[ { "id": 205849, "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": 155, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "149\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n\"BETHESDA\" AND THE BERLINER FRAUENVEREIN FÜR CHINA\n\nThe following is an extract from a letter written on 15th August 1968 to the Hon. Editor by Pastor Albrecht Plag of the German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong.\n\nTo my knowledge, the first foundling house to be established and built in Hong Kong was the one founded by the \"Berliner Frauenverein für China\". This body was formed at Berlin in 1850 under the influence and through the efforts of the German Protestant pioneer missionary to China, the Rev. Dr. Karl Gützlaff whose contribution to the early history of Hong Kong is well known. He is buried at the Colonial Cemetery in Happy Valley.*\n\nThe history of that foundling house, which was named \"Bethesda\", is given (at least up to 1897) in the book Aus der deutschen Mission unter dem weiblichen Geschlechte in China (C. F. Winter'sche Buchdruckerei, Darmstadt, 1889, 3. Aufl. 1897) by Miss Luise Cooper. According to this source, “Bethesda” was designed and built by Mr. C. St. G. Cleverly, the then Surveyor-General for the Hong Kong Government. The dedication ceremony took place on 5th July, 1861. The site was bought for HK$720 by the \"Berliner Frauenverein für China\" (Hong Kong representative at that time: Mr. Ladendorff), probably in 1860 or early 1861. The size of the lot is given as 350 ft. long and 150 ft. wide and the annual crown rent is £23 and 2 sh. per year. It must have been quite a respectable building, situated on a hill overlooking the harbour somewhere in the western part of Hong Kong Island.*\n\nIn 1881, on the same property, just next to \"Bethesda\", the German Lutheran Congregation of the time built their own little church. A few years earlier, they had elected the Rev. E. Klitzke, the then director of \"Bethesda\", as their pastor. However, soon after Rev. Klitzke died (in 1883) that predecessor of our present German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong (constituted in 1965) declined and ceased to exist. Klitzke is also buried at the Colonial Cemetery.\n\n* See Plates 16 and 17, kindly supplied by Pastor Plag.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205850, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "150 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n“Bethesda\" was forced to close down due to the unfortunate consequences of the First World War, and as yet, I have not been able to locate the old \"Bethesda\". Where was its exact location? Are early Hong Kong Government records regarding the lease or sale of land still available for the period concerned (1860/61) and maps showing the land distribution and property rights? \n\nBeing concurrently pastor of the present German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong and chairman of the Ebenezer School and Home for the Blind, which branched off from \"Bethesda\" in 1897 specializing in the care of blind girls, I have a double interest in the question of locating the former \"Bethesda\", an institution connected with the history both of Ebenezer and our German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong. \n\nHong Kong, 1968. \n\nALBRECHT PLAG \n\nTHE COMET OF 1532 \n\nRecently, while working on the biography of Feng En (1491 - 1571) I encountered an interesting problem about a comet. But first let me make a few remarks about the man. \n\nHe came from a family settled in Hua-t'ing, southwest of Shanghai, which had originally belonged to the military category. Somehow he managed to get a sound education and achieve the advanced degree, or chin-shih, in 1526, and receive the appointment of censor in Nanking. While serving in that capacity a comet appeared on September 2, 1532, and continued to illuminate the sky for 115 days, disappearing (according to the section on astronomy of the Ming shih 27/11a) on December 26. This was no ordinary phenomenon. The comet later known in Europe as Halley's, had appeared just the year before (August 5 to September 7, 1531) and lasted only 34 days. The young emperor, Chu Hou-ts'ung (born 1507), and his entire court took it seriously. According to the theology of the day, which went back at least to the second century before our era, and probably many hundreds of years earlier, someone in high office must be to blame. Chang Fu-ching \n\n(1475 - 1539), senior grand secretary, probably following a nudge from the throne, resigned. Feng En, along with a number of other officials, did not consider his resignation enough.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205916, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "Plate 16. Dr. Karl Gützlaff's grave in the Colonial Cemetery, Hong Kong.\n\n(Plates 16-17 by courtesy of Pastor Albrecht Plag)\n\nPlate 17, English tablet on Dr. Gützlaff's grave. (There is also an inscription in German).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "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 } ]