[
    {
        "id": 206883,
        "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": 160,
        "title": "RAS-1973",
        "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nMCMULLEN COLLECTION OF BILLS OF LADING\n\nAs stated in the Hon. Librarian's report, printed on page 11 of this issue, the most important accession during the year was the collection of nineteenth century bills of lading formed by Rear-Admiral M.A. McMullen, C.B., O.B.E., R.N. (Rtd.),* The bills are for various consignments to and from China ports, and there is a brief description of the collection on p. 37 of the printed catalogue of the Library of the Branch. A calendar with index has been prepared by the Hon. Librarian.\n\n*This was obtained as a gift for the Branch through the offices of Dr. J. R. Jones, Past President of the Branch. The following text of his letter to Mr. Rydings, our Hon. Librarian, explains how this came about:\n\nH. A. Rydings Esq.,\n\nThe Librarian,\n\nThe University of Hong Kong.\n\nHONG KONG.\n\nDear Rydings,\n\nOld Bills of Lading\n\n3 Abermor Court, 15 May Road, HONG KONG.\n\n25th April, 1972.\n\nTwo years ago I had some discussions with Mr. J. G. Young of Messrs. Andrew Weir and Company Limited of Baltic Exchange Buildings, 21 Bury Street, of London E.C.3. concerning a number of bills of lading dating from the time of the Canton Regime. They include Bills of Lading from Jardine Matheson and Company Limited and their predecessors, Magniac and Company and Augustine Heard and Company and others trading in Canton and later in Hong Kong.\n\nThey were owned by Admiral McMullen who wished to find a suitable home for them and I considered that they were of great interest historically and otherwise, and of special interest to Hong Kong, and I have accepted them in the name of the Royal Asiatic Society. I enclose a package concerning these documents and hope that the Society will accept them.\n\nYours sincerely,\n\nJ. R. JONES.\n\nP.S. The owner of the collection of the old bills of lading was Rear Admiral M. A. McMullen who entrusted them to Mr. J. G. Young of Messrs. Andrew Weir and Co. Ltd. with whom I was put in touch by Mr. H. B. Neve, formally of the Bank Line (China) Limited of Hong Kong. Amongst the collection Jardine Matheson and Company appears twice, once as receivers of 10 chests of Opium, whilst Gilmans are also mentioned as shippers of 100 half chests of tea from Shanghai to Hong Kong. There is also reference to Macondray & Co. who are presumably related to the Arm of that name now operating in the Philippines.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207532,
        "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-1975",
        "page_number": 300,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "292\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\ntablets showing a major repair or reconstruction in 1897-98 and 1925-26. A large Roman Catholic chapel, now in ruins, once stood close by. It is shown as being in existence in Father Volonteri's 1866 map of the San On District—see JHKBRAS Vols 9 & 10 (1969 & 1970), pp. 141-148 and 193-196 respectively—but unfortunately receives no mention in Father Ryan's The Story of A Hundred Years. The Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (P.I.M.E.) in Hong Kong 1858-1958.\n\nHong Kong 1975\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nTHE NOON DAY GUN\n\nThe following extract from the Hong Kong Daily Press, January 3, 1870, is not without a historical and for present day residents faced with an increase in our defense contribution—topical interest:\n\nIt is interesting and just to note that the renewing of the twelve o'clock gun firing is due to liberality of Mr. Magniac of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Company, who when the Home Government ceased to provide this small return for the heavy Military Contribution forwarded annually from this Colony, purchased a gun, etc., and had it fixed up at Messrs. Jardine's, where it is fired daily.\n\nNOTE: Herbert St. Leger Magniac was admitted a partner in the firm of Jardine, Matheson and Company, July 1, 1862.\n\nHong Kong, 1975\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nTHE GERMAN CONGREGATION IN HONG KONG UNTIL 1914\n\nA note on \"Bethesda\" and the \"Berliner Frauenverein für China” by Pastor Albrecht Plag appeared in vol. 9 (1969) of this Journal. He there asks where Bethesda was located.\n\nEarly maps of Hong Kong and a search of title in the Land Registry indicates it occupied the site of the present Mid-levels Police Station on the north side of High Street at its junction with Bonham Road. The original lot extended down to Hospital Road. The plot consisted of two Inland Lots numbered 624 and 607.\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212305,
        "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-1990",
        "page_number": 247,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "224\n\ntwelve o'clock gun firing is due to the liberality of Mr Magniac (a partner) of Messrs. Jardine Matheson and Company, who, when the Home Government ceased to provide this small return for the heavy Military Contribution forwarded annually from this Colony, purchased a gun, etc. and had it fixed up at Messrs. Jardine's, where it is fired daily.\n\nAlthough their gun is still at East Point, not far from where Jardine's started trading in 1841, their head office moved to Central District as long ago as 1864. It has been said there is not one field of commerce in which it does not hold a prominent position and its 'tentacles' extend to interests in many other firms.\n\nHong Kong Land\n\nThe Colony's leading businessmen have usually had considerable interests in land, and it was thus fitting that two of them, Paul Chater (later Sir Paul) and James Johnstone Keswick, should be prime movers in the Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Company which was incorporated in 1889. The latter, as Taipan of Jardine's, following in the footsteps of his great-uncle William Jardine, was also founding chairman of Hong Kong Land. James was the first of six Keswicks, spanning five generations, to hold the position.\n\nThe company soon began buying sites and erecting office buildings. Between June 1904 and December 1905 it erected Hong Kong's first 'skyscrapers', five major buildings each of five or six storeys, which dwarfed the two and three-storey structures surrounding them.\n\nHong Kong Land acquired Humphrey's Estate and Finance Company, which owns residential property in Mid-Levels, in 1972, and for 14 years 'Land' had a controlling interest in the Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company. Today, the latter is once again an independent public company. In its centenary year Hong Kong Land owned some six-million square feet of commercial space of which five-million is in the so-called 'Core Central' area. The firm has been described as \"... perhaps the most valuable property company in the world and certainly in the region ....\" Whether this is true is not known. Certainly, today, some Japanese companies hold considerable interests in real estate on a global scale.\n\nL",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
        "rank": 0
    }
]