[
    {
        "id": 207148,
        "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": 219,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n213\n\nDealings in land and property were a major enterprise in early Hong Kong. An insight into the hazards of real estate speculation is given by George Duddell's testimony before the Land Committee in 1849. He speaks about his purchase of a lot at the south-west corner of Queen's Road West and Possession Street. As we walk along Fat Hing Street we shall be passing the south side of the lot. Duddell states regarding the purchase of the lots in 1844:\n\nThe lot was bought after unprecedented bidding for two hundred per cent on the original upset rental. The circumstances in palliation of my buying it at such a price are, the lot was airy and perfectly level with one rock only to clear it off before building could be commenced, combined with a great demand for houses, and the facility the lot offered to speedily erect them, with the fact I was outbid on all other lots the same day. The buildings were built and tenanted, but within a year they had left for other houses. These houses were void, vagrants plundering even from doors and glass from windows, every grate was stolen. I must hire a private watchman to protect useless property\n\nThe buildings were much damaged by the typhoon of 1848. In November of 1848, I surrendered them to Government. In consequence of requiring a Sailor's Home, I have by petition obtained back the lot, repaired the buildings and put my seamen into it.\n\nThe premises were known as the Circular Buildings. Duddell again surrendered them to the Government in 1850. Not long after, the land was resold to Quoke Acheong, the Compradore of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company. He was a large land owner in this area. On this property and a section he had purchased across Queen's Road, he developed his own business enterprises under the firm name of Fat Hing. The firm gave its name to the lane south of Queen's Road off Possession Street.\n\nUpon the elevated promontory called West Point, Joseph Frost Edgar built a bungalow. In March, 1843, he was admitted as the resident partner of the firm Jamieson, How and Company. He was one of the first two unofficial members of the Legislative Council, serving from 1850 to 1857. An advertisement for the rent or sale of the West Point Bungalow, dated July 19, 1845 (Friend of China), provides a description of one of the early residences in Hong Kong:\n\nA substantial house consisting of two sitting rooms each 30 by 20 feet and in height 17 feet, separated by folding doors, five",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207151,
        "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": 222,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "216\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nthe case of the firms at West Point it was not a good situation in spite of the advantages of its water front. Neither of the firms used their property for a long period. Henry Pybus purchased Marine Lot 58 and the firm of Jamieson How and Company bought the adjoining Marine Lot 57. Both were Calcutta-based firms and both purchased their Hong Kong property at the first land sale in June, 1842. They immediately began to build godowns and residences and were in occupation by the fall of 1842.\n\nBoth Pybus and Jamieson, How and Co. had connections with Yorick Jones Murrow, an old China hand. In 1839 he was the agent at Canton for Jamieson's. Upon the death of Henry Pybus, Murrow succeeded to his business in 1844, and in 1852 he bought the adjoining godown property of Jamieson, Edgar and Co., as the Hong Kong branch of the firm was called. Murrow formed a partnership with James Stephenson to engage in California trade at the time of the gold rush. They developed an extensive trade with San Francisco and arranged for a line of steam packets between it and Hong Kong. The partnership was dissolved in 1854 and Murrow moved to Canton. In 1859, his property at West Point was sold at Sheriff's sale. Two years previous, he had moved back to Hong Kong and became editor and subsequently owner of the Hongkong Daily Press.\n\nMurrow as the \"Laird\" of West Point had a running feud with the Princely Hong at East Point. He used his newspaper as a weapon to attack. He was, of course, the lightweight contestant and several times he was sentenced for libel and for a period operated his newspaper from prison. He left Hong Kong in 1867*. \n\nThe suitability of the area for ship berthing has been mentioned. This feature attracted enterprises connected with the shipping industry. In the 1860's and '70's the shipping industry became an increasingly important feature of Hong Kong's economy, particularly as steam replaced sails.\n\nIn 1851, Thomas Roberts opened the West Point Cooperage and Boat Yard on the lot on the west side of what is now Queen Street. He sold his property to Lee Hing alias Li Sing in 1861. It\n\n* Frank H. H. King and Prescott Clarke: A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), pp. 139-141.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
        "rank": 0
    }
]