[
    {
        "id": 210727,
        "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": 78,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "61\n\n\"Rather a large outlay for Public Gardens but as the Revenue is very flourishing and the object (?) one of general public advantage\n\nHe sanctioned the costs!\n\n+\n\netc.\"\n\nIn addition to the actual cost of the gardens themselves, an extra provision of $3,562.24 was made on November 7th, 1862, \"for the erection of Quarters for the Government Gardener and the foreman of works…\". During the final stages of construction, there were the inevitable changes in plans and, in addition, the ground being levelled was so rugged and rocky, requiring much blasting, that a final supplementary funding was approved on July 13th, 1864, totalling $15,643.98.\n\nIt is difficult to establish who, apart from the Governor, were the people striving to establish the Botanic Gardens, which were comparatively expensive to develop and would, by definition, divert funds from other seemingly more important projects within the Colony. One such person was Dr. H.F. Hance, a distinguished botanist who later became vice-consul at Whampoa, and who played an active role in pushing the project forward. He wrote, for example, to George Bentham of Kew Gardens in November 1859:\n\n“When in Hong Kong, I had a talk with Sir Hercules Robinson (then Governor of Hong Kong) on the subject of a Botanic Garden, and he seemed to look hopefully, I thought, on the prospects of one being established.\"\n\nHis involvement in the project was confirmed later in his obituary, which appeared in the Hongkong Daily Press dated 26th June, 1886:\n\n\"When Hong Kong began to think of establishing a Public Garden, Dr. Hance was consulted as to the suitability of a site, and it was on his recommendation that that was chosen on which the old portion of the Botanic Gardens now rest.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210730,
        "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": 81,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "64\n\nly Australian and Japanese, some also from India.”\n\nIn the first annual report (31/12/1872) Mr. Ford reported that:\n\n\"It is to be regretted that, owing to the want of skilled European assistance, a portion of these Gardens could not be reserved for strictly botanical purposes, and for the formation of a collection of plants peculiar to China, and thus make the Gardens of use to those scientific visitors who make HK a place of call, as well as students who reside in the Colony.”\n\nThe importance of the Hongkong Botanic Gardens as a repository of plants with commercial value to the area had already been stressed by Dr. Hooker in his report to the Kew Royal Botanical Garden in 1871 when he referred to them:\n\nas a means of introducing a multitude of valuable vegetable products which are described by travellers in China, but which are totally unknown in Europe.\"\n\nIn the 1871 report Ford also refers to the construction of a \"chunamed basin\" 18 ft in diameter and 3 ft deep for the growth of a specimen of Victoria regia but there is no further mention of this eye-catching plant in any further reports. This might possibly indicate its inability to grow under Hong Kong's rather unique climate conditions. The report continues:\n\n\"The trees planted consisted chiefly of Banyans, India-rubber trees, Bamboos, Whampee, Litchi, Rose Apple (Jambosa vulgaris) and Longan which were obtained from Nurseries at Canton. A quantity of Chinese Fir Trees (Pinus sinensis) have been raised from seeds for the purpose of planting in the higher and more exposed parts of hills where other trees do not thrive. A quantity of the same kind of seeds have again been collected together with a larger quantity of Casuarina seeds, which have been matured on trees originally raised, I believe, from seeds received from the Mel-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    }
]