[
    {
        "id": 209778,
        "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-1983",
        "page_number": 37,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "shopkeeper, land speculator, auctioneer and entrepreneur; William Tarrant, Land Office clerk and later editor and proprietor of the newspaper Friend of China, Charles Markwick, auctioneer for the Government; Hugh Mackay, shopkeeper his lot No. 4 was resumed in 1859 for nonpayment of Crown Rent; and Wong Ah Hoy, one of the original So Kon Po cultivators.\n\nWong sold his lot in 1852 to Chang On Kee, a merchant trading at Hong Kong, who in turn sold it to George Duddell in 1857. Duddell had already bought in 1851 the lots of Markwick and Tarrant. Thus all the arable land of the valley was in his possession, except the lot of Mackay which reverted to the Government shortly after. Duddell added to his holdings by purchase from the Government in 1853 of Farm Lot 13. This was between his valley lots and So Kon Po village.\n\nIt was probably in the 1850's that Duddell experimented with growing coffee plants in the valley. Evidence of the project was still to be seen in 1878. The Hong Kong Daily Press in that year published a series of articles on places of interest around Hong Kong. The issue of 17 December 1878 gave directions for a walk to the \"Coffee Plantation\". The hiker was directed to proceed to the Race Course, passing the Obelisk and keeping straight on over a bridge to the gardener's cottage. There he was to turn to the right for one hundred yards, with the race course on his right and a densely wooded hill on the left, and follow the footpath up the hill through the trees. On descending the hill on the other side, he would find himself near some huts occupied by Chinese quarry-men or stone-masons and on the path leading to the coffee plantation. The writer noted, however, that \"the coffee shrubs are now neglected\".\n\nGeorge Duddell, having retired from Hong Kong some years previously, sold his So Kon Po land to William Keswick, of Jardines, in 1884. The lots, whose twenty-one lease had been extended to seventy-five years, were regranted to Keswick as Inland Lots 955, 1018, 1019, 1020 and 1021. Keswick transferred the present site of St. Paul's Convent and Hospital to a Jardine enterprise, the Hong Kong Cotton Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Company. This was in 1898. The property was bounded to the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209779,
        "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-1983",
        "page_number": 38,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "The area is bounded to the east by King's Road, to the west by Leighton Road, to the north by Tung Lo Wan Road, and to the south by Caroline Hill Road and Cotton Path.\n\nA prospectus for the new company was issued in August 1897, with J. J. Bell-Irving of Jardines as Chairman of the Board and a capital of $1,200,000. The mill began operation on 1 June 1899 with 12,000 spindles, with an anticipated full capacity of about 50,000 spindles. The company, however, was plagued by set-backs. It closed at the end of 1910. After a time, it was revived only to be forced to close again permanently in 1914, when its machinery was removed to Shanghai and the land and buildings sold for $400,000. The purchasers were the French Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.\n\nThe Order had come to Hong Kong in 1848 and located in Wanchai, where they opened the \"Asile de Sainte Enfance\" to receive abandoned children. As the years passed, the Wanchai location became increasingly undesirable. In 1908 the Sisters opened a Hospital in Wong Nei Chung valley. In 1914, when they bought the cotton mill premises, they converted some of the mill buildings for their own purposes and later built new and more adequate accommodation for a convent, St. Paul's Convent School, an orphanage, a hospital, and a church.\n\nThe same year that Keswick transferred IL 1018 to the cotton mill, he conveyed the remaining part of the valley to Sir Robert Jardine. In time, the land came into the possession of the Government, which used it as sites for the Hong Kong Stadium, the South China Stadium, and a recreation ground.\n\nOn the Caroline Hill side of the valley was a large Chinese cemetery. Gravestones and other reminders of the cemetery can still be found among the trees and underbrush.\n\nFive trustees for the Japanese Community acquired a site in So Kon Po Valley in 1911 (Inland Lot 1879). The trustees transferred the site to the Japanese Benevolent Society in 1918. In 1920, the Benevolent Society was merged with the Japanese Education Society to form the Japanese Residents Association. A plot plan of the lot shows buildings that appear to be a temple. The lot is probably the same as that now occupied by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association School.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    }
]