formal organization and its informal operation are by no means identical. Other studies of formal organization would of course support this contention.\" The next step would be to identify the methods by which villagers adapt their formal organization to the demands of everyday life.\n\nIn short, what Baker has done is open up a whole new series of problems which he himself (quite properly) has not talked to. His work is most promising because it is problem-oriented and is not, in itself, an end point of investigation. It is more or less a stopping-off point on the road to a better understanding of the Chinese village (as dangerous as that concept might be) and as a consequence is far more fruitful than the standard ethnographic works which describe individual Chinese villages. These works, of course, are valuable in that they provide interesting data about human behavior and social organization. But they lose part of their value in that they tend to be final and complete products, leading not to further research but at best to use as a base for comparative studies.\n\nMuch of the recent work in Hong Kong villages has been of this problem-oriented type and some fruitful comparisons can be made. Bracey in her study of a poor Hakka village focuses on the problem of the migration of laborers out of the village and the impact that this has on village social structure.10 It would be highly profitable to reexamine Dr. Bracey's data to find out what can be said about lineage organization in a situation where enough men are not available to fulfill the necessary ritual and social functions, and try to compare lineage organization as it actually operates in a poor Hakka village with the \"ideal structure\" which Baker had described.* The potential usefulness to the social science...\n\n9 Part of Baker's problem in effectively introducing behavioral data is his insufficient differentiation between formal and informal organization, between ideal patterns of organization and the informal arrangements which, in fact, allow formal structures to function in the daily routines of life.\n\n10 Dorothy H. Bracey, The Effects of Migration on a Hakka Village. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation: Harvard University Library, 1967.\n\n* See also Göran Aijmer's article “Expansion and Extension in Hakka Society\" in JHKBRAS, Vol. 7 (1967), between pp. 42-79, Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206539, "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-1972", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n81\n\n21 'Despatches and Other Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong', Sessional Papers, no. 32 of 1899, p. 13.\n\n22 Ibid., p. 36.\n\n23 Ibid., p. 65.\n\n24 Ibid., p. 69.\n\n25 'Report on the New Territory during the first year of British Administration', Sessional Papers, no. 15 of 1900, p. 252.\n\n26 'Report on the New Territory for the Year 1901', Sessional Papers, no. 22 of 1902, p. 4.\n\n27 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1921.\n\n28 Alfred Hancock and his brother Sydney were partners in the firm of A. and S. Hancock of Queen's Road, Hong Kong. In 1906 Alfred Hancock had resided for over fifty years in Amoy and Hong Kong. In the 1920s the firm had moved to Des Voeux Road and the chief partner was H. R. B. Hancock, Lockhart's brother-in-law. The firm was still active in 1940.\n\n29 The walled city of Weihaiwei, captured by the Japanese in 1894, by the terms of the 1898 Convention was not under British jurisdiction but nominally under a Chinese sub-district deputy magistrate. The British sphere of influence extended for an area of 1,500 square miles east of the Leased Territory.\n\n30 On the Chinese Regiment see: Captain A. A. S. Barnes, On Active Service with the Chinese Regiment, London, 1902; C. E. Bruce-Mitford, The Territory of Wei-Hai-Wei, Shanghai, 1902, pp. 22-24; R. F. Johnston, Lion and Dragon in Northern China, London, 1910, pp. 82-3; and Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1906. The only servicemen left in Weihaiwei after 1906 were the small body of Royal Marines of the Island Guard,\n\n31 Johnston, op. cit., p. 82.\n\n32 L. K. Young, British Policy in China 1895-1902, London, 1970, p. 73.\n\n33 Johnston, op. cit., p. 80.\n\n34 The Weihaiwei School was opened with only four pupils in 1901 by a Mr. H. J. L. Beer. In 1903 a new school house was built near Port Edward, partly with the aid of a debenture loan subscribed by British subjects in Shanghai. The new school had dormitories for forty boys. The school, which took boys between ages of 8 to 14, was mainly for the sons of British expatriates. Pupils came from places as far apart as Mukden, Canton, Kobe, and Chungking. The school closed in 1925 when it became apparent that the rendition of Weihaiwei was close at hand. Weihaiwei's fine climate contributed to the school's success with expatriate parents.\n\n35 Johnston, op. cit., p. 96.\n\n36 Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston, K.C.M.G. (1874-1938). Johnston was educated at Edinburgh University and Oxford. He arrived in Hong Kong as an Eastern Cadet, fresh from Magdalen, on Christmas Day, 1898. In 1904, Robert Walter, Secretary to Government and Magistrate at Weihaiwei, was seconded for service as Emigration Agent at Ch'iu-wang-tao for the Transvaal Government and Johnston was appointed to take his place. In 1906 he was appointed District Officer and Magistrate and resided in the heart of the Territory. In 1919 when he took up his appointment as tutor he was Senior District Officer. In 1927 he returned to Weihaiwei as Commissioner. After the rendition of Weihaiwei in 1930 he became Professor of Chinese, University of London, and Head of the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Far East, School of Oriental Studies, 1931-37.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208046, "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-1977", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n69\n\nwas occasioned by the second, more famous event; the occupation of the leased Kowloon hinterland under provisions of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong, implemented by colonial troops in April, 1899.1\n\nMention must be made of these events, for had they not occurred, little would be known of the actual workings of revenue collection in late Ch'ing Hsin-An. For reasons which will become apparent, local magistrates were loath to describe the realities of tax collection, and usually preferred to maintain a semblance of li-chia (2*) in official accounts. Hence, we must turn to those foreigners whose job it was to decipher the workings of the system, in order to impose a more formal, “rational” approach.\n\nBrown, in the Report for 1887-1891, relates the initial difficulties brought about by local opposition to the establishment of the Kowloon Customs:\n\nAlthough as stated, the Hoppo and the Likin Department withdrew from the stations in 1887, there still remained the agents of certain syndicates who had farmed the collection of Likin and other local charges on some of the principal articles of trade, as kerosene oil, matches, etc. The presence of these men at the station was an inconvenience, a cause of friction, and a waste of time, as merchants were obliged to have their goods examined by, and to pay dues to, two or more independent offices. It was pointed out to the provincial authorities that the method of collecting Duties by means of farms was most wasteful, as no more than half the money taken by the farms from the traders reached the provincial treasury. These representations finally prevailed, and about the middle of 1890, as soon as vested interests could be got rid of, the whole of the farm agencies were removed.\n\nUnfortunately for Brown and the merchants, tax farming was not restricted to the four stations under his control. Evidence suggests, for example, that the primary market mechanism employed by magistrates in late Ch'ing Hsin-An was the farming of brokerage taxes (†) to local tongs (*) which in turn oversaw the operation of periodic markets (3); Freedman (1966) and Groves (1965) supply us with some data on this aspect of tax farming as it applied to Tai Po Kau Hui (★★⇓). Similarly, services along trade routes, as well as the collection of corresponding duties, were farmed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208059, "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-1977", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "82\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nlawsuits. In some instances the smaller villages pay their land tax through the influential clans.\" (p. 20).\n\n18. Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1921), 3:4a.\n\n19 For details on Hakka migration into the area, see Lo Hsiang-lin's K'o chia shih liao hui p'ien (***** Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas). See also Essay I.\n\n20 Krone, op. cit., p. 125.\n\n21 Sung Hok-p'ang, \"Legends and Tales of the New Territories” in The Hong Kong Naturalist, VII: 3 and 4. For the tale of the \"Hungry Bug\" see pp. 249-250 in number 3.\n\n22 CSO6269 in 1909,\n\n23 Extension Papers, p. 227.\n\n24 See statements by Tang Kok-lam in the Extension Papers (pp. 216 and 293-294): \"... the reason for the resistance is that there were rumours that there would be an increase in taxation, numbering of houses, and taxes on fruits and houses.\" See similar reasons put forth in the petition from the Tung Wo Kuk of Sha Tau Kok Tung, p. 319.\n\n25 CSO130 in 1902.\n\n26 Pat Heung and Shap Pat Heung are districts whose natural boundaries are made up of two major valleys of Un Long to the southeast and northwest of Kam Tin, respectively. These hsiang consist largely of small, multi-lineage settlements with substantial Hakka populations. In some of the documents in the Extension Papers, tung is appended to these districts, a usage still heard among the older elders in the area. The hypothesis which I develop later in this paper refers specifically to the large-order tung; however, it applies equally to the smaller-order tung insofar as they constitute districts treated as a whole for the purposes of revenue collection.\n\n28 CSO6269 in 1909.\n\n29 The only mention of this decision which I have seen is Tratman's account of the opening of a new market at Un Long in CSO3172 of 1915. \"Of the existence of this feud there can be no doubt. It began in the endeavors of Pat Heung to free their land from the ground-rent claimed by Kam Tin as first settlers and so overlords of the whole district. The actual bone of contention fell to the Pat Heung when the Land Court disallowed all the \"taxlord claims\" in that district; but the bad blood still remains. Its fast manifestation was in the form of an organized assault by the people of Un Long on certain Kam Tin cultivators in 1911.”\n\n30 Hugh Baker, \"The Five Great Clans of the New Territories,\" Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 6. pp. 25-48.\n\n31 “If a person is arrested by a village constable, he is taken before the gentry and elders of the village, who assemble in a place specially appointed for the purpose. The gentry and the elders, who are the representatives of the clans inhabiting the villages, are selected by the inhabitants to deal with cases in the village council, The usual cases are those of theft, disputes about land, domestic squabbles, and cases of debt. Most of these cases are summarily dealt with by the village council, and as a rule, the decision of that council is accepted as final. But if either of the parties to a case is dissatisfied, he can appeal to a council of the Tung, or to a general council, made up of representatives of the different Tung. A reference to Map VI will show how the newly leased territory is divided", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208060, "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-1977", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n83\n\ninto Tung or Divisions. Each council of a Tung contains representatives of the villages which make up the Tung. In addition to a council of a Tung there is a general council for the whole of the Tung Lo or Eastern Section, which is practically that portion of the district of San On contained in the map attached to the Convention. This general council is styled the Tung Ping Kuk or Council of Peace for the Eastern Section. It has its council chamber at the market town of Sham Chun, which is regarded as the centre of the Eastern Section.\n\nIf the decision of the council of the Tung or of the General Council is not regarded as satisfactory, an appeal lies to the magistrate of the district.\" (pp. 55-56, Extension Papers.).\n\n32 Extension Papers, p. 34.\n\n33 Ibid., p. 174.\n\n34 K'ang Nan-hai Kuan-chih I (***T**), pp. 15-16.\n\n35 Philip A. Kuhn, Rebellion and its Enemies in Late Imperial China, pp. 91-92.\n\n36 K'ang Nan-hai, op. cit., p. 15.\n\n37 Other evidence which supports this hypothesis is drawn from the fact that the production and distribution of agricultural produce within the tung tends to be regulated by specific and unique processes. Hence, the tau chung (#), or local measures for payment of rent in kind, differs from tung to tung. Lockhart, in his Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong (Presented to both Houses of Parliament, November, 1900), relates the problems encountered in rationalizing land tenure: \"But even this tau varies in different localities. The Kun Tau, or Chinese official standard measure of 10 shing, is adopted at Tai Po, in the Sheung Yu District, and at Shat'aukok. The Ts'ong Tau, or grain measure of 11 shing, is used throughout the Un Long District. The Ts'in Tau of 8 shing is employed in the Ts'un Wan (ed. previously Kowloon District) and some other Districts. (p. 6). Moreover, the schedules of periodic markets within tung tend to complement each other, while they often clash with the schedules of markets in a neighboring tung.\n\n38 See petition from Tung Wo Kuk (\"i.e., the Committee appointed to deal with the affairs of the Shataukok Division\"). pp. 318-320.\n\n39 In a rough translation of a pamphlet obtained by the German missionary Schaub in Tung-Kuan, local gentry propose a strategy for obtaining funds for fighting the British: \"It is the best plan that the six confederations (six market places) keep together as we hear. But the outlay for the soldiers should not be collected by an extraordinary field tax. It is not right that the various confederations should pay the costs.... We should use the usual field tax. Let first the six confederations come together and ask our Government for help. Will the soldiers not come to help us, then let us ask the Mandarin for the present not to collect the field tax, that we can use the money to meet the barbarians. This would not be rebellious. Afterwards in peaceful times, we could pay our duties to the Government. (Extension Papers, p. 347.) See also, K'ang Nan-hai, op cit., p. 15.\n\n40 CSO433 in 1899,\n\n41 The British often experienced great difficulty in distinguishing landlords from taxlords, especially since members of large, gentry clans like the Tangs were one and the same. In a memorandum on the work of the Land Court, Lockhart writes: \"The most serious matter of all, however, is the stand taken by the farmers against the clans, their former landlords.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208190, "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-1977", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n213\n\ndation of the Land Court, the Governor decided that 14 elders of the Northern District should be compensated for certain \"tax-lord\" rights claimed by them to have existed before the convention, but not compatible with the principles of British administration, by the grant of 252.33 acres of Crown land in the Northern District, to be selected by each \"tax-lord\" in proportion to the value of the right claimed by him.\" Also, see Enclosure 7, no. 172 mentioned above, to the effect that Kam Tin collected taxes in the Pat Heung Valley on land it didn't own. Much more is to be learned on this tax-lord system; I expect to glean more information from the records of the debate before the Land Court, 1904, which may be contained in the CSO reports.*\n\n28. The Tangs of Kam Tin existed as a power often beyond the reach of the local magistracy. There is evidence of widespread non-payment of land-taxes and squeeze. On the former point, see the San On Letters appended below. Squeeze was collected primarily from the Tai Ping Kuk and similar organizations of Structure B type. The Tangs of Kam Tin were apparently not members of this Sham Chun group [see Petition to Lockhart in Extension Papers.] Also, note Sung's tale regarding the use of the Wong Ku relationship in the successful refusal to paying squeeze, the major source of revenue in San On county.\n\n29. In summary, then, the Tangs were land-lords and tax-lords who existed and operated as a power unto themselves, dominating the local scene and ignoring the tendons of local government whenever possible.\n\n30. Two statements regarding the status of sai-man (*R,): “We give them cows, we give them houses, we even give them women”. Also, \"When the bridal procession passed through Kam Tin on its way to Pat Heung or Sap Pat Heung, the bride and groom were forced to descend and kow-tow.\" There is general agreement among Tangs and non-Tangs in the Kam Tin area that sai-man and sai-chuk (clans \"with same name\") were constantly reminded of their \"place\".\n\n31. We uncovered a great deal of smouldering resentment and bitterness in Kam Tin, directed against the Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan branches of the clan. One tale concerns a \"war\" with Ping Shan over tax-collection rights in the vicinity of Shun Fung Wai.\n\n* Kept in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210933, "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-1986", "page_number": 283, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "266\n\ning in the New Territories. Unfortunately, the British misunderstood that the soldiers were sent there to assist the uprising.\n\nWith this as an excuse, the British invaded the Walled City on the 8th day of the Fourth Moon (i.e. 19th May) and drove away the Imperial officials and the three hundred soldiers.\n\nThis ended the Ch'ing rule over the Kowloon Walled City.\n\nHong Kong, June 1987\n\nAnthony K. K. SIU\n\nNOTES\n\n2\n\nSee JHKBRAS 20(1980): 139-141.\n\nThey were said to be Hakka stone workers and Triad members.\n\nCheung Yu-tang E, a native of Wai Chau H, was a Fu-cheung #or Brigadier of the Tai Pang Battalion in 1854. He was stationed in the Walled City for thirteen years. Then he retired in the 5th year of Tung Chih (1866) and died four years later in the 9th year of Tung Chih (1870) at the age of 76.\n\nSee Chapter 82 of the Kwangchow Fu Chi, Kuang Hsu edition 廣州府志卷八十二,\n\n5 See the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong, 1898 (signed at Peking, 9th June, 1898): Treaties between China and Foreign States Vol. 1, P. 539-540. Shang-hai, 1917.\n\n6 See Despatches and other Papers relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1899.\n\nSee the Report of Viceroy Tam Chung-lun and Governor Luk Chuen-lam of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces to the Imperial Court on the Lease of Kowloon Customs and her territory on the 9th day of the 4th moon in the 25th year of the Kuang Hsu Reign (1899).\n\nSee the Report of Viceroy Tam Chung-lun and Governor Luk Chuen-lam of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces to the Imperial Court on the British Occupation of the Kowloon City and the French Occupation of Ng Chuen and Shui Kai Prefectures 奧督撫譚鈺麟鹿傳霖泰英人佔據九龍城法人圖佔吳川遂溪兩縣請飭籌 on the 15th day of the 5th moon in the 25th year of Kuang Hsu (1899).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213468, "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-1995", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "31\n\n* These powers of the Land Officer sprang from the New Territories (Land) Ordinance, 1905 (No. 36 of 1905).\n\n1 Such powers were originally conferred on District Officers by the New Territories Small Debts Court Ordinance, 1908 (now repealed). By agreement of the parties, District Officers, by virtue of the proviso to that section, could determine suits with subject matter up to $5,000 in value ($1,000 HK is the approximate equivalent of £62-1st in 1962 - Editor).\n\nBy the Convention of Peking, 9th June 1898 vide Laws of Hong Kong, Allibone's Edition 1913, Vol. III, pp. 6-7.\n\nibid, pp. 8-9.\n\n* § 7, Supreme Court Ordinance 1873 (now s. 5 of Cap. 4).\n\nExtracts from a Memorandum on some Legal Aspects of the Hong Kong Extension, by W. Meigh Goodman, Attorney General of Hong Kong, dated December 1898, in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1899, p. 209 at p. 210.\n\n19 Mr. Chamberlain (then Sir Joseph) to Sir Henry A. Blake, Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1899, p. 177 at p. 178, para 5.\n\nTranslation of the Chinese Proclamation dated 9th April 1899, being Appendix IX to Sir Henry A. Blake's Report to Mr. Chamberlain dated 19th February 1900, in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1900, p. 280.\n\nvide my article \"The Choice of Chinese Customary Law in Hong Kong\" (1962) 11 International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 231 at pp. 232-233.\n\n\"Chinese Law and Custom in Hong Kong\" Hong Kong 1953, (hereinafter cited as Committee Report 1953) Appendix 1A at p. 122.\n\n1bid, Chap. II, para. 13 at p. 8.\n\n15 Memorandum of the District Commissioner, New Territories, to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, dated 20th March 1958. It would appear that the 17th April 1899 was the date intended (vide the Governor's Proclamation of 8th April 1899 which appeared as Appendix XX to the Governor's Report in Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1900 at pp. 291-292) to bring the Colony's laws into force in the New Territories with effect from 17th April 1899.\n\n18 (1962) 11 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 231.\n\n17 loc cit para. 6.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214047, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "82\n\ntwo long roughly-hewn granite slabs. Near villages adjacent to the sea stone jetties were built, the largest almost certainly being that at Kowloon City with its 21 spans, each with five longitudinal slabs supported on granite piers, which was completed in 1875 with a wooden extension added in 1892, and connected to the older Walled City by a wide road.\n\nReclamations were formed, for example, at Sha Tau Kok, Nam Chung and Luk Keng (near Starling Inlet), Shuen Wan and Yuen Long. These were sited on the tidal flats behind rock/mud/stick bunds located at low water level, and incorporated horizontal timber plank sluice gates. It took seven years for the salt to leach out of the sea bed with quarterly flushings before the land could be put to agricultural use.\n\nIrrigation schemes were constructed throughout the rural areas involving construction of temporary dams across streams, simple pedal-operated wooden paddle-belt machines for raising water (usually around a metre), small bunds, catchwater channels and even bamboo pipe-aqueducts to cross low-lying ground. To provide power for traditional village industries, wooden water-wheels were installed adjacent to streams.\n\nHarbour Works\n\nOn the signing of the Convention of Chuen-pi in 1841, Captain Belcher of HMS Sulphur undertook a hydrographic survey of Hong Kong Island and the surrounding waters with separate scales indicating sea miles and cables, statute miles and furlongs, and yards. The chart's emphasis was on water depths in fathoms, rocks and coastlines with the general shape of the hills and prominent landmarks shown only for navigational purposes.\n\nAs the years passed, the benefits of Hong Kong's natural deepwater harbour were exploited and, by the turn of the century, some 40% of China's foreign trade was passing through Hong Kong which had by this time become one of the world's principal ports with its fine dockyards and excellent workforce devoted to shipbuilding and repairing - indeed \"a sort of Far Eastern Marine Clapham Junction”.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 } ]