[ { "id": 204578, "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-1963", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "48\n\nBEK-TO CHIU\n\nRHODOLEIA CHAMPIONI, HOOK #\n\n吊鐘花\n\nFamily: Hamamelidaceae ### 金縷梅科\n\nCommon name: King of Hanging Bells\n\nHooker, who described Rhodoleia from Hong Kong named it championi to commemorate Col. J. G. Champion who was the first to collect this plant while stationed here 1847-1850, as an ensign in the 95th Regiment. Champion wrote on his record “the handsomest of Hong Kong's flowering plants\". Hance in 1870 described the flowers as \"of extreme beauty and rarity\". Justifiable statements to all who are acquainted with the flowers of this plant. Indeed the colour combination of the flowers is uniquely striking and perhaps breathtakingly oriental. The involucre of bracts is of a pale yellow, gold, pink and russet brown; the petals of rose-carmine and the stamens, black. Besides its beauty, the fact that the plant is indigenous and only found on Hong Kong island, is worthy of note.\n\nBentham described the flowers as having \"the appearance of a semi-double Camellia\". This is so and they particularly resemble Camellia hongkongensis. The apparent flowers are each composed of a cluster of five flowers, aggregated compactly on a recurved peduncle (and hence \"hanging\" or pendulous) at the axil of the upper leaves of the branches, with the petals of the flowers arranged at the circumference, held at the base by an involucre of overlapping bracts. This unit is in fact an inflorescence of the capitulum type, comparable with that of a chrysanthemum,\n\nThe shrubs or small trees, reaching up to 20 feet high, are evergreens, bearing coriaceous dark green leaves with a bluish bloom on the upper surfaces. The flowers start to bloom from January to March, being at their best in February, the Chinese New Year time. The fruits are woody composite capsules, maturing at the end of six months, when each dehisces both loculicidally and septicidally, setting free many small winged seeds.\n\nTrees of Rhodoleia championi that bloom regularly, are to be found in the New Botanical Gardens, near the Pavilion and in a sheltered valley in Little Hong Kong, off Shouson Hill.\n\nThe genus Rhodoleia has two other species: one from China and the other from Java and Sumatra.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204621, "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-1963", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\n89\n\nIn the course of a tour of duty in the New Territories I became interested in the island community and, when opportunities offered, made enquiries locally for information which would shed light on its history in the period before 1898, when it was still part of the San On district. I was particularly interested in local source material which would provide a picture of island life and society in the fifty years (1850-98) before the lease of the New Territories to Britain, and this article is based upon information obtained from three commemorative tablets which date from these years, and on other information available locally relating to several district associations of long standing, besides supplementary material from a variety of different sources.\n\nThese tablets consist of slabs of slate-like stone, usually two feet by three feet in size, on which are cut characters a quarter of an inch high set out in two parts: an account of the origin and successful accomplishment of the scheme, followed by the names of all subscribers. Their object was to record the event; and to recognise the efforts of local persons, by recording the names of the donors for posterity. Tablets in this old form were quite common—they are found all over the New Territories—and could record any undertaking, such as the construction of a road or bridge, the repair of a temple, and so on. They were set up, no doubt, with the appropriate commemorative ceremony which is still current practice for such occasions. We have the well-developed Chinese sense of the historical element in everyday life to thank for the existence of such interesting records, which, by their nature, are immune from the ravages of white ants and the damp summer weather. They are not, however, free from the attentions of the man in the street as the present state of these three tablets show: in that the first was hidden by a double bunk, the second is exposed to the elements at a street corner and is often hidden by wood from an adjacent timber yard, and the third was serving as the back of a stove, part of which had to be demolished and the tablet cleared of a heavy deposit of soot.\n\nThe first of the Cheung Chau tablets is in the office building of the Tung Kwun association and records the repair of the Po On study or school in the 5th year of T'ung-chih (1866-7); the second, dated 4th and 32nd years of Kuang-hsü", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204766, "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-1964", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "58 \n\nK. M. A. BARNETT \n\nfrom the point of view of my present subject, the event which ushered in the new age is the capture of Canton in +878 by the Huang Chao146 rebels. Between this event and the re-incorporation of Canton's territory into China in +971, by which time the earliest Chinese had already a firm grip on what is now Hong Kong, the Liu76 family gave five emperors to the Nan Han99 Dynasty at Canton. This family was allied by marriage with the Cheng163 and Tuen families which successively at this period ruled the powerful kingdom of Nan Chao;100 with the Ma89 family which ruled the kingdom of Tsu1 and no doubt, if the evidence could be pieced together, with many other peoples. For we are told that the emperor Liu Chang78 had a Persian princess in his harem, and among the many Arab travellers who visited Canton there must be some who left a description of these flamboyant half-Chinese rulers, with their eighty or more palaces, the walls of which were encrusted with pearls, their bloodthirsty exuberance and, what shines even through the disapproving accounts of the Chinese historians, their courage and administrative skill. The name Po On3 revived by the Republic of China as the name for the district of which geographically, Hong Kong is a part, was adopted by the Canton rulers in obvious reference to the pearls for which this district was at that period famous. The statement in the San On Yuen Chi123 that the name comes from the hill called Po Shan north of Nam Tau8 city is the \"cart before the horse\". The pearls were fished in great numbers somewhere near Tolo Channel, probably in Double Haven where the name Chue Tong Wat162 survives as a bay on Kar O Island.\" They were then transported overland along the route marked by a chain of forts over the pass northeast of Tai Po Tau34 village, through Kau Lung Hang, over the present golf course and skirting the Pat Heung2 marshes to the present Ping Shan, and across the creek to the fort of Tuen Mun4 which I mentioned earlier in this paper. The route, I would have you observe, almost at every point passes one of the chief settlements of the Tang44 clan who are, I believe, together with all the old Cantonese-speaking clans of this territory, the descendants of the soldiers stationed here in the Nan Han Dynasty and its successors for the express purpose of guarding these precious pearls. They were as I have said encouraged, when too old to serve with their arms, to settle down", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204910, "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-1965", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY\n\n13\n\nof conventionalized T'ao T'ieh is also highly prized. There are also fine specimens of both glazed and unglazed pottery decorated with the \"Double-F\" pattern, a design thought to be unique in the Hong Kong area and not so far found elsewhere, even around Canton. The design was quite new to such an eminent authority as Professor Paul Pelliot. Much study and conjecture was given to this design by Father Finn (7).\n\nApart from exhibits of Lamma archaeology at the British Museum and locally at the City Hall and the Fung Ping Shan Museum there are other smaller ones held in Ricci Hall (a University Hostel) and the University Team Working Centre. Further away there are collections in Honolulu at the Bishop Museum and at Harvard University. There are without doubt also many other good private collections that have not been recorded,\n\nFollowing the historical sequence of discovery in and around Hong Kong come the Hoifong sites located about eighty miles away in northeast Kwangtung. All these sites are fairly close to the indented coastline and near well-established ports such as Swabue.\n\nIt was a student in the Jesuit Seminary at Aberdeen (Hong Kong Island) who first reported the presence of remains in Hoifong that were similar to those in the Seminary collection. He brought several pieces to Father Finn who was soon convinced that he should visit the area for an on-the-spot examination. This he did in 1934 and very quickly established the fact that there were many rich sites with remains probably the same in age and culture as those in Hong Kong, especially Lamma.\n\nFather Maglioni, an Italian priest in the Pontifical Institute of the Milan Foreign Mission accompanied Father Finn on much of his fieldwork, especially around Swabue where he was stationed in a Catholic Mission. During this time he learned much from Father Finn and when Father Finn died it was natural that he should continue collecting and studying the remains.\n\nFather Maglioni modestly proclaimed himself as being strictly an amateur archaeologist without any scientific training. However, while this amateur status was correct, when he took over", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205861, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n161 \n\nA PAIR OF POTTERY COVERED JARS FOUND AT SHEK PIK, LANTAU ISLAND \n\nThe Shek Pik area in the south-western corner of Lantau Island has yielded archaeological finds of more varied interest than any other area in Hong Kong. Before the construction of the reservoir in the valley (1958-62), it was mainly known by the neolithic sites on the raised beach which W. Schofield excavated in the thirties. During and since the building of the reservoir various archaeological finds of comparatively recent periods have been made. The latest of these finds is a pair of earthenware jars with identical blue and white porcelain bowls as covers. They were discovered in February 1968 and February 1969 by James Hayes who had reported all post-war archaeological finds at Shek Pik†. Both pairs of jar and bowl were broken when discovered and the first pair has now been restored by the City Museum and Art Gallery (see Plates 19 and 20).\n\nThese jars and bowls were located on a sloping hillside west of the former village of Shek Pik Wai (abandoned before the War for sites a few hundred yards lower down the valley). The area had been scoured by bulldozers for 'fill' for the dam and the jars were found in an exposed bank. This was, in fact, the site of the earlier discoveries reported by Hayes. Though located less than a foot away from each other and each about two feet from the surface, the pots were discovered singly as progressive eroding of the bank by rain brought them to light. Mr. WAN On (溫安) of Pui O, South Lantau was with Mr. Hayes on both occasions.\n\nThe porcelain bowls are the first known pieces of Ming blue and white porcelain reported in Hong Kong, at any rate since the War, although they are a type of trade porcelain which is commonly found in the Philippines and in Indonesia. The bowls have fairly straight slanting sides and high foot-rims. They are decorated on the outside with vertical fern leaves (sometimes identified as plantain leaves) with wavy edges and with a band of floral design round the mouth rim. On the inside they are decorated with a double ring near the mouth and with a lotus flower within a circle in the centre. The lotus flower (Sanskrit padma) is one of the \"eight glorious emblems\" in Buddhist art\n\n† See reference to this article at p. 73 of this issue. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206660, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "202\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTin Valley is characterized today by the everywhere existent, superbly thriving garden beds.\n\nThe development of intense vegetable farming in the traditional society of China seems to have been linked to the proximity of urban central places with great agglomerations of people. Urban marketing has, so it seems, been a prerequisite for a one-sided specialization on vegetable production. The geographic distribution of horticulture has been limited by one particular cultural barrier. Chinese palate calls for very fresh market goods, and every tendency in the marketed products to perish will considerably decrease the saleable price. Thus transportation to the city markets must be short or rapid. As a consequence, the urban areas were often surrounded by limited zones of intense horticulture.\n\nDuring the latter half of the 19th century, the twin cities of Victoria and Kowloon emerged as a result of foreign intervention and planning. Their growth was related to the attraction the new Colony had on a countryside impoverished under the strain of a fast-increasing population. The appearance of the new urban districts stimulated the interest in the surrounding rural areas, which later were to become New Kowloon and the New Territories, for the cultivation of cash crops. This was within a sector with reasonably good communications to connect with the city markets. According to available information, the start was made on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, where the old villages seem to have taken advantage of the new development quite early. The continuous spread of the network of transportation, initiated after the British territorial expansion to the New Territories in 1898, when new roads were constructed and the Canton-Kowloon railway was laid out through the district, gave rise to new opportunities and the possibility to expand the zone of intense vegetable cultivation beyond the Kowloon Foothills. The Sha Tin valley is located just behind this range of mountains, but, contrary to what one might expect, vegetable farming was not to become important there until recently, in the post-Pacific War period. The obstacle against a switch over to horticulture may be found on the managerial side of production, but this by no means accounts for everything. An important barrier to change may be found in the social values and knowledge of the village population.\n\nIn the Sha Tin valley, paddy fields are still to be seen scattered around in the area. The New Territories are situated in the double-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206862, "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-1973", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nNOTES ON CHINESE TEMPLES IN HONG KONG\n\nE. J. Eitel states in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, published in 1895, that at the time of the British occupation of Hong Kong there were four Chinese temples on the island: one at Ap Lei Chau dating from 1770, one at Stanley, one in Spring Gardens (Tai Wong Kung) and one at Causeway Bay (Tung Lo Wan). He states (p. 190) that after the occupation the Chinese \"commenced building their City Temple (Sheng-wong-miu) on the site of the present Queen's College\".\n\nThe land on which the Shing Wong Temple was built was included within Inland Lot 91. The lot was sold by Government at a public land auction in 1852. It was bought by Floriano Antonio Rangel, a Portuguese bookkeeper in the employ of Jardine Matheson and Company. Rangel owned the entire block bounded by Hollywood Road to the north, Staunton Street to the south, Aberdeen Street to the east, and what became known as Wong Shing Street to the west. In the interior of the block he erected some fifty inexpensive Chinese houses. The complex was variously called Rangel's Row, Rangel's Alley, or Kow Kong Lane. Surrounded by these humble Chinese dwellings stood the Shing Wong Temple. It was somewhat more pretentious than the Tai Wong Kung Temple on Queen's Road East. In the 1865 Rates Schedule, the latter is valued at $120. The Shing Wong Temple's assessed value was $240. But it was considerably less impressive in size and value than the nearby Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road which was assessed at $1,320. By 1876, however, the relative assessed value of the three temples had changed. The Queen's Road East temple property was rated at $144, a $24 increase over the 1865 value. The Man Mo Temple was rated at $20 less than its 1865 assessment. The Shing Wong Temple was rated at double its value in 1865. This suggests that sometime between 1865 and 1876 a major renovation of the Temple had been made.\n\nF. A. Rangel retained ownership of the land upon which the Shing Wong Temple was built until his death in 1873. Three years later the Government bought the property as a site for the erection...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207075, "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-1974", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "140\n\nK. M. A. BARNETT\n\nromanization used by the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (S.S.),\n\n \n 1\n current among boat-people only\n \n \n 2\n current among hill-people only\n \n \n 3\n no longer current, but meaning given by inhabitants\n \n \n 4\n obsolete, but meaning supplied from Man147 glossaries\n \n \n 5\n meaning guessed from locality\n \n \n 6\n meaning still obscure\n \n\nO.S.\n\nS.S.\n\n \n 1\n a 亞Y\n *\n qaas qhaah\n \n \n 2\n au By u\n \n qaau\n \n \n 3\n chai 寨\n \n zraai\n \n\nMeaning or Remarks\n\nIn spite of the variety of characters, the meaning is still given as 'double' and this fits all cases where it occurs: usually of a twin peak, or an island with a low wasp waist and a knob at each end, like Cheung Chau. A pass or saddle: differs from keng (19) in that au need not have a path over it. The two occur in combination. See (14), (59).\n\nOwing to the Hakka pronunciation, au is in many names confused with kau (14) and o (59).\n\nThe meaning of fort or stockade is well-known, but in places where the memory of old fortifications is forgotten the word is often substituted by tsai (100), whose pronunciation in one of the Hakka dialects is similar, or by tez (103). Even where the original spelling and pronunciation are preserved,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207995, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "18\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT\n\nmarks for booty and slaves, along with other places such as Endau on the east coast of Malaya, and Jolo the seat of the sultan of Sulu in the archipelago to the southwest of Mindanao.\n\nNo wonder that 18th and 19th century accounts of Brunei were so uncomplimentary. It was by one account,5 \"a nest of bandits\". Sea captains were warned to keep well away from Brunei:6\n\nThe predatory and treacherous disposition of the inhabitants of the extensive coasts that encircle the great island of Borneo have now discouraged almost every European from venturing to trade there.\n\nthere is no inducement for a ship to touch there or at any other of the bays on the northwest or northeast coasts of Borneo, the natives being inhospitable and perfidious.\n\nAnd the keen observer and writer Spencer B. St. John wrote of Brunei in 1860:7\n\nThe divisions among the nobles themselves prevent them ever uniting to regain an influence over their distant provinces, which one by one are falling from them. There is a poverty among these men which is almost inconceivable in a rich country, as whatever the amount obtained from the neighbouring villages, it can but support the idlers who throng round the chiefs.\n\nBrunei contains at least 25,000 inhabitants, half of whom depend, directly or indirectly, on the nobles, and in their name carry on a system of plunder unintelligible in other countries. If the followers be sent to make a demand on a certain village, they will obtain double the amount for their own shares. If the inhabitants refuse to pay, their children are seized; and if their means are really exhausted, the little ones are carried off into slavery.\n\nI knew a man, named Sirudin, who at one time brought over seventeen children obtained in that way from the people of Tutong, and this occurred during the spring of 1857. The parents laid their complaints before the sultan; but Sirudin had sold them off to the principal nobles, and no redress was to be had. The sultan pretended to be very angry with the man, but put the chief blame on the Pangeran de Gadong, who, he said, was beyond his power. The aborigines have often risen", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208108, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW -LONG ISLAND \n\n131\n\nJunks are the reason for Cheung Chow which only exists to take over their cargoes of fish, salt, or hides, and to supply them in return with all that junks need, ship chandlery and stores, gear of all sorts, and certain amusements for the fisherman, some of them innocent and some not. It stands between Hongkong with its population of some 600,000 persons clamorous for food, and the fishing fleet which cannot afford to lose time beating about in narrow and often becalmed waters under high hills. At Cheung Chow the wind is almost always blowing, but the deeply indented bay and the sheltering spit between the hills give shelter. The junks can run in, unload their catch, revictual or refit, and stand out to sea in any wind, with no delay. The steam ferry carries their fish to the waiting markets for them.\n\nBut the islanders have a second string to their bow for the presence of the ferry has made it worth while to grow vegetables for the same market, and the little glens of the island are terraced to the limit to provide vegetables to the inhabitants and a surplus for that export.\n\nSubsidiary trades have grown up from the same root, if fish can be called a root; fish must be salted and dried, so there is a great trade in salt, though most of the salt which comes into Cheung Chow is not rubbed into the fish there but is re-exported to China.\n\nWhen we have pictured the little land to ourselves, described its climate, the races and tribes of its inhabitants, we will wander along the busy main street, and so take ship and depart from this little place so like some ancient Greek kingdom set in the wine-dark sea smelling of fish, overrun with pigs. Later we will return to see the Moon-cake festival, and after that let someone more capable take up the tale.\n\nThe Little Land and City\n\nCheung Chow is shaped as the photograph shows.*\n\nIt would seem that one of the very numerous saddle-shaped ridges in which Hongkong abounds has sunk here so that the ridge between the two peaks makes a long double beach, only one hundred yards wide at its narrowest. On the Western Side the bay is large and partly sheltered by other islands, but on the Eastern it is open to the sea, and the N. E. Monsoon pours aslant into that bay, and rages against its headlands. So the town turns its back to the\n\n* Not reprinted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208114, "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": 153, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW - \n\nLONG ISLAND\n\n137\n\nthe top sawyer in the neighbouring sawpit, and we pass towards that smithy beneath a banyan tree. The sinuous roots of the tree clutch the rock and strain like the arms of some vegetable octopus, and there just below the hanging threads of aerial roots is a tilt, and a furnace. The anvil is curious enough. There is one of the orthodox Chinese pattern but the other is a shell from some field-gun, goodness knows where it was found.\n\nNow we are in the main street at its more irregular Eastern end, interrupted here and there by sharp right-angled turns, and small shops begin to line the way. On our right a coffin maker plies his trade, and his workshop has a most attractive \"line\" of coffins on exhibition which seem to tempt that Chinese grandfather getting on in life, and thinking of providing for the future. Europeans unconsciously avert our eyes from the varnished glory of huge specimens that look like four tree trunks grown into one, but grand-father regards it with quiet pleasure. Some more blacksmith's shops, and a flight of irregular steps, and we are on the terrace of the temple of the Heavenly Queen, already referred to. This terrace overlooks the bay, and is put to practical use, not only as a point of vantage, but also to dry fish and sweet potatoes, and some strange ambiguous stuff. We can see a junk hauled up on the slip-way which was screened by the houses-hitherto. For all the clumsy upperworks her lines are clean and smooth below water, and her big lifting rudder and centre board appeal to the yachts-men. Those cannon in the bows are not for ornament only, for these seas swarm with pirate junks.\n\nJust now we will not stop to examine the dusty interior of this temple. Instead we descend into the street once more and continue our westward way. Near this place is a small hospital, a series of clean and pleasant courts and pavilions supported by the Kai Fong. This body is the real ruler of the town, elected by street committees and containing representatives of each of the four tribes. In the street a good-natured crowd drifts along. There is a brown-faced fisherman ashore for a stroll, and to buy cordage or food. He loiters before the chandlers shops, and discusses all topics before coming to the real question of the price of that double block and sheave hanging in the dim place under the ceiling. There are villagers carrying loads of vegetables to the pier, shuffling along with two great loads, one at each end of a bamboo resting on a great callous patch on their shoulders. Women are carrying water", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208841, "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-1980", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "202\n\nTo\n\nand\n\nsites were also rendered ineffective by the emperor's golden pen. My knowledge, the elders knew of four sites. One of them was on Tiu Chung Chau at Kau Sai in Saikung. The fungshui of this site was ‘a golden bell hanging on a silk thread'. Every year at the Double-ninth festival, nine buffaloes came to worship at the grave; there was also the sound of a bell being struck. A second site was at Yuen Chau Chai at Kei Leng Ha Village. The fungshui name was 'the general comes down from his horse to drink three cups of wine'. In the middle of the sea, there is Wu Chau (with the adjacent island of Sam Pui Tsau) that resembles a pig, three cups of wine and two cups of tea. Another site was at To Tau Tsui at Wu Kai Sha, which is opposite Nga Chau (usually nowadays called A Chau) in the Tai Po Hoi. The fungshui name was crows going into the ocean. Legend has it that in the old days a mud embankment connected Wu Kai Sha to Nga Chau which sank into the sea after the emperor put down the dragon. The embankment has not been seen again. One more site was on Ap Chau opposite Kat O. The fungshui name was 'precious duck going through the lotus'. The legend is that Ap Chau used to be able to swim between Sam Mun Kan and Mirs Bay. Later, it was blocked by a duck pole, that is, the place currently known as Hak Ngam Kok. After that, when paddy ripened in the Yim Tin Village area near Sha Tau Kok, there was no rice grain on the stalk, because it was all eaten by the duck. After the emperor put down the dragon with his golden pen, the head of the duck... and then there was grain again.\n\nI know about the fungshui of only these four grave sites.\n\nhe cut off\n\nPassage 2\n\nRecorded by Ho Kei Fook\n\n\"An extraordinary person saw that Huang Hsiao-yang [rebel in the Canton area in the early fifteenth century] had features fitting to make him emperor and gave him a bamboo shoot to plant at home. When the 'bamboo grew to the height of his brows', he was supposed to be able to make an arrow out of it which he could use to kill the emperor with and thereby take over the throne. Huang planted the bamboo shoot as he had been instructed and a bamboo stem grew", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209873, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "110\n\nThe very latest is that some enterprising folk of these parts have committed a piracy on a junk there, and five or six of them are up before the District Officer, South, on a committal charge.\n\nAt the northern end of High Island is the interesting feature called the Dry Channel or Kon Mun. It is a fiord formed by the sunken mouth of the valley running northwest by Lan Nai Wan, which is connected on the west with the other channels. Into it has poured the whole of the silt from the upper valley: and as this point is precisely where the two tidal waves sweeping round High Island meet, the silt is heaped up there without any chance of it getting carried away. Nothing bigger than a small sampan can traverse it, and then only at high water.3\n\nLeaving this fascinating island group by the often stormy route past Conic Island and Fung Head, we reach the mouth of Taipo Harbour, with Kang Chau (a little rock built up of volcanic ash beds), Grass Island, with the fishing village of Tap Mun on it, and Port Island. This last island is uninhabited.\n\nThe islands in Taipo Harbour are mostly of sandstone and shale, but are otherwise of little interest. They are Harbour Island, Centre Island, and lastly, the island near Taipo station where the District Officer, North, lives, though since the causeway carrying the road was built, this is no longer an island.\n\nGoing out again round Bluff Head, we come to another island-studded stretch of sea. Three large and sixteen small islands occupy it, and it is a most beautiful piece of water. Double Island, the first you come to, is in two halves joined by a low, narrow neck: the Crescent Island, beside it, is uninhabited, but Kat (\"Lucky Harbour\") Island, not being very lofty, has a good deal of its surface under cultivation.\n\nThere is yet one more island, and this is in some ways the most curious of all. It lies away across Mirs Bay, two miles from the Chinese coast, from which it draws a good deal of its drinking water by means of waterboats. It is called, very appropriately, Pingchau (\"Flat Island\"). When I was there, I did not see any paddy whatever; all cultivation was dry, and often the fields were unterraced and sloping, quite different from other parts of the New Territory, yet the island is populous, in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210182, "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-1984", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "132\n\ntemples.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThe village temples of Hong Kong Island were the centre of community activities at more than a single village level, as elsewhere in South China. A letter from Collinson of 29th April 1845 refers to:\n\n\"a great feast... celebrated in Chuck Chu [Stanley] for the last 3 days, which was nothing more or less than a fair in front of the principal Joss house.\"82\n\nThis \"fair\" was clearly celebrating the birthday of Tin Hau, which falls on the 23rd day of the 3rd moon, which in 1845 was 30th April. A temple fair to celebrate Tin Hau's birthday, still held on the land in front of the main Stanley temple, is still celebrated at that season each year. There can be no doubt, too, that the double festivities at Aberdeen, on the birthday of Tin Hau, and on that of Hung Shing (23rd of 3rd moon), on each of which celebrations the statue of the deity whose festival is not being celebrated is solemnly carried in procession to the other's temple “as a guest”, as a concrete demonstration of the local people's feeling that their prosperity and safety at sea depends on both deities, also date to before 1841.\n\nTemples required management committees, and it was usual for temple management committees to take on, as the Kaifong, the general oversight of the market towns or the community of villages in or near which they stood. The towns on Hong Kong island certainly had kaifongs. A couplet of 1820 in the Tin Hau temple at Stanley was given by the Chik-sze (managers)83 which certainly implies the existence of a management committee at that date. If the tradition that the Pak Tai temple was founded in 1803 by the Hoklo community of Stanley is correct, it is possible that the Kaifong was built around ethnic groups, as was almost certainly the case at that date in Cheung Chau, and which was common later. **Certainly the 1820 Chik-sze are typical of later kaifongs in that, of the eleven Chik-sze named, five certainly, and at least a further two in all probability, were names of commercial enterprises, showing dominance of the kaifong Temple Committee by the market shopkeepers. Equally typical was the likelihood that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210659, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "20 December, 1986: Mai Po and Lau Fau Shan Dr. Richard \n\n14 March, 1987: \n\nIrving \n\nShing Mun Arboretum and Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve James Hayes \n\nBesides the local visits, there were two weekend tours to the city of Foshan in Guangdong organized and conducted by Dr. David Faure of our Council. The May 1986 visit was so popular that it was repeated in December. Arrangements were also made during the year for members to participate in a Bhutan tour for early 1987 arranged by Mrs. Peggy Craig, one of our members and a well-known travel specialist. \n\nThe Council noted the high quality of the programmes and wishes to express its deep appreciation to the lecturers, visit and tour leaders. Special thanks go to Elizabeth Sinn, Chairman of the Programme Sub-committee, and her helpers for such a satisfactory outcome. The Council also wishes to thank the Curator, Hong Kong Museum of History, Kowloon Park, for the regular use of its well-equipped lecture hall, and the assistance of his staff there. \n\nThe Council continue to discuss venues for lectures. Mindful of the fact that not everyone finds it easy or, dare I say natural to go to lectures at the Museum of History at Kowloon Park, Tsimshatsui, we try to find venues on Hong Kong Island. Some suitable places have been suggested, but in most cases require more advance booking than we are usually able to contrive. However, we will try to improve on the position. \n\nAdministration \n\nDuring the year, we benefitted from the conscientious, thoughtful and strong support given by our new Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Rukhshana Daroowala who worked closely with the Hon. Secretary, Mrs. Robyn McLean. It was therefore a double blow when, unexpectedly, Mrs. Daroowala had to leave Hong Kong early in 1987 when her banker husband was posted to Canada, and at more or less the same time Robyn McLean left Hong Kong to return to Australia after fourteen years' residence, the last six of \n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211535, "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-1988", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "228\n\nIt reads in translation:\n\n+\n\n+\n\n\"There are two sorts of rice huller. One is made of wood. The other sort is made of mud. This sort is made with a round bamboo frame, filled with clean yellow mud. Bamboo teeth are pressed into both the upper and lower hulling faces. The upper frame of the huller has a hollow to receive the grain, the capacity of which is double that of a wooden huller. If the grain is at all damp when it goes into the huller, it will be crushed. After hulling 200 shek (E) of rice, a mud huller will start to fall to pieces. Wooden hullers require strong men to operate them, but mud hullers are suitable for operation by women or young people. The ordinary peasants use mud hullers of this type.\"\n\nI am grateful to Mr. Yau for drawing my attention to this description.\n\nJames Hayes\n\nA GLIMPSE OF THE LAND SETTLEMENT AT SHEK PIK VILLAGE,\n\nLANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG\n\nIn the opening years of this century, following the lease of what is now the New Territories of Hong Kong, all land that was being utilised or had been occupied was surveyed by the new government. A Land Court was set up to settle all claims to ownership of land, and any disputes were adjudicated. Finally, a register of ownership for each of the 355 Demarcation Districts was prepared and bound into a folio together with a survey sheet and a Block Crown Lease.\n\nWhilst the work of the survey and land court are well-documented in the official reports of the time,1 few materials showing the process in the villages have survived.\n\nTo my mind, the most interesting of these are the small printed \"chits”, known to villagers and government staff alike as Chi Tsai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211715, "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-1989", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "105\n\nbamboo comes from Vietnam. Saigon Bamboo, as it is often called, has the double advantage of high inflammability and resistance to worm. Not every factory can afford to buy this type of bamboo cane, however, especially those engaging in the production of low-priced commodities. These factories, instead, often use Haifang Bamboo (T), Peihai Bamboo (EV), Shant'ou Hairy Bamboo (€, Phyllostachys edulis) and Formosan Bamboo (A). These sticks are cheaper but their fibrous surface makes the manufacturing processes difficult.\n\nThe second type of bamboo used is called Grass Bamboo (#†, ts’ao chu) which comes mainly from China. The species is more often used to manufacture joss sticks of greater length. The length of this type of joss stick demands a species of bamboo which has the joints wide apart. Moreover, the bamboo exploited must be old and dry enough so that the bamboo core can support the immense weight added to it by the incense powder. As a result, bamboo bark and cambium are very seldom used as they are either too brittle or too slender. Instead, the xylem of old bamboo is used since it alone is hard enough.\n\nIn the field study, it was found that other than three incense wood mills and four factories specializing in the production of incense coils, all the factories used bamboo canes from China as their basic raw materials. Nevertheless, three of them reported the use of bamboo from Singapore as a supplement in the production of higher grade joss sticks. Only one uses the canes from Thailand.\n\nTo prepare bamboo trees for joss stick manufacture, they are first felled into logs, and then cut into canes. The canes must have a square cross-section so that the final products do not flatten out. In addition, the longitudinal cross-section of the canes has to be uniform in order to produce fine joss sticks.\n\nb) Incense Wood Milling\n\nWithin the broad categories of joss sticks and incense coils, incense products can be further sub-classified on the basis of their fragrances. In general, the fragrances of joss sticks include Aloe-scented, Sandal-scented, Cypress-scented, Rose-scented, Lign-aloe-scented, benzoin-scented and scentless. These different kinds of scents come from different kinds of fragrant trees. Today, aloewood is obtained from Aquilaria agallocha which is widely grown in Hainan Island and Annam. Ch'ên-hsiang (D), as it is often called, is not commonly used because it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212666, "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-1991", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "201\n\n# THE RE-OCCUPATION OF HONG KONG\n\n## IN AUGUST 1945\n\n### DAN WATERS\n\nIn May 1992, on a Royal British Legion pilgrimage to Italy to visit graves of comrades killed when my company fought there in World War II, I became friends with ex-company sergeant major John McLaren. We later exchanged letters and he enclosed comments by his stepbrother, a Fleet Air Arm naval rating, about the return of the Allied Forces to Hong Kong in August 1945. From Mr Roland Davidson's comments I have compiled the following. It should be remembered, of course, that recollections can become distorted over half a century.\n\nWhen the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki both the American 7th Fleet and the British 5th Fleet attached to it were at sea ready for strikes at the Japanese mainland. Everyone was delighted that Japan had surrendered. As Singapore and Hong Kong were both holding out the 7th Fleet was dispatched to Singapore and the 5th Fleet to Hong Kong. We arrived quite quickly and American Admiral Bill Halsey lost no time in demanding the presence of the Hong Kong garrison Japanese commander aboard the flagship “Indomitable” on which I was a crew member. One of our aircraft, a Fairy Fulmar if my memory serves me right, was sent to pick this worthy gentleman up. After a short time the plane returned. I might add that our ship was still at sea in a state of readiness.\n\nOut of the aircraft stepped this very well dressed, debonair Japanese army officer who treated the armed marine guard as if it was his guard of honour. Admiral Halsey was none too pleased and called down to the flight deck: 'Bring that man to the \"island\" (the bridge) at the double!' Documents of surrender were placed ready for signature on a small table.\n\nWhen the poor fellow arrived he was asked if he was indeed the Japanese commanding officer. He replied in perfect English that he was in fact the second-in-command. He said his commanding officer had absconded the previous day. The second-in-command was rather arrogant and swanky, and smartly dressed in uniform with high boots which had high heels. Halsey ordered a marine to break off the heel of his right boot who then had to hobble around the bridge and across the decks to the amusement of the ship's crew. I never saw a man's arrogance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213116, "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-1993", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "166\n\nIn good years, like so much of the more heavily populated parts of Kwangtung. In the nineteenth century the Canton and Pearl River areas made up their shortfalls in rice, to a large extent, by imports from outside Kwangtung, but the Sham Chun area was not well placed, and had no deep-water harbours capable of taking ships larger than small junks, and so was not able to use imported rice to the same degree as those more metropolitan areas. For Sham Chun, rice carried from Sha Tau Kok was a matter of life and death. The anti-Customs extract printed above specifically notes problems when 'at the harvest... the crop was carried across the frontier': this was a routine local activity. Salt was less critical, but still important. Most of the salt produced at Sha Tau Kok was carried to Sham Chun for sale, and through Sham Chun to the other significant markets between Sham Chun and the East River. Fresh fish were a luxury. There were plenty of fish in the Deep Bay area, but that bay is shallow and muddy - poor for those species which prefer clean, deep water with a rocky bottom, like garoupas and coral fish. Mirs Bay is deep and full of rocks and coral, its waters are clear and fast moving, and full of high quality fish. These fish, landed at Sha Tau Kok at first light, could be at Sham Chun by nine or ten in the morning, still fresh. A similar carrying trade in fresh fish linked Sha Tau Kok with the markets at Po Kat and Wang Kong.\n\nMost of the fishing ports in the Hong Kong area dealt primarily in dried fish, landed and dried at the port, and then carried inland to be sold at those inland markets far from the sea. Sha Tau Kok was unusual in having a fish trade predominantly in fresh fish, although, of course, some fish were dried there as well. This double trade, in fresh and dried fish, was already established by 1853, as the Basel missionaries make clear:\n\n'A number of people make a sparse livelihood from fishing. They either sell the fish immediately, or dry them first in the sun, and then salt them, which is a method of preserving them for a longer time, and then sell them as salt fish,' 53\n\nThis trade in rice, salt, and fish carried by coolies to the bigger market seven miles away was what made Sha Tau Kok prosperous. It was a surprisingly large trade - about 200-250 tons a month, rising to 400 tons in peak periods, were carried from Sha Tau Kok to Sham Chun in the early twentieth century, while total traffic on the Sham Chun road averaged 20,000 travellers and more a month, and double that at peak periods", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213766, "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-1996", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "89\n\n5%\n\n2.992 females aged 25-30 in 1911, 2,795 in 1921\n\nCensus Report 1911, Table XXI\n\nCensus Report 1921, Tables XXIV-XXVII\n\nBased on a figure of double the female population since the male population is clearly significantly distorted by immigration\n\n* See JW Hayes, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions in Town and Countryside.\n\nHamden, Connecticut, 1977\n\n** Census Report, 1977, Tables IX and X. No detailed breakdown of Place of Birth of the\n\nFloating population is included in the 1911 Census\n\nC. I\n\nThe statistics for Place of Birth in the 1921 Census give a somewhat different picture. There (Census Report, 1921, Table XI) the place of birth of 34,724 Northern District males and 36,311 Northern District females are given, of which only 88% (males) and 82% (females) were born within the New Territories. The sharply higher figures for persons born outside the New Territories seems to be due to three factors. The first is the time of the Census. The 1921 Census was taken during the cooler weather (March-April) as compared with the 1911 Census (April-June). Numbers of stonecutters, itinerant weavers, etc., are likely to have been higher in 1921 as it is known from oral evidence that many of these village-to-village traders went back to their own families in villages outside the New Territories for the summer and harvest seasons, and would thus have been enumerated in 1921 but not in 1911. This is doubtless the reason the 1921 Census shows a far higher figure for males born in Kwai Shun District (997 compared to 354), and also for males from the area north of Canton (241 as compared to 23), although the numbers from Ka Ying and other East River areas were lower (142 as compared to 177). This may also be the reason for higher recorded numbers of males from other inland areas in 1921 (Sze Yap 77 as compared to 25, and Shiu Hing area, 95 as to 19). With the exception of Kwan Shun, all the 1921 figures for these areas show far fewer females than males (Kwan Shun, 1507 females; north of Canton, 1-42; East River, 72; Sze Yap, 16; Shiu Hing, 45). The effects of the Ching Ming Festival, and the remaining 1920 refugees are responsible, almost certainly, for the much higher numbers of San On born males (1213 in 1921, only 243 in 1911), and may in part also account for the increase in Tung Kun males (385 in 1921, 163 in 1911). Most of the difference, however, must be due to a more careful enumeration of the boat people in the area. The higher numbers recorded in 1921 for males born in the Delta (750 as against 234), the Chin Chau area (143 as against 9), Hong Kong (226 as against 10), and Macao (25 as against nil), must be due to this factor. The reduction in the numbers of women recorded as born in Hong Kong (1208 as against 2383 in 1911) may be due to errors in the 1911 record. Because of these differences, it is difficult to compare the two Censuses directly with regard to these statistics. It is considered likely that the 1911 figures are closer to the actual position of long-term land population residents born outside the area. The information in the 1921 Census does not permit any direct comparison with the Place of Birth figures for Southern District in 1911, since the 1921 figures include New Kowloon as well as the Islands.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214061, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "96\n\nThe Shing Mun Valley scheme was started in 1923 and initially a 2km-long 3m-diameter tunnel was driven to Shek Lai Pui. Subsequently, the largest pre-Pacific war reservoir was constructed, which was to double the Territory's total water storage capacity to 27,000 million litres; it was formed by the main Gorge Dam, which was the highest in the old British Empire at that time (1936), and the subsidiary 25m-high earth/rockfill/concrete core Pineapple Pass Dam. The remarkable Gorge Dam, 85m high with a bold and probably unique design, consists of a downstream shoulder of rockfill faced with pitching and an upstream face comprising a slender near-vertical reinforced concrete diaphragm wall supported by a massive concrete thrust block. Between the upper part of the thrust block and the downstream rockfill, there is a narrow wedge filled with sand for the purpose of taking up any settlement of the rockfill and to cater for possible earthquake movement. Any leakage through the upper part of the diaphragm can be observed from an inspection gallery behind it. Elaborate experiments were made to determine the correct design of the reservoir overflow bellmouth in order to reduce vortexing and to neutralise the destructive vacuum forces which could occur at the base of the bellmouth overflow shaft. For this investigative work, the young Geoffrey Binnie was awarded a Telford premium by the Institution of Civil Engineers. Subsequently, preliminary investigations for the Tai Lam Chung scheme were started shortly before the outbreak of the Pacific war, by which time the Territory's population had risen to about 1.6 million.\n\nAs a result of an acute water emergency on the Island, work started on a 300mm steel pipe cross-harbour main in 1929, the sixty-two 30m-long bolted sections taking less than 2 months to lay, and a further 450mm main was laid in 1935. Due to corrosion problems, it was necessary to replace these pipes in 1939 with two 530mm steel pipes, protected with a 12mm-thick cement lining on the inside and a 60mm coating of vibrated concrete on the outside, which were laid on reinforced concrete blocks bedded on rockfill with a protective rubble mound on the east side of the pipelines to prevent damage from dragging anchors.\n\nThese pre-Pacific war water schemes not only involved building dams but also needed construction, often in difficult site conditions, of a multiplicity of extensive catchwaters, tunnels, trunk mains, treatment plants, service reservoirs, pumping stations, and distribution mains in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214330, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "152\n\nIn the next issue, there is again coverage of Chinese events and background. On 19 January 1861, two half-page illustrations show, \"The Peace with China - Reading the Treaty at Pekin\"27 and \"Close of the War with China: Graves of Lieut. Anderson, Private Phipps, and Messrs. De Norman and Bowlby, in the Russian Cemetery, Pekin.\"2\n\nA brief account of a lunch meeting between Lord Elgin and Prince Kung (the two signatories of the Convention of Peking) highlights what British readers would have perceived as the need for the geography lessons which Frederick Stewart was to introduce into the Hong Kong Government Central School by 1870,29 and which - by 1889 - his successor reported as increasingly being adopted into the Hong Kong Village Schools.30 (Prior to this, according to Stewart, there was no geography taught in Hong Kong's traditional Chinese schools.)31 Apparently, Prince Kung commented that until very recently he had not known, \"that India was merely a province of the British empire; they formerly believed Great Britain to be a very small island, the population of which was so large that more than half were obliged to live in ships.\"32 Even as late as 1902, some students in Hong Kong's \"Vernacular Schools\", influenced by a different set of political circumstances, were reported as being, “at the last examination ignorant that Hong Kong was a British Colony: a number hazarded the opinion that it belonged to Russia.”33\n\nIt seems that the withholding of geographical teaching and its content when given were both decisions coloured by politics, whether on the Chinese or the British side.\n\nIn spite of Prince Kung's tenuous respect for the British land mass, the Editor of The Illustrated London News, as published on 19 January 1861, felt that there was sufficient reason for the expression of cautious optimism for the solidity of the peace that had been won: \"There seems to be good grounds for believing that we have at length fairly impressed the Chinese Government with the necessity of good faith in their dealings with us, and a reasonable hope that the treaty will be rigorously observed, leading to an interesting feeling of good will and confidence between our people and the Chinese.\"\n\n34\n\nOn 26 January 1861, the view that the Chinese were now respecting their promises was supported by a full double page spread showing \"The Chinese Bringing to the British Headquarters the 300,000 Taels [approximately one hundred thousand pounds sterling]35 as Compen-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216067, "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": 366, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "300\n\nSilver Island forts. I did not answer his letter, but noted the date thereon and the date on which I received it. I was requested to send an answer to someone in Zhenjiang. I gave the letter to Consul Mowat.35\n\nAs I did not answer Mason's letter he called early one morning and I asked who he was and what he wanted. He replied that he was the United States consular marshal at Hankou and had come down to see the machine gun I had offered to sell to the Municipal Council at Hankou and wished to know if my machine was a single action or double action gun. I showed him the gun and how to work it, and he decided to buy it. He then wished me to send it somewhere on the Yangzi, I said I could not let it go out of my house until it was paid for, and would not deliver anywhere outside the limits of a treaty port unless provided with a special passport or huzhao. Mason then said that he was going to Ningbo and would call for the gun on his return. He did not do so. He went to Hongkong engaged a lot of foreigners, instructed them to come and report themselves to me for duty, etc., etc.\n\nOn Mason's return to Shanghai he brought a lot of firearms he had bought in Hongkong. They were seized, and the men he had engaged were looked after. He himself was introduced by Mr R.E. Bredon, Shanghai Commissioner of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, to the Daotai of Shanghai who invited him to dinner and to witness a theatrical performance as if he, Mason, had been a popular hero.\n\nHe lived in the Central Hotel and was a frequent visitor at the Shanghai Club where he had been introduced by Mr Bredon.\n\nMeanwhile all sorts of tricks were being practised to inveigle me into a trap. Conch shells were blown at all hours of the night about my house under the direction of Mason. A host of extra police officers and detectives were placed on special duty on my property, at the switch-back railway. I suddenly remembered the letter that had been sent me. I thereupon called on Mr acting-consul Mowat and insisted on his reporting the matter to H.M.'s Minister at Beijing. Mowat pooh-poohed the whole thing as a farce and so it proved in reality though very costly and dangerous to me.\n\nInstructions were soon received from H.M.'s Minister at Beijing and Mason was removed from the Central Hotel on the Bund to H.M.'s", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]