[ { "id": 205620, "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-1968", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n157 \n\nThe only study of the question which has any pretence to authority is that by Sayer in his work on the first 20 years of Hong Kong under British rule. In that study he makes use of various contemporary descriptions and accounts to fix the site of the first building to which the name 'Government House' has been given on the location of the Victoria District Court at the top of the present Battery Path. Though I do not contest that the site was so used for a period, it would appear that Sayer's conclusion is at variance with other contemporary material which should have been available to him. The problem stems partly from a failure to distinguish between the offices where the Governor performed his official functions and the residences where he lived. When Sir Henry Pottinger, the first Governor, arrived in 1841, he spent one night in a tent. When he returned to Hong Kong after the successful conclusion of the war against China, he lived in a number of houses, though there is positive evidence only about one of them. Though visual evidence from drawings of Hong Kong suggest that he may have resided in a house in the possession of Major Caine, the Chief Magistrate, there is no documentary evidence of the fact and I am not concerned with it; if he did so reside, he must have done so gratuitously, for the Government Accounts of the period do not record any rent payments which might be attributed to this.\n\nSayer is able to state confidently that \"the first Government House has disappeared without trace” as a preamble to his attempt to re-trace it. The Canton Press of January 1842 reported that “a public office to serve as a temporary residence for the head of the Government\" had just been finished. The same newspaper shortly after this referred to this building as \"Government House,\" but added that it had changed its name to the \"Record Office\" since \"the late Acting Governor has been metamorphosed into a Lieut.-Governor.\" The reference is to A. R. Johnston, who administered Hong Kong during Pottinger's absences from the Colony. Sayer concludes from this that the building referred to by the newspaper must have been the house undeniably built by Johnston at the top of Battery Path. He further supports this by pointing out that, on Collinson's Map of 1844, Johnston's House is marked 'Government House.' Lest, however, this should seem to answer the question beyond further argument, I have a few observations to offer.\n\nAs early as the end of 1841, Johnston was writing letters dated 'Government Hill' and there is no doubt that this was the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205693, "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-1968", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "僅\n\nރ\n\n'\n\n***\n\n1000:\n\n* CORTO CALL 900\n\n10-\n\n20 0\n\nMagistracy\n\nL\n\nJ\n\nN\n\nar\n\nVICTORIA\n\nR\n\n00\n\nHarbour\n\nHoust\n\nם\n\nGovernmel House\n\nAcclimatising\n\nBarracki\n\nPost office\n\nProposed site for Church\n\n(\n\nSite of Major Caine's house (inland lot 59)\n\nBuildings erected in 1842 and 1843, sometimes called the 'Record Office'.\n\nSite of the present Government House\n\nMr. Johnston's house on inland lot 82.\n\nPlate 20. Hong Kong, Central District 1843 (see p. 156).\n\nRe-drawn from a Survey Map compiled by the Royal Engineers in mid-1843 in CO129:11, F. 455 (Colonial Office records)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205707, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE COUNCILS IN HONG KONG UP TO 1941\n\nT. C. CHENG, O.B.E., M.A.(LOND.)*\n\n(A lecture delivered to the Branch on 29 April 1968)\n\nOn 5th April, 1843, Her Majesty Queen Victoria granted to Hong Kong a Royal Charter which declared Hong Kong a separate Colony. The main provisions of this Charter, published in Hong Kong in June 1843, included, among other things, the following:\n\n(i) There should be a Legislative Council to be composed of the Governor and of such Public Officers within the said Colony, or of such other persons as shall from time to time be named or designated by Her Majesty for the purpose;\n\n(ii) An Executive Council should be established to advise and assist the Governor, who was authorized to summon as an Executive Council such persons as may from time to time be named or designated by Her Majesty.\n\nIt was, however, not until January 1844 that the Legislative Council first met, being composed of all officials, viz., the Governor (Sir Henry Pottinger), the Lt.-Governor (Major-General D'Aguilar) and the Chief Magistrate (Major Caine). The Clerk of Councils was the Legal Adviser to the Governor (R. Burgass).\n\nMajor-General D'Aguilar and Major Caine were also appointed members of the Executive Council.\n\nIn June 1850 the first British unofficial members were nominated to the Legislative Council. They were Messrs. David Jardine and J. F. Adger, both elected by the unofficial Justices of the Peace. Even at this early period of the history of Hong Kong, dissatisfaction was already expressed, mainly among the British community, with the small number of unofficials serving on the Council. In the case of the Chinese, they were, however, inarticulate because there were then very few Chinese who were educated through the medium of English and who could communicate adequately in that language.\n\n\"Mr. Cheng has been President of United College in The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1963. Prior to that he was in Hong Kong Government service since 1939, his last post being Chief Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205997, "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-1970", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "72\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\nseparate location, namely Taipingshan, for the main part of the Chinese town. This town was apparently to become separate in a way not altogether intended by its creators.\n\nThe question of the Upper Bazaar came to a head towards the end of 1843 when A. T. Gordon, the land officer, decided to meet the demands for building land (and, thereby, augment Government revenue from Crown Rents) by putting up to auction an area which extended from Wyndham Street to Gough Street, thus including the whole of the Upper Bazaar.\n\nGordon informed Pottinger of the land which had been marked out for sale on 22 January 1844 and told him that he intended to remove altogether \"that part of the town known as the Upper Bazaar\" and had marked it out into 27 lots, \"suitable for shops and dwellings either for Europeans or respectable Chinese\". This accorded with the views which Pottinger was persuaded to hold that, as Governor Davis later put it, “it would be very advisable for the interests of the community that the Chinese should be removed, so as to prevent as much as possible their being mixed up with the Europeans.\" Pottinger replied to Gordon that the inhabitants of the Upper Bazaar would be given six months, from 15 January 1844, to remove their houses, the only question remaining being one of compensation.\n\nThough this correspondence was not, of course, public it would have become obvious what was to happen when the Land Sale was held on 22 January, 1844, as many persons bid for lots which then formed part of the Upper Bazaar and on which buildings were standing. The European residents made no comment on the proceedings until it appeared to them that they could use the plight of the bazaar lot-holders as part of the fight against Government on account of the treatment of their own land claims. The Chinese lot-holders themselves were apparently kept in ignorance and claim to have learnt only after the event that their lots had been sold over their heads.\n\nThus, some time after the lots had actually been sold, Pottinger appointed a committee consisting of Major Caine, Chief Magistrate, Gutzlaff, Chinese Secretary to Government, and Gordon, the Land Officer, to consider where the bazaar lots should be relocated and on what terms the lot-holders should be dealt with.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206383, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "174\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe Central Market was formed; and on the other side were some foreign Stores, and a tavern or two. Looking up Aberdeen Street, you saw a few indications of building, and a house on the south of Gage Street, forming the headquarters of a Madras Regiment; and looking up Pottinger Street, you could see the Magistracy and Gaol of the day, where the dreaded Major Caine presided, and below them were two or three other buildings. On from Pottinger Street, a few English merchants had established themselves, and the house which long continued to be known as the Commercial Inn was a place of great resort. On the west of D'Aguilar Street, not then so named, building was going on, and just opposite to it, was a small house called the Bird Cage, out of which was hatched the Hongkong Dispensary. All the space between Wyndham Street and Wellington Street was garden ground, with an imposing flat-roofed house in it, built by Mr. Brain, of the firm of Dent & Co. That great firm had its quarters where the Hongkong Hotel is now, and further on was Lindsay & Co.'s house. All else on the north side of the street was blank, on to the Artillery Barracks, which were building. On the south of the street was the Harbour Master's establishment on Pedder's Hill; and as conspicuous as are now Messrs. Heard & Co.'s Offices, which have been manufactured from it, rose the house of Mr. Johnstone, who had been administrator of the island on its first occupancy. On the Parade Ground was a small mat building, which was the Colonial Church, and above it, about where the Cathedral and Government Offices now stand, were the unpretending Government Offices of that early time and the Post-Office. Far up, if I recollect aright, might be seen a range of barracks, out of which have been fashioned the present Albany residences, and beyond the site of the present Government House was a small bungalow where Sir Henry Pottinger and Sir John Davis after him held their court. Crossing the bridge from the Artillery Barracks, there were some poor buildings for military purposes where the Naval Yard now is, and the houses of Gemmell & Co. and Fletcher & Co., the former of which has since been metamorphosed into the Commissariat Offices. On the right was the General's House, looking much as it does now, and below it was the Canton Bazaar, mainly occupied by troops.\n\nFollowing the bend of the road, one met with a few Chinese houses on the bluff opposite the present Military Hospital, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208234, "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": 273, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "LIST OF MEMBERS\n\nORDINARY MEMBERS:\n\nROHRS, K. R. ROPER, G. W.\n\n+\n\nSALMON, Mrs. P. A.\n\nSAPSTEAD, G. A. G. -\n\nSCOBELL, C. L. -\n\n+\n\nSCOLLARD, Dr. & Mrs. D. M.\n\n+\n\nSCOTT, Dr. I.\n\nSEARLS, M. W.\n\nSHAM, F.\n\n+\n\nSHANNON, Major J. M. -\n\nSHAW, Dr. & Mrs. B. C. -\n\nSHOEMAKER, J. F.\n\nSHU, Dr. H. T. -\n\nSIDNEY, Miss F. A.\n\nSLEVIN, B.\n\nSMITH, F. K.\n\nSO, Dr. C. L.\n\nSTEAD, Miss S. M.\n\nSTEINER, H.\n\nSTEMPEL, A.\n\n++\n\n+\n\n-\n\nSTEWART, Miss J. M. C.\n\nSTRICKLAND, J. E. -\n\n+\n\n+\n\n+\n\n+\n\nFlat 3B, 17 Bonham Road, Hong Kong.\n\nPolice Headquarters, Arsenal Street, Hong Kong.\n\n40 Plantation Road, The Peak, Hong Kong.\n\nMass Transit Railway Corp., G.P.O. Box 9916, Hong Kong.\n\nPolice Headquarters, Arsenal Street, Hong Kong.\n\n257\n\n35 Baguio Villa 14/FL, 550 Victoria Road, Hong Kong.\n\n35 Middleton Towers, 140 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.\n\nEsso Standard Oil (H.K.) Ltd., G.P.O. Box 5369, Hong Kong.\n\n22A, Caine Road 1/Fl., Hong Kong.\n\n1, Salisbury Mansions, Pilgrim's Way, Beacon Hill Road, Kowloon.\n\n72 Middleton Towers, 140 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.\n\n73, Kadoorie Avenue, Kowloon.\n\n70 Mount Davis Road G/Fl., Hong Kong.\n\n18, Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, Hong Kong.\n\nPolice Headquarters, Arsenal Street, Hong Kong.\n\nFlat E2-21 Villa Monte Rosa, 41A Stubbs Road, Hong Kong.\n\nDept. of Geography & Geology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.\n\nFlat 19B, 45 Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong.\n\nGraphic Communications Ltd., Printing House 6/Fl., 6, Duddel Street, Hong Kong.\n\nFlat 18A, 3 Tregunter Path, Hong Kong.\n\n28 Lancashire Road, G/FL., Kowloon.\n\nHongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., G.P.O. Box 64, Hong Kong.\n\nSTUMPF, Dr. K. L., O.B.B, - Lutheran World Federation, Dept. of World Service, 33 Granville Road, Kowloon.\n\nSU, S.\n\nTAYLOR, Mrs. V. V. -\n\nShanghai Commercial Bank Ltd., 12 Queen's Road C., Hong Kong.\n\n14A Piccadilly Mansion, 6 Po Shan Road, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208821, "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-1979", "page_number": 278, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "251\n\nORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS\n\nRYKER, Dr. Harrison Clinton, Dept. of Music, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NEW TERRITORIES.\n\nSALMON, Mrs. P. A., Flat C1, Celestial Gardens, 5 Repulse Bay Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSAPSTEAD, Mr. Gordon A. G., Mass Transit Railway Corporation, G.P.O. Box 9916, HONG KONG.\n\nSCOLLARD, Dr. & Mrs. David M., 35 Baguio Villa, 14/Fl., 550 Victoria Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSEARLS, Mr. M. W. Jr., Dravo Internacional, 901 Hutchison House, 10 Harcourt Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSHAM, Mr. Francis, 22A Caine Road, 1/F, HONG KONG.\n\nSHANNON, Major J. M., 1 Salisbury Mansions, Pilgrim's Way, Beacon Hill Road, KOWLOON.\n\nSHEEHAN, Miss Laura, Impulse Trading, 11 Yuk Yat Street, 10/F, Tokwawan, KOWLOON.\n\nSHU, Dr. H. T., 70 Mount Davis Road, G/F, HONG KONG.\n\nSO, Dr. Chak Lam, Dept. of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG.\n\nSTEAD, Miss S. M., Flat 19B, 45 Repulse Bay Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSTEINER, Mr. Henry, Graphic Communications Ltd., 4th Floor, 57 Connaught Road Central, HONG KONG.\n\nSTRICKLAND, Mr. John E., Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., G.P.O. Box 64, HONG KONG.\n\nSTUMF, Mr. Karl L., O.B.E., Lutheran World Federation, Dept. of World Services, 33 Granville Road, KOWLOON.\n\nSTUNEK, Rev. Howard, O. F. M., St. Bonaventure Friary, 47 Sheung Fung Street, Tsz Wan Shan, KOWLOON.\n\nSU, Mr. Samson, c/o Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd., 12 Queen's Road C., HONG KONG.\n\nSURECK, Mr. Joseph, Flat 11B, 19 Conduit Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSURECK, Mrs. Joseph, Flat 11B, 19 Conduit Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSUSSEX, Mr. C. A., El On Lee Mansions, Mount Davis Road, HONG KONG.\n\nSUSSEX, Mrs. Elizabeth, El On Lee Mansions, Mount Davis Road, HONG KONG.\n\nTANG, Mr. Stephen Wing-Hung, 177 Bulkeley Street, 1st Fl., Hunghom, KOWLOON.\n\nTAVADIA, Dr. Phitoza, Dr. Vio & Partners, Hong Kong Bank Building, Queen's Road Central, HONG KONG.\n\nTAYLOR, Mrs. V. V., 65 Bisney Road, 2nd Floor, HONG KONG.\n\nTHOMA, Dr. Richard A. M., 14 Mount Kellett Road, Mountain Lodge 3-A, HONG KONG.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211184, "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-1987", "page_number": 245, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "220\n\nThe Government faced the vexing problem of compensation to the owners of the fields. This problem still troubles the Government. The compensation to people whose ancestral lands are resumed is a thorny issue.\n\nIn 1844 a three-member commission was formed to consider claims and recommend suitable payment for the land given up. It was composed of the Land Officer, Mr. Gordon, the Chief Magistrate, Major William Caine, and the Chinese Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Charles Gutzlaff.\n\nMr. Gutzlaff did most of the work interviewing the villagers and attempting to ascertain current land values.\n\nThe Colonial Office inquired of the Governor under what circumstances it had been necessary to purchase the land when, with the cession of the island to Britain, all land automatically had become the property of the Crown.\n\nThe Governor explained: “That Rule laid down since the occupation of the island has been that the property of those Chinese who were possessed previous to the cession of the colony should be respected, but none other.\n\n“The land in question is among the oldest under cultivation in the island, being a rich alluvial soil adapted to the growing of rice. It therefore came strictly under this rule.”\n\nThe committee determined to its satisfaction that the price of the second-class paddy land was between $20 and $40 a mow (a Chinese land measure). It recommended the average of $30.\n\nThrough a mistake by the committee in stating the number of mow in an acre, the Government almost blundered into paying three times as much for the land. Fortunately for the Government treasury, but not the villagers, the error was discovered before a settlement was made.\n\nIt took a year to complete the project. The land was surveyed. The owners were compensated and the drainage and undertaken.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 } ]