[ { "id": 211793, "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-1989", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "183\n\nJanuary 27 1874 William Suter's Incompatibility of Temper and Tom Taylor's Masks and Faces or Before and Behind the Curtain opened the season in the New Lyceum Theatre. This one lasted much longer than its predecessor, indeed, until 1929 when it was sold to be resuscitated in the French Concession in 1931.\n\n——\n\nBut to return to pre-1867 conditions, some final notes should be added. Shanghai saw its first tentative steps in lighting its streets with gas in 1865 which was no luxury as the state of the roads was often rather dubious. Lighting in the theatre therefore, both the auditorium and the stage, was by means of either candles or oil lamps, the danger and inadequacies of which require no further comment.\n\n—\n\nRegulation of the climate in the hall was also difficult. Temperatures in Shanghai can be as low as 12°C in January and as high as 40°C in June-August. In order not to deter the audience, heating had to be provided in winter, which was duly advertised: \"Thoroughly warmed with splendid stoves\", whereas in summer which was certainly in the early years an unusual time for entertainment - one could read that \"to obviate the excessive heat of a crowded house, the Company beg to state that they have had two large Punkahs hung and have otherwise improved the ventilation\" (a punkah was a large rectangular fan suspended from the ceiling and moved by servants).\n\nPerformances started generally at 8 o'clock or 8.30 (even 9) (1864-1865) and entry prices were $3 for the best seats and $2 for the other ones (back seats and gallery) (The Mexican dollar, one of the currencies used in Shanghai, fluctuated in value, but may be said to have been worth about 4/6 during these years — so no \"shilling gallery\" here).\n\nIn addition to the godown theatres there were a number of other localities where artistic entertainment occurred in 1865. On February 23 1865 a concert was given at the Astor House Hotel. This hotel had been founded by an American, D.C. Jansen, in 1860 and it was situated in a part of the Settlement known as Hongkew (or American Settlement), north of the Soochow Creek, near the bridge. It was destined to become one of the most famous hotels in Shanghai and it was rebuilt several times. But in 1865 it was still a low construction. Other concerts, on October 17 1864, February 15 and March 1865, were given at the Shanghai Club, a redoubtable pillar of society located at the southern end of the Bund where it was opened in 1864. It was built in a neoclassical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211858, "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-1989", "page_number": 273, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "248\n\n39 NCH 14.3.1863.\n\n40 NCH 2.5.1863.\n\n41 NCH 17.6.1865, 24.6.1865.\n\n42 NCH 28.3.1863.\n\n43 For minstrel shows see: Engle; Toll.\n\n44 NCH 13.2.1864.\n\n43\n\n46 NCH 7.5.1864. cf Dictionary of National Biography, Suppl. 2, Vol. I, p. 545. Here it is mentioned that the touring group was disbanded in 1863, but this is obviously incorrect.\n\n47 NCH 15.2.1862. Could it be that the originator of this Company was the same as \"G.B.W. Lewis\", who built the Astley Amphitheatre in Melbourne in 1854? Cf MacGuire, p. 97, n. 1.\n\n43 NCH 19.11.1864.\n\n49 Smith, p. 243.\n\n50 SCR 5.5.1865.\n\n51 NCH 14.1.1865.\n\n52 SCR 25.1.1865. Probably they first tried their luck in Macao, but there the public interest was very small on February 11 and the next day the performance had even to be cancelled (BGM 13.2.1865).\n\n53 of Appleton, p. 54; about the decline of the benefit system see Troubridge, p. 87ff. 34 Performance 24.3.1852. NCH 27.3.1852.\n\n53\n\n36 NCH 26.1.1856. NCH 28.2.1861. Letter to the \"Daily Shipping & Commercial News\" 27.12.1861; see also NCH 9.10.1858.\n\n47 Carse, p. 70; this was in the 1851-1852 season. Biographical data are given in Fétis, Vol. VII, p. 229; Born in Bordeaux, 11.5.1815; he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, 25.10.1830, where he became a pupil of the famous flautist Jean Louis Tulou. In 1832 he won the first prize in a competition for his qualités précieuses: beau son, reticulation brilliante dans les traits et belle manière de phraser. He spent part of his life in Britain, where he was engaged as the first flautist of the \"Théâtre de la Reine\". This should not read Queen's Theatre (as it is translated by Riemann and others), but Her Majesty's Theatre at the Haymarket. In Fétis it is stated that the theatre closed in 1853; in fact it closed for the season 1852-1853 (Howard, P. 111). Rémusat subsequently returned to France to become a member of the Théâtre Lyrique orchestra (Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique?). Pougin, in the Supplement (Vol. II, p. 403) however doubts this: \"Je ne sais si le fait est exact; en tout cas Rémusat n'aurait pas tardé à retourner en Angleterre, car en 1856 j'ai connu cet excellent artiste à Londres où il occupait une brilliante situation\". He died in Shanghai 1.9.1880. Besides being a soloist he composed a number of concertinos, fantasias, etc for his own instrument.\n\n58 Supplement to Fétis by Pougin, Vol. II, p. 403. of note 57.\n\n59 BGM 4.6.1866, 18.6.1866.\n\n60 Lang, p. 51.\n\n61 A concert of the Philharmonic Society on 26.2.1867 is mentioned in NCH 23.3.1867.\n\n42 NCH 26.2.1859.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212333, "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": 275, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "252\n\n'Mountain Lodge', the Governor's summer residence. Smith was convinced the Peak Tram had a future.\n\nThe original promoters included F.B. Johnson of Britain, F.D. Sassoon of Hong Kong, C.V. Smith of Shanghai, and W.K. Hughes of Hong Kong. Capital for the new company amounted to $125,000 in $100 shares. Construction began in September 1885, when 30 to 40 families customarily spent their summers on the Peak. The Peak Hotel was opened in 1873.\n\nThe Peak Tram consulting committee included Phineas Ryrie, Findlay Smith, A. McIver, J.B. Coughtrie, and McEwen and Company. The project was completed and opened on 30th May 1888. The original tram had 30 seats, the front two of which were reserved for the Governor until two minutes before departure. The steepest gradient is one in two, at May Road, and the original steam engines were not replaced by an electrically powered system until 1926. The ten-minute journey on the cable car provided the only mechanical form of transportation to the 1305-foot high Victoria Gap until Stubbs Road was completed in 1924.\n\nIn 1905, the original firm was sold to the newly-incorporated Peak Tramways Company which included entrepreneurs such as Sir Paul Chater, H.N. Mody (Mody Road is named after this Parsee merchant), Abraham Jacob Raymond, Charles Wedderburn Dixon, and Creasy Ewens. The Kadoorie family has been connected with the Tramway since 1905.\n\nTrams and trains\n\nIn spite of the original 1883 Ordinance, mentioned above, the tramway scheme along the North shore of Hong Kong Island was delayed. It finally opened in 1904. In those early years, trams were a prestige form of travel.\n\nSimilarly, although Jardine's and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank formed a company in 1898, which was granted rights to build a railway from Kowloon to Canton, construction did not begin until 1906 and was undertaken, in the event, by Government. The British section was completed in 1910. By October 1911, the railway opened for through traffic to Canton.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212336, "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": 278, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "255\n\nThe Hong Kong Guide 1893 (republished 1982)\n\nHughes, Richard, Borrowed Place Borrowed Time, Hong Kong and its Many Faces\n\n(London 1968, reprinted 1976)\n\nHunter, W.C., The \"Fan Kwac\" at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844 (republished 1965)\n\nHutcheon, Robin, The Blue Flame, 125 Years of Town Gas in Hong Kong (1987) Hutcheon, Robin, Wharf. The First Hundred Years, 1886-1986 (1986)\n\nIngrams, Harold, Hong Kong (London, 1952)\n\nJardine, Matheson & Company... an historical sketch (undated)\n\nJarrell, Old Hong Kong\n\nJones, Stephanie, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading. The Origins and Growth of the Inchcape Group) (England, 1986)\n\nKing, Frank H.H., The History of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, vols. I to IV\n\nLawrence, Anthony, and Frederick Amentrout, The Taipan Traders\n\nLiu Kwang-ching, Anglo-American Steamship Rivalry in China 1862-1874 (Harvard 1962) Luff, John, Hong Kong Cavalcade (1968)\n\nLuff, John, The Hidden Years, Hong Kong 1947-1945 (1967)\n\nLuff, John, The Hong Kong Story (circa late 1960s) MacMillan, Alistair, Seaports of the Far East (1925)\n\nMorris, Jan, Hong Kong, Xianggang (England, 1988) Murray, Simon, Legionnaire (England, 1980)\n\nPeak Tramway. 1888–1988\n\nPresent Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad, Managing Director W.H. Morton-Cameron, Editor-in Chief W. Feldwick (1917)\n\nRoyal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, journals, various\n\nThe Thistle and the Jade. A Celebration of 150 Years of Jardine. Matheson & Co. Editor Maggie Keswick (London, 1982)\n\nTwentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong. Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China, Editor in Chief Arnold Wright (1908)\n\nWong Siu-lun, Emigrant Entrepreneurs: Shanghai Industrialists In Hong Kong (1988)\n\nUNPUBLISHED BOOKS\n\nBook 1, The Canton Dispensary 1828-1838 Book II, The Hong Kong Dispensary 1841-1862 Book III, A.S. Watson and Company 1862-1886\n\nCOMPANY BROCHURES, LEAFLETS AND MAGAZINES\n\nA.S. Watson & Co., Limited\n\nBrief History: The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation\n\nChina Light and Power Co. Ltd. (annual reports)\n\nDeacon's\n\nThe Elements of Power, China Light & Power\n\nHistory of Hong Kong & China Gas Co. Ltd\n\nHong Kong Bank Group Magazines\n\nHong Kong Land 1889/1989\n\nHong Kong's Noonday Gun (Jardine)\n\nHutchison Whampoa Limited (annual reports)\n\nInchcape: The International Services and Marketing Group A Pictorial History of Hong Kong Electric Standard Chartered News", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212614, "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-1991", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "148\n\nnormal form of exercise was the evening stroll. There is, perhaps, nothing which so readily distinguishes the Chinese from their lugubrious neighbours to the west, the Indians, as their cheerful spirit. That evening the scene was more animated than usual. I could read in the happy faces of the crowd the joy they felt at finding themselves at last no longer alone in the struggle.\n\nArrangements had been made to send the officers of our little group to various parts of the Chinese front to study war conditions. The others had already left, and I was due to leave by air for Kweilin next day. I went down to the island air-strip early in the morning to find several planes just in from Hongkong, with the families of the C.N.A.C. staff who had been living there. The American crews had flown to Kaitak from a field in China, loaded up, and flown out again all at night. Over a cup of bad Chungking coffee they described the events in Hongkong, the bombing of the airfield and the destruction of the majority of the C.N.A.C. planes, caught on the ground by the sudden Japanese attack.\n\nBy and by the covers were taken off the three engines of the old Junkers 52 plane, in which I was to fly, and mechanics started them up. The plane was the last of those belonging to the Eurasia Aviation Corporation, a Sino-German company, the only competitor of the C.N.A.C. The German pilots had been replaced by Chinese. There were a dozen passengers; we clutched our seats a little nervously as the heavy-looking machine accelerated down the runway towards the river only to rise from the ground just before we hit the water. We spiralled up above the Chungking escarpment and flew away over the Szechuan mountains at a steady hundred miles per hour, until we dropped back through a gap in the clouds to see below us the sabre-toothed hills of Kweilin. I was taken in hand by an efficient \"Fu kuan\" (Adjutant) of General Li Tsung Jen's staff and motored into the city, where I found Michael waiting.\n\nMy destination was the 3rd War Zone, the most important of the nine war zones in China. It covered the greater part of the richest provinces, Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, Kiangsi and Fukien: bounded by the Yangtze to the north, the sea coast in the east, Fukien to the south, the area of the 3rd War Zone reached west as far as the Kan river. General Ku Chu Tung, famous for his defence of Shanghai in 1937, was the Commander.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212630, "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-1991", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "164\n\nafter the Tokyo raid and were now being taken to Chungking. That evening we reached Yingtan - in the event we were several days ahead of the Japanese - to be astonished on arrival at the hostel by the sight of a beautiful American girl, nicely turned out, waiting on the doorstep to greet us with a large chocolate cake. She was a newspaper reporter who had escaped from Shanghai and spent several months with the guerillas: she was now on her way to the rear, had heard that some American pilots were due to pass through, and had arranged with the Irish Roman Catholic Father, who was attached to the Mission there and who happened to have some very rare supplies, to make a cake. We explained that the Americans had already passed by on another road, and she then offered us the cake. She was worried lest we should \"steal her story\"! What she thought we would do with it I do not quite know, but we certainly enjoyed the pleasure of her company and the taste of her cake. I never discovered her name, she left along the road by which we had come.\n\nNext day it started to rain; a great advantage as the clouds kept the Japanese aircraft away. On arrival at Shangjao we found that our friends were all absent at their battle stations; we drove straight on to a village to which we learnt our own particular commander, the Army Group Commander, had withdrawn his headquarters. Owing to fifth column activities Chinese generals in the field are always careful to conceal their whereabouts, and it was long after dark before we located him. He welcomed us; I sat in his room as the reports of the fighting came in over the 'phone and a staff officer by candle light marked the enemy's movements with flags on a large map. There had been severe fighting at a key place, called Showchang, where the Chinese troops had successfully resisted for three days but the Japanese were now reported to be using tear gas. The general had had little sleep for several days and was obviously tired; we withdrew as soon as we could after receiving his instructions. We were still 200 kilometres from our camp; the road ran parallel to the front and about twenty kilometres from it. We had heard reports that the road ahead had already been cut, a likely possibility, as the front was by no means continuous, and the Japanese practice was to infiltrate bodies of plain-clothes men well ahead of their troops to seize tactical points and cut communications. However, I was relieved to hear from the general that according to latest reports the road was still open.\n\nThe morrow was our longest day. The road followed along the hillside above a mountain river, and we had not got far when we found the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214478, "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-1998", "page_number": 336, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "ARNOLD GRAHAM 1905 - 1996\n\nDAN WATERS\n\n'No Names, No Packdrill, No Hard Words, No Soft Drinks'\n\n305\n\nBefore Arnold Graham left Hong Kong for New Zealand in 1994, he donated 515 books to our Branch library. Members of our Society remain grateful to Mr Graham for his generosity.\n\nIn late August 1996 his daughter, Mrs Rothay Woodcock, wrote to the Royal Asiatic Society to say her Father was ... just too tired to carry on any longer he literally just went to sleep.' His acute wit\n\n*\n\nremained with him to the end. He was born in Carlisle in 1905 and sailed for Shanghai in 1928. Like many Shanghailanders, in order to complete his full and interesting life, he was forced, when the People's Republic Government came to power in China, to move to Hong Kong in the early 1950s. There, he wrote letters to the Editor of the South China Morning Post under the pseudonym of 'Ancient Gwailo' (his own initials were also ‘A. G.').\n\nIn Hong Kong, as in Shanghai, he worked for the Gas Company and, later, as office manager for Binnie and Partners, civil engineers, on schemes like the Sek Pik Reservoir.\n\nAlthough he had spent the greater part of his life in cities, he always maintained the best place to find God is in a garden. As his daughter wrote, 'It is a pity he won't see the new spring leaves coming out on the trees backgrounding his garden or go down to sit by the sea again'\n\n+\n\nLater Mrs Woodcock wrote to ask if our Branch would like to have some of her father's photographs, maps and papers.\n\nIt is the end of an era. Today, few Shanghailanders (expatriates who lived for many years in Shanghai) are still with us. Sorting out the contents of the cardboard box that his daughter sent to our Branch I am hesitant. It is like intruding into someone's private life. There is a news-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214479, "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-1998", "page_number": 337, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "306\n\npaper cutting recalling the story of his life. Many of the papers and photographs, which have been placed by the Royal Asiatic Society with the Government Public Records Office on permanent loan, could be of interest to RAS members who are undertaking research in relevant fields.\n\nAmong the maps of the Pacific region are some of Japan and Shanghai, one dated 1919. There is also an unusual map (undated) of Shanghai (3 feet x 2 feet 3 inches) which has a 'border' consisting of a large number of small pictures. On the map is printed, 'In this map we have tried to depict for you the history, customs and points of interest in this cosmopolitan city of Shanghai.'\n\nMany of Mr Graham's photographs concern the Shanghai Gas Company. They include group pictures of the staff, both Chinese and Westerners, at farewell parties, group gatherings and the like. In all these pictures no women are present. Most images were taken in the early 1930s, when Arnold Graham, as a young man, was Assistant Secretary. There is one photograph of a smaller group, again of both Westerners and Chinese, where some Chinese men are wearing cheung saams. This is interesting because it was taken in October 1950, one year after the People's Republic Government came to power. There is just one photograph of a group which includes both men and women. This was taken in London in 1957. All are Europeans. It was probably a reunion.\n\nThere is also an album containing a number of snaps of life in Shanghai and China, in the 1930s, and during the Sino-Japanese war. There are also a number of family photographs depicting the lifestyle of Europeans in the Far East between the two World Wars.\n\nWhat did Arnold Graham do in his spare time? He was a keen cricketer and a Shanghai Interporter. There are a number of photographs, of varying sizes, of cricket teams: such as Hong Kong versus Malaya, at Singapore in 1926. There is a picture of the teams, 'Hankow versus Shanghai circa 1930.' There are some pictures taken with people sitting in front of pavilions. Most of the photographs consist entirely of Europeans. In a few pictures, however, there are one or two Chinese who could have been groundsmen. The papers in the box include a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214483, "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-1998", "page_number": 341, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "310\n\n海螺鼠股份有限公司同仁款送秘李必曾達先生田國蜀一九五七年十月二十日 at the Farewell rement from h\n\nfrom Pri Shanghai Cas Company Limited, October 20th, 19304\n\nven to Mr. R. Middleton on the occasion\n\nStaff of the Shanghai Gas Co. in October 1950, one year after the People's Republic came to power. Note that some Chinese are wearing cheung saams and no women are in the group.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215317, "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-2001", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "42\n\nFaure, David, 1986. The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Hong Kong &c: Oxford University Press.\n\nGu jin tu shu ji cheng 4 (The Complete Collection of Ancient and New Matters from Illustrations and Documents). 1885-88 (1726). Compiled by Chen Menglei and Jiang Tingxi. 3rd edition. Shanghai: Major Brothers.\n\nHODOUS, Lewis. 1974 (1929). Folkways in China. Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company.\n\nJing Chu sui shi ji (Records of the Seasons in Jing and Chu). Complied by Zong Lin. Liang Dynasty. In Hubei yunxin yi shutt (Documents on Traditional Morals in Hubei). N.d.\n\nTUN LI-CH'EN. 1987 (1936). Annual Customs and Festivals in Peking as Recorded in the Yen-ching Sui-shih-chi. Translated and annotated by Derk Bodde. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.\n\nTURBAN, HELGA. 1971. Das Ching-Ch'u sui-shih chi, ein chinesischen Festkalender. Augsburg: Dissertationsdruck W. Blasaditsch.\n\nYANG, C.K. 1961. Religion in Chinese Society: A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors. Berkeley: University of California Press.\n\nYiyang xian zhi (Chronicle of the Magistracy of Yiyang). 1874. N.p.\n\nYuanjiang xian zhi (Chronicle of the Magistracy of Yuanjiang). 1807-09. N.p.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215562, "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-2001", "page_number": 339, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "289\n\nIn 1888 the Chinese and Hong Kong Governments reached agreement. Gap Rock Lighthouse would be built by the British and maintained by them. The island remained Chinese territory not to be used for any other purpose. On the Chinese part, the Kowloon Customs was to contribute $7,500 towards the initial cost of the light and $750 annually towards its maintenance.22 The agreement was not put into effect. Towards the close of the nineteenth century, however, the proposal for lighthouses at the two main approaches to Hong Kong, on Gap Rock and Waglan Island, was revived. The previous agreement was then implemented.\n\nIn 1891 a lighthouse was built on Gap Rock, at the south-western extremity of Lema and Kypong Islands. Lighting equipment was constructed in Sweden and the light was first shown in April 1892. Three years later the lantern was smashed by a severe typhoon. According to experts' opinions later the lighthouse should have been built on the northern part instead of the southern part of the rock. But to rebuild it would cost somewhere near $140,000. So, the original light continued to function usefully through forty years of typhoons until the Japanese invasion in 1941.\n\nGap Rock is in the form of two hillocks, about 80 to 100 feet high, and the gap between gave the place its name (in Chinese it is called Man Mei Chau, meaning the last island or Mosquito Tail Island). The lighthouse tower is nearly 50 feet high, and the light is thus about 142 feet above mean sea level. In heavy storms seas broke right over the lighthouse but it stood, as a tribute to its builders and a pointer to the developments which have marked the growth of the port of Hong Kong.23\n\nWaglan Lighthouse\n\nUnlike Gap Rock Lighthouse, Waglan Lighthouse has a different history. It was constructed by a Paris company for the Chinese Customs Light Department of the Imperial Maritime Customs in 1893. It started to operate on 9th May in the same year. It was run by the Chinese Maritime Customs from Shanghai. Following the lease of the New Territories by Britain, in 1898, it was transferred to the administration and control of the Hong Kong Government on 1st January 1901.\n\nWaglan was a First Order light of 45,000 candle-power burning", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]