[
    {
        "id": 209657,
        "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-1982",
        "page_number": 314,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "292\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe difficulty dragged on into the following year, as we know from the two letters dated 12th March 1879 which prompted this study. In his intelligence report dated 2nd July 1879, Consul Stronach stated, \"I have already reported the refusal of Transit Passes by the Governor of Kwangsi: a rumour has reached this that he has been superseded\" (F.O.228, v.631, p.131). In his next quarterly report, however, he was able to say \"The difficulties in the issue of Transit Passes made by the Governor of Kwangsi have been surmounted, and the actual issue of one has taken place to cover the Cassia Lignea contracted for by Mr. Welsh. The bark is expected shortly.\" He goes on, \"An opening has at last been made of trade with Hongkong, by a small Steamer, the 'Hainan', under the American flag, and Mr. Herton, of Herton, Ebell & Co., a part owner, proposes to settle here and push the venture.\" (F.O.228, v.631, p.158). The main owners of the Hainan were Russell & Co.\n\nThis, however, is not quite the end of the matter. In his Trade Report for 1879, Thomas Piry, Customs Assistant-in-Charge at Pakhoi, reports as follows:\n\n\"The attention of merchants was a little excited in the beginning of the year by the information they received of the issue of Transit Passes. Some determined to try them for the conveyance of Cassia Lignea to this port, an article hitherto prohibited on its market. A contract was in consequence passed with a Foreign merchant. On further consideration, however, the Foreigner backed out, somewhat disgracefully, and left the port. This regrettable affair, enough by itself to ruin the Foreign name in the new place, was fortunately remedied by the kind agency of a Foreign firm, to which not a little credit is due for the action. The contract was confirmed by them, a Pass immediately taken, and the Cassia Lignea was satisfactorily brought down from Kwangsi to Pakhoi. Hence, firstly, the coming of the Hainan to fetch this Cassia.\"\n\nIt seems that Welsh lived up to his name, and perhaps he was the former hotel keeper in Canton who had come to Pakhoi without any definite plans: this would also account for the omission of his name from the 1884 China coast directory.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209659,
        "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-1982",
        "page_number": 316,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "294\n\nG\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nIn 1884 Brenan was H.B.M. Consul at Chefoo. His position in 1880 is not clear from papers to hand, but he appears to have been making official visits to various places on the China Coast.\n\n* China, Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports on trade at the treaty ports for the year 1879. Shanghai, 1880, p. 246,\n\nIbid., p. 247. It was on behalf of one of Thomas Piry's grandsons that this volume of the trade reports was consulted, leading to the discovery of the two letters to W. Keswick.\n\n& Ibid., p. 246.\n\nTHE VILLAGE WATCH IN THE\n\nHONG KONG REGION\n\nBefore 1899 most New Territories villages of any size had watchmen or constables employed by the elders to enforce local rules, and in the bigger villages these may have had permanent employment. Lockhart wrote of “kang fu (kaang foo) or village constables, who are appointed by the village, and paid out of contributions made by the villagers according to the extent of their holdings in land\". He continued, \"Their duty is to keep watch, especially at night. They have the power to arrest, which is deputed to them by the gentry and elders of the village\". Writing four years after the transfer of the New Territories, another official, F. H. May, added a qualification: \"The so called Police really only village watchmen formerly and still in some instances employed by the villagers were only responsible for prevention of larcenies between villagers. They were not held responsible for robberies by outsiders which were supposed to be beyond their power to prevent\".2\n\nThe village watch was still a feature of the local security arrangements in the 1960s. Baker gives an account of it in the Sheung Shui villages of the northern New Territories in the 1960s, whilst Watson mentions it in his book on the Man lineage of San Tin, in an adjoining area. My own notes, which follow, made at Nga Tsin Wai, the last surviving village of central Kowloon, in the mid 1960s also offer some information on the subject.\n\nBefore and after 1899, this old walled village* had an office\n\nthere was no wall as such, but the houses all faced inward, giving the same effect as an enclosure.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    }
]