[ { "id": 206386, "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-1971", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n177\n\nIt ought always to be considerably lower than that, seeing the majority of our population consists of people in the prime of life, and we have hardly any of the deaths of the very old, and not so many of the deaths of children, which are the principal elements in the mortality at home. My belief, however, is that for young people coming out here, who will live regularly, and somewhat abstemiously rather than the contrary, the chances of their living out, and being uninjured by, the years of their sojourn, are quite as good as they would be in London.\n\nReturning from this digression on the health of the Colony, I may observe that before the end of 1843, I moved from the Morrison Hill to a house in D'Aguilar Street, that now forming the offices of Lapraik & Co. It was then a very different house from the present, and hardly half the size, but I had to pay $130 a month for it. Those were good days for parties who had houses to let. In the following year I moved to a house in Hollywood Road, which I had built, and which was subsequently for many years the Printing office of the London Missionary Society.\n\nFrom these two houses I used to walk to the Post Office which I have mentioned, when there was any arrival in the harbour by which I might expect letters. If there were any letters for me I got them; and then the postmaster would say, \"Here are letters also for so and so, and so and so, and so and so, in your neighbourhood. Please oblige me by taking them with you, and sending your coolie on with them.\" We used to get our home-letters then from Bombay by fast sailing clippers.\n\nIt was an era when the \"Lady Mary Wood\" came in with the Mail on the 13th August, 1845. She was the first of the P. & O.'s Mail steamers, and her passengers had been, I think, 55 days on the way from London to Hong Kong. And now have we not the same noble Company's steamers coming in twice a month in much shorter time, and the French steamers, and those of the Pacific Mail Company? Above all, have we not the Electric Telegraph, flashing news almost instantaneously from this to home, from home to this, Ariel-like putting its girdle round the earth? Verily the difference is great between that time and this.\n\nIn the early days there was next to no police guardianship; and the consequences were frequent disorders on the streets during the day, and many burglaries on a great scale during the night.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209284, "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-1981", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG ORIGINS OF DR. SUN YAT-SEN'S ADDRESS TO LI HUNG-CHANG 173\n\neconomic development essential for the strengthening of the nation. The essay was rewritten in Chinese by Hu Li-huan and published in the Hua-tzu jih-pao on May 11, 1887. In this essay, however, Hu emphasized that the well-being of the people was essential to the wealth and power of the nation.\n\nIn addition to knowledge of such writings, Sun's political awareness was further stimulated by his personal observation of the efficiency of the British administration, the law and order which provided basic conditions for economic development and prosperity, the civic freedoms which the citizen enjoyed, and the nature of the open society. These, compared with the corrupt and ineffective administration which he saw at his native village, reinforced Sun's determination to work for change. While he exchanged revolutionary ideas with his close associates, he had also with him the hope of rendering change from above as a possible way of saving China. In his address to Li, the main concern was for the prosperity of the nation and well-being of the people. He did not discuss politics or government administration. This was understandable, as Li was then a high official, and any critical comment on or proposal for change in the existing government would arouse his dissatisfaction which then would defeat the purpose of Sun's presentation.\n\nIn the opening remarks of the letter, Sun claimed that the sources of foreign wealth and power did not altogether lie in solid ships and effective guns. Foreign superiority, as he explained, was built up by the application of science and industrial growth. Four measures were prescribed as essential means of bringing wealth to the nation and well-being to the people. They were full utilization of the nation's talents, better use of land and natural resources, and complete free-flow of goods. These four proposals can be compared with the major areas of reform put forward by Cheng Kuan-ying in the Sheng-shih wei-yen, and they show Cheng's influence on Sun. But in the details of his proposal, it is clear that while some of his ideas were affected by contemporary reformist notions, he was nonetheless influenced by his personal experience and observations in Hong Kong. In emphasizing the full utilization of natural resources, he was echoing the notions that industrial development could only be brought about by the adoption of Western technology. He mentioned in particular chemical products, electricity, hydro-electric power, the telegraph, mining, and textile. His remarks on the ill effects of superstition among the people reflected perhaps his iconoclasm which he twice", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213111, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "161\n\ncontinued without break until 1932, when the street was completely lined with shops on the New Territories side. The border street, however, could not provide sufficient space for all the shops of the market. In 1931, a reclamation project began just west of the town, along the frontier, to allow a second border street to be built. This was completed, and the shops on San Lau Street built, in 1933-1934. This project included a new pier and fish market, and allowed the fish wholesalers in the market to cross over into the New Territories as well. By 1935 only a few shops were left operating in the old market in Chinese territory, mostly those (like the pawnshop, the boatyard, and the opium divan) which could not move because of physical or legal restraints. A terrible typhoon and storm-surge on 2nd September 1937 destroyed most of what was left of the old market: it never recovered.\n\nThe effect on the market of the new frontier was not, however, entirely negative. In 1899 it is unlikely that the town housed more than about 500 people; the 100 Customs staff, 30 or so soldiers, and 25 or so Hong Kong Police who became stationed there represented a significant increase in the town's population. The local market for fuel, vegetables, and daily necessities grew sharply, bringing benefits to both the market shopkeepers and to the villagers. Uniforms required repair, bringing work to tailors and cobblers. Even blacksmiths and carpenters found increased work opportunities. The Customs steam-launch brought new engineering skills to the town, and provided a new market in coal. Shortly after the Customs steam-launch was domiciled in the town, the Sha Yue Chung Ferry took advantage of the presence of these new skills and converted to a steam vessel - one of the earliest regular steam ferries in the New Territories area.\n\nOther modern developments reached Sha Tau Kok early because of the needs of the frontier. Thus, the telegraph line reached the town in 1899, and the telephone in 1900. Electric light was provided to the town in 1933. While the construction of the railway was predominantly due to economic factors, again the needs of the frontier were among the reasons for this early extension of modern facilities to the town. 47\n\nAs in most garrison towns, however, it was the entertainment industry which most benefited from the new frontier. Very soon after the new frontier was established, prostitutes from Hong Kong saw the opportunities, and set up house in the market. From the present-day elders' recollections", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]