RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962
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LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES

95

2 Extracts from the Report are given between pages 181-209 of Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong 1899, (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1900). For this quotation see p. 198. Lockhart was referring specifically to development which was noticeably lacking. The same cannot be said of the population during this period. The evacuation of the coastal areas (1662-69) caused a great disruption to the villages at the time. For a brief mention in English, based on Chinese authorities, see S. F. Balfour, "Hong Kong before the British", an article in T'ien Hsia, Vol. XI, No. 4, 1941, p. 334. In any case there has been a continuous inward flow of both Cantonese and Hakka since then, more especially of Hakka in the 19th century, from which time many of the hill villages in the Colony take their origin.

It is interesting to compare this report with a book on Wei Hai Wei, Lion and Dragon in North China (London, John Murray, 1910) which was written by a junior colleague from Hong Kong, R. F. Johnston (1874-1938) who went to Wei Hai Wei as Magistrate and Secretary to Government in 1904, probably at Lockhart's request. Johnston, later knighted and Professor of Chinese in the University of London was a man of great application and erudition who became tutor to the deposed boy emperor, P'u Yi, (1919-25) and wrote the well-known book Twilight in the Forbidden City, (London, Gollancz, 1934). He was himself Commissioner of Wei Hai Wei 1927-30. His detailed description of Wei Hai Wei, its people and their customs leaves an impression of the striking similarity of life and thought between that remote part of Shantung and this small corner of Kwangtung. The means of government was of course the same, but so also are the ways of doing and thinking which seem, in my own experience, hardly to differ at all despite the different agricultural background. To anyone interested in the Chinese peasant Johnston's book is a mine of information. The annual reports on Wei Hai Wei presented to both Houses of Parliament are, too, an interesting commentary on life in this northern leased territory.

The market towns of the New Territories in 1898 were Tai Po, Yuen Long, Tai O, Cheung Chau, Sai Kung and Tsuen Wan. A despatch of 1905 in connection with the Kowloon-Canton Railway No. 59 dated 11th January 1905 from Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to the then Secretary of State, Mr. Lyttelton gives some figures. Yuen Long had "seventy-four shops of which twenty-five are large and deal in rice, oil, samshu etc. The remainder belong to barbers, doctors, jewellers, vegetable sellers, piece goods dealers etc." Tai Po Market consisted of twenty-three large shops and fifteen smaller ones, Tsuen Wan had a few shops supplying the local needs". No figures are given for Cheung Chau or Tai O with which the railway was not concerned, but an inscription of 1878 inside the grounds of the Fong Pin Hospital at Cheung Chau states that there "used to be over two hundred shops trading here". Lockhart Papers 1899, p. 207 gave Cheung Chau a population of 5,000, whilst Tai O with its fisheries and salt pans was reported to have about 3,000. These were larger towns than Yuen Long (no figure given), Tai Po (280), Sai Kung Market (800) and Tsuen Wan (900). The present New Territories towns were not the largest in the San On district. Pride of place went to Sham Chun, now on the Chinese side of the border, with sixty-one large shops and three hundred and twenty-three medium sized shops, and to Kun Lan Hui, also north of the border which was the cattle centre of the whole district with fifteen large and one hundred and thirty-six medium sized shops. (Enclosure C to No. 59). See Eastern No. 88 Correspondence relating to the Kowloon-Canton Railway (London, Colonial Office, 1907).
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964
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J. W. HAYES

19 The Harbour Master's Report for 1906 in Sessional Papers 1907, p. 130, which presumably gives figures for the whole Colony, states that 1,796 native craft were sunk, and in the majority of cases totally lost. The total loss of life, he said, "must have been excessively high, amounting to approximately 5,000, though there are no positive records to show the actual number that perished". The typhoon was not expected, and a few days afterwards a committee was appointed to enquire whether earlier warning could have been given to shipping. A month later its members opined that "reviewing the evidence as a whole, the committee find that prior to 7.44 a.m. on the 18th September 1906 there was no indication of a typhoon approaching Hong Kong... and warning was given as soon as, in the circumstances, was practically possible." The Report of the Typhoon Relief Fund Committee in Sessional Papers 1907, pp. 277-287, gives no information about Peng Chau, though Table 1, p. 283 may include some Peng Chau craft,

20 The system of credit is briefly described on p. 2 of the Report of the Fisheries Department, Hong Kong Government, for 1946-47.

"The practice of the laans before the war was to obtain control over the fisherman by granting loans to him for the repairing of his boat, buying of new gear, etc. at certain period during the year. In return the fisherman was expected to market all fish caught through the laan who would make appropriate deductions although, in many cases, the laan would ensure that the fisherman never settled the loan and therefore was never free to market his catch through anyone else."

Peng Chau appears to have had several concerns of this type, though they combined their activities in this direction with general shopkeeping. They dealt in a variety of goods and sold also to land customers, besides acting as middlemen for the fishermen's catch and providing them with all their requirements. The big dealers connected with the Peng Chau fishing fleet at the time of the repair tablet of 1878 appear to have been seven Hong Kong laans mentioned on the tablet. This shows that the number of Peng Chau boats was sufficiently large for outside merchants to do business with them, either directly or through the local smaller dealers.

One should not, however, take too narrow a view of the fishermen's position vis-à-vis the laan. The same willingness to allow the fishermen goods on credit, and so run up debts and incur obligations which would ensure that they continued to patronise the same shop or laan, was also extended by shopkeepers to the farmers and townspeople. S. Y. Lan op. cit. gives much detail on laans, some of whom were Tankas.

21 For this information see Hong Kong Annual Report for 1899, pp. 14-15, Colonial Reports, Annual, 1899, No. 314 (London, HMSO, 1901).

22 BCL.

23 BCL.

24 Arthur Waley, The Opium War through Chinese Eyes (London, Allen and Unwin, 1958) p. 101. Orme's Report mentions, p. 44, the diversity of the fishing population thus, "The Hoklos, who are a kind of sea-gypsy, only form a very small section of the land population, some 1500 in all, but much of the fishing is in their hands. Of the junk population, the large majority are Puntis (I assume he means Punti-speaking), and of the remainder some Hakka and some Hoklo."

25 Hong Kong Government Gazette, Government Notification No. 557 of 1901.
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LIN SHU-YEN

1939 “A slight (unspecified) fall in the output compared with 1938" A very successful year as a result of a large increase in price.

Some general figures for the New Territories salt-industry before 1912, not specifically related to Tai O, are given in G. N. Orme's "Report on the New Territories 1899-1912" (para. 71) to be found in the H.K. Government's printed Sessional Papers for 1912. They are as follows:

1900 30 cents a picul.

1908 $1.20 a picul: "salt makers came in for large profits".

1912 70 cents a picul: decrease "chiefly owing to imports from the Northern Coasts".

Orme lists 37 acres of salt pans at Tai O, 32 at Castle Peak, 12 at Shun Wan near Tai Po and less than one acre at Sha Tau Kok. However, at Tai O at least, the area under production at that time was not the total acreage laid out for the purpose. At the survey and land settlement conducted a few years after 1899 a total of 107.07 acres was recorded as salt-pans. These were then (1903-04) five pans, the largest 37.39 acres and the smallest 5.66 acres. The area under production was, it appears, usually less than the total and would vary according to the demand for salt, and the market price. These details are taken from the Block Crown Lease and Survey Sheets in the District Office South.

There is an interesting passage on the manufacture of salt in the New Territories and the uses to which both it and imported salt was put at that time in Colonial Reports Annual, No. 314 Hong Kong, Report for 1899 (London, HMSO, 1901);

"Salt is manufactured at four places in the New Territory, the yearly output being about 4,466 tons, worth some $16,000, which in part supplies the local demands of the population, the fishing junks which keep the fish they catch while at sea in brine, and the various fishing stations where fish is salted and dried. A much larger quantity is, however, imported at certain places for the use of the fleets of fishing junks. The imported salt is also largely used for the salting and drying of fish, for which purpose it seems to be preferred to the locally manufactured salt. The manufacture of salt is an industry which is likely to increase and develop in the New Territory, and which is worthy of being
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NOTES AND QUERIES

161

VISIT TO PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST IN THE

ABERDEEN AREA OF HONG KONG ISLAND

As mentioned in the President's Report printed at the beginning of this volume, this visit took place on 1 April 1967. Nearly 150 members took part, despite the threatening weather, and were rewarded for their persistence by being caught in the open by the first recorded hail-storm for twenty-seven years. The notes prepared for the visit are reproduced here.

I. AN EARLY HONG KONG MILESTONE

One of the early granite milestones of Hong Kong has recently been re-discovered near Aberdeen. It is located on a forgotten and now disused stretch of the original military road from Town to Aberdeen, opened in the first few years after the establishment of the Colony in 1841. It was brought to light through information given by Mr. TONG Kai (), aged 45, of Pokfulam Village. Mr. TONG used to live in the hut which has been built on the site of the milestone. One-third of the stone is actually embedded in the outer wall of the house. This section of the road was only part of the new round-the-island road system.

The annual Colonial Reports on Hong Kong for 1845-46 mention the road. Eighteen miles out of twenty-three were reported completed in the 1845 report. Work had begun on the remaining 5 miles by the time the 1846 report was ready for signature. "For purposes of military protection as well as Police, and for the general traffic and internal communications of the Colony," said the report, "this road is essential". The circular road was not wholly ascribable to the English engineers, as some part of it had already been made by the Chinese and was improved and enlarged.

So far as is known, it is the only survivor of the milestones on this route. When G. R. Sayer wrote his Hong Kong, Birth, Adolescence and Coming of Age published by the Oxford University Press in 1937, there were still six of them in situ—the third and fourth starting from town towards Stanley and the second, third, fourth, and fifth along the road to Aberdeen. This is the only one I have been able to trace, except for one at the Upper Tai Tam Reservoir on the old road to Stanley.
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5

+ + +

the attainment of the objects of the Society may be admitted by the Council to be Honorary Members. In the opinion of the Council, and I am sure it will be the unanimous opinion of the Annual General Meeting also, Dr. Jones qualifies for this highest award we have the power to bestow, on all these grounds.

(c) on the 12th October, the Council agreed "that should Mr. Hayes succeed in being able to go to the 28th International Conference of Orientalists in Canberra in the early part of January 1971, he would be the Society's Representative." (Arising out of this Mr. Hayes did represent us at Canberra, and on his return gave a talk, 15th February 1971, to the Society on the Conference.)

(d) on 14th December, the Council decided that the President should write to the Chairman of the Select Committee of the Urban Council in support of the project that Hong Kong should have a proper museum on a suitable site. This letter was received by the Chairman and his Committee with great pleasure and approval.*

Reports by the Hon. Treasurer and the Hon. Librarian, concerning financial and library matters, will be tabled separately later in this meeting.

Membership. The total number of members on the books of the Society at the end of 1970 was 501. The number of new members joining during the year was 39 (1 Life Member and 38 Ordinary Members), while our loss in membership was 22 (2 deceased, 20 resigned), making a net gain in membership for the year of 17.

The contacts recently made between some of our members either personally or officially and other organizations in the Orient with aims similar to ours, continues. Examples were the visit from members of the Korean branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in November last, and also the contacts recently made between ourselves on the one hand and the 28th International Congress of Orientalists at Canberra, and the National Association of Historians of Asia in Manila,† on the other.

* Subsequently a letter was also sent to the Honourable Colonial Secretary: this is reproduced at pp. 7-8.

† Attended by the President.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972
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SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART

65

present in the New Territories, he was much involved in its administration and in the drafting of proper legislation for its people. His continued interest in the New Territories is revealed in the three excellent annual reports he prepared for the years 1899 to 1901.

In March 1901 Lockhart was taken seriously ill - no doubt as a result of gross overwork and had to leave the Colony under medical orders and did not return until June 1901, when he continued to hold the post of Colonial Secretary but not that of Registrar General. In that same year he was appointed Civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei, the administration of which he assumed on 3 May, 1902. Except for two short periods of leave, Lockhart was to be continuously in charge of Weihaiwei for nearly 19 years. In his report on the New Territories for 1901 he wrote: 'This will be my last report on the New Territories and, in bidding it farewell, I do so with much regret, mingled with pleasant reminiscences of conflicting work carried on in the midst of its charming and beautiful scenery, and lessened by the recollection that I have been and still am a staunch believer in its future.'26 The leased territory of Weihaiwei to which Lockhart now moved resembled in many ways the New Territories, of which he had been the first administrator.

CIVIL COMMISSIONER OF WEIHAIWEI

Weihaiwei was leased from China on 1 July, 1898, as a counterpoise to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur in March of the same year, for Weihaiwei at that date was the only port of any significance in north China available for occupation by a foreign power. Under the terms of the 1898 Convention the port was leased to Britain for as long as Russia occupied Port Arthur. The territory of Weihaiwei was situated on the north-eastern coast of Shantung Peninsula and was formerly a part of the Chinese Province of Shantung. The total leased area was 288 square miles and comprised a belt of land, in the shape of an arc, ten miles wide with a coast line of 72 miles, containing the small village of Ma-t'ou, which was its only port, and some 320 villages, of which only four could be dignified as small market towns. Off Ma-t'ou was the small island of Liukung. In 1902 the population was estimated at 124,000, among whom only one family could be called wealthy, and consisted mainly 'of the orderly, hard working, conservative peasantry of the Shantung Peninsula.'27
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SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART

87

'Report on the New Territory during the First Year of British Administration', Hong Kong Sessional Papers, no. 15 of 1900, pp. 251-263, (same as Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong).

'Memorandum on Land', Hong Kong Sessional Papers, no. 15 of 1900, pp. 266-269.

'Report on the New Territory for the year 1900', Hong Kong Sessional Papers, no. 28 of 1901, 565 (pp. 1-9).

'Report on the New Territory for the year 1901', Hong Kong Sessional Papers, no. 22 of 1902, pp. 553-556.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS AND OTHER DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS

'Census Report 1891', Hong Kong Sessional Papers, no. 30 of 1891, pp. 373-395. Annual Reports of the Registrar General, 1891-1892, 1894-1897, 1899-1900, (all published in the Hong Kong Government Gazette).

Weihaiwai: Report for 1903, Colonial Reports — Annual, London, H.M.S.O. Also: Reports on Weihaiwai for the years: 1904-1916, 1919-1920.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

'Report of the Committee of the Legislative Council appointed to consider the advisability of raising a Public Loan', Hong Kong Sessional Papers, no. 12 of 1892, pp. 187-8.

Reports of the Special Committee on the Po Leung Kuk, Hong Kong, Noronha & Co., 1893.

Report of the Commission to Enquire into the Working and Organization of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong, Noronha & Co., 1896.

Report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the condition of British trade in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1896, pp. 611-613.
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References:

1. Building Reconstruction Advisory Committee Final Report, Hong Kong, 1946.

2. Chadwick O., Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1882.

3. Chadwick O., The Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1902.

4. Commissioner of Census Report on the Censuses of the Colony for 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1961 and 1966.

5. Commissioner of Rating & Valuation Property Review 1971, Hong Kong, 1972.

6. Dwyer D. S. (ed) Asian Urbanisation: A Hong Kong Casebook, Hong Kong 1971.

7. Hong Kong Government "Annual Report of the Colonial Surgeon", The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 4th April 1874.

8. Hong Kong Government "Chinese Houses", The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 27th July 1878.

9. Hong Kong Government Blue Book Reports on Sanitation and Housing, Hong Kong 1907.

10. Hong Kong Government Report of the Commission to inquire into the existence of Insanitary Properties in the Colony, Hong Kong, 1898.

11. Hong Kong Government Report of the Commission Appointed by his Excellency the Governor to Enquire into and Report on the Administration of the Sanitary and Building Regulations Enacted by the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903 and the Existence of Corruption among the officials charged with the Administration of the Aforesaid Regulations, Hong Kong, 1907.
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JAMES HAYES

Sung Hok Pang, 'Legends and Stories of the New Territories, Part III, Kam Tin', The Hong Kong Naturalist, in six instalments between December 1935 March 1938.

'Ts' in Fuk (), being an account of how part of the coast of South China was cleared of inhabitants from the first year of Hong Hei (4) 1662 to the 8th year of Hong Hei 1669', The Hong Kong Naturalist, Vol. IX, Nos. 1 and 2, November 1939, pp. 37-42.

Szczesniak, Boleslaw, The Opening of Japan. A Diary of Discovery in the Far East, 1853-1856 (by Rear Admiral George Henry Preble. U.S.N.). Norman, Arizona, University of Oklahoma Press.

Tronson, I. M., Personal Narrative.... London, Smith, Elder, 1859.

Waley, Arthur, Yuan Mei, 18th Century Chinese Poet, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1956.

Williams, S. Wells, A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1874.

OFFICIAL REPORTS

Annual Departmental Reports from 1946 on, published by the Government Printer, Hong Kong. [ADR]

Administrative Reports, being annual departmental reports, 1909-1940, published by the Government Printer under this head, and bound together in series in the library of the Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong. [AR]

Earlier annual reports by departments bound into Sessional Papers (Papers presented to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong), printed in Hong Kong by the Government Printer and available in the library of the Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong. [SP]

Annual Colony Reports from 1946 on, published in Hong Kong by the Government Printer, [CR]

Hong Kong Hansard. The proceedings of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong were published in yearly volumes under this title from the early 1890s on, by a number of publishers, and the Government Printer after the Pacific War. [Hansard]

In Chinese

Chang lineage of Pui O, South Lantao, Hong Kong ********* * Family Record A. Copied in manuscript in the 1930s from an earlier version.

Chang lineage of Pui O, South Lantao, Hong Kong **4❀❀**❀ **, Family Record (not identical with the above as it came from another branch of the family) ✯✯✯✯. In manuscript. Last compiled in 1927.

Chin Wen-mo (preface) #. Gazetteer of the Hsin-an District ### 13 chuan, revised edition, 1688. [HNHC 1688]

Chou K'uang B, Ch'eng Yeh-chung and others. Summary of historical researches on Kwangtung ★★***. 46 chuan, 1894. [KTKKCY]
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NOTES AND QUERIES 

265 

In the Colonial Surgeon's report for 1873, he remarks that, 

This Institution at present hardly deserves the name of Hospital, in the ordinary acceptance of the word. It does good as a refuge of the destitute ... and in time when their inveterate dislike of European improvements is overcome, may do much more good than it can now.* 

These criticisms were soon picked up by the local English press. They indicate the difficulties the European had in recognizing any values in the traditional methods of Chinese medical practice. 

Year after year in newspaper editorials, letters to the editor and the annual medical reports of the Colonial Surgeon there was pressure for the introduction of western medical treatment. The Chinese replied that the population had no desire to expose themselves to any type of medical care than that to which they were accustomed. They had a strong dread of western medical practice and tried to avoid at all costs the fate of being sent to the Government Civil Hospital where they would be subjected to the attentions of a western trained doctor. In refutation of this claim, a newspaper editorial pointed to the example of the Medical Missionary Hospital at Canton under the supervision of Dr. Kerr, which treated some tens of thousands of patients—many more than passed through Tung Wah in its early years. The editor claimed that of their own free will the people of Kwangtung flocked to Dr. Kerr's Hospital to be treated according to western medical methods. I shall make no effort to delineate the argument further, only to suggest that each side may have had its points. 

At any rate the argument dragged on through the years: the European segment of the population regarding the Tung Wah of those days as little more than an institution similar to an English workhouse for the destitute, where, as the Colonial Surgeon commented in 1874, "the patients get good food and, according to Chinese ideas, very comfortable accommodations". 

The issue reached a crisis when the bubonic plague hit Hong Kong in 1894. It was a week or so before a number of cases of death diagnosed by Chinese doctors simply as "fever" were recognized as the plague. By the time the medical authorities were aware of its presence, 

the plague had a good hold, and when they instituted measures to control it, there was strong opposition in the Chinese 

* The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 1874 p.158, No. 62. Report of the Colonial Surgeon.
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69 

lished in 1884 by ex-pupils and prominent members of the Chinese community as a mark of respect for Dr. Frederick Stewart who had resigned as headmaster in 1881 after nearly twenty years service to the school; and various special prizes especially for proficiency in Chinese.

26 

He was appointed under Colonial Standing Order 3248 of 1884, as from 1st January, 1885, at a salary of $300 per year.

27 The authority for his appointment was CSO2202. His starting salary was $240 per annum.

24 For details of the memorial system and the part played in its genesis in England by Andrew Bell (1753-1832) and Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), see John Lawson and Harold Silver, A Social History of Education in England (London: Methuen, 1973), pp. 241-246.

In one of Eitel's reports on the short-lived Normal School in Hong Kong, he refers to the "Madras-born monitorial scheme of Bell and Lancaster" being adopted at the Central School by Stewart. In Eitel's opinion, this scheme suffered in comparison with the Normal School because it did not include “the special private tuition and instruction”, presumably, in teaching rationale and methods. (CO129/202, p. 532).

In his Annual Report for the year 1866, for example, Stewart wrote: "In my last Report I stated that I entertained the hope of being soon able to overcome many difficulties connected with the school by training Chinese assistants for their work. I then anticipated that I should always be able to retain two of the more advanced boys for a period of at least four years, after which they might, if they chose, find employment elsewhere and be succeeded by the two who stood next to them. The project has all but failed. The demand for the services of the more intelligent of the boys is so great that it is, in the meantime, hopeless to expect them to remain for any length of time. The two in whose case the experiment was tried have both left many months ago, just when they were beginning to be of real value to the school. I shall not, however, abandon the scheme. Out of several, it may be possible to retain some; and, as the knowledge of English becomes more general and situations more difficult to be obtained, the greater will be the probability that these Assistants will remain until, at least, others are qualified to take their place.” (Hong Kong Government Blue Book, 1866, pp. 279-280).

30 The dispute was, in some ways, a continuation of the friction which existed between Frederick Stewart and Eitel after the separation of the duties of Headmaster of the Central School from those of the Inspector of Schools in 1878, first as an expedient measure while Dr. Stewart was on long leave in England and subsequently confirmed on Stewart's return to Hong Kong. Bateson Wright succeeded Stewart as Headmaster of the Central School in 1881. He inherited the bitter relations between the two leading education officers in the Government, but his own, quite positive personality, if anything, exacerbated the situation so much so, that the supervision of the Central School was taken away from the responsibilities of the Inspectorate and a “Dual System" inaugurated whereby the Central School, renamed successively Victoria College and Queen's College, was administered and reported on by its own Headmaster and eventually examined by an independent Board which did not include the Inspector of Schools. The Dual System was kept in being until the retirement of Bateson Wright in 1909, when the Government's educational system was reunited and renamed the Education Department, headed by a Director of Education in place of the Inspector of Schools.11 Stokes (1962), p. 47.

31
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newspapers were to recall that 'he was an exceedingly courteous and popular official and earned the respect of all with whom he was brought into contact' all except Lowson perhaps.

John Jonathan Francis was first admitted as an attorney and solicitor in 1870 and called to the Bar in 1877. In 1887, he became the third barrister in Hong Kong to become a Queen's Counsel. He had served as a police magistrate and a puisne judge. For public service, he was once a captain in the Hong Kong Volunteers Corps, standing counsel for the Hong Kong College of Medicine when it was being established, and Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board. There is an amusing and unflattering story about him told by Norton-Kyshe which gives us an insight into his character. He was presented with a silver ink-stand in 1895 in recognition of his services during the Epidemic but he returned it because he considered himself slighted by the treatment he received as compared with Mr. May who had been his colleague on the Committee.' May was awarded the CMG which Francis thought should also be given to him instead of a mere ink-stand.

However, two other government officials, the Colonial Surgeon and the Captain Superintendent of Police, whose parts were of great importance, apparently escaped Lowson's wrath. Dr. Phineas Ayres held the office for twenty-four years, from 1872 to 1897, the longest ever in the history of the medical service. After he took up his post, he had been very critical of the sanitary conditions in the native quarters in his annual reports. Despite his warnings, it was almost ten years later than Osbert Chadwick was asked to conduct a survey. In his Report published in 1882, Chadwick made many recommendations to improve the conditions. Although a Sanitary Board was constituted to take action, still not much was done for another ten years until the Plague Epidemic burst upon the scene. Endacott wrote that Ayres criticised the Sanitary Board for its 'long, wordy, windy, desultory rambling discussions, ending in nothing being done' in 1895, the second year of the Epidemic. One can see why Lowson had some respect for him. Again quoting from Endacott, Robinson described Ayres as 'having a rather foolish manner, but he is in perfect possession of his senses', and acknowledged that 'he had warned the Colony continuously of the evil sanitary conditions.'

Mr. May won universal acclaim and admiration for the drive and energy he showed in carrying out his duties as head of the police force. Sayers
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2

The name apparently derives from a city in Germany, but records indicated they had for a time lived in Egypt or Turkey before arriving at the China coast.

This study is one-dimensional. I do not have sufficient knowledge nor have I undertaken the necessary research to put the story of the Germans in Hong Kong in a proper international setting or to relate it to the complexities of the internal and external developments of the German states and, subsequently, the German nation. This study is based on Hong Kong sources and hence is seen only from the Hong Kong view. The story could be greatly enlarged and enriched by a scholar with broader knowledge than the present author.

Sources for the study

Documentation of sources is usually of little interest to the average reader but they are important to the scholar who might want to check the facts or further develop aspects of the subject. I am not aware that there has yet been published so detailed a history of the German-speaking community in Hong Kong as the present study. Even so, I have not dealt with the subject in a thoroughly exhaustive way. I have confined myself to data found in Hong Kong and I have not included every detail or fact I have in my files.

Readers who check the notes will find that most of my information is from a limited number of sources: Hong Kong newspapers; the Hong Kong section of directors for China and the Far East; the Hong Kong Government Gazette contains jury lists, annual probate calendars, the medical register, notices of changes in the partnership of firms and authorisation to sign; reports of the Spirit Licensing Board; the China Repository lists of residents on the China coast 1833-1851; Colonial Office records, especially for the World War I period; selected Series in the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, especially those from wills, rates and valuations, and surrendered deeds; and the memorials in the Land Office. With so many references, there may have been some mistakes in transcribing dates and names. I hope these errors are at a minimum.

I should like to express my appreciation to the staff of the Public Records Office, the Secretariat Library, the Special Collections Room at Hong Kong University Library, and to the Registrar General for permission
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
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Canadian products. To counter this competition the British government in 1934 instructed the colonies to institute a system of quotas for 'piece goods containing 50 per cent or more of cotton or of artificial silk, or of cotton and artificial silk combined'. The annual quota allowed in any colony should be the average imports over the years 1927 to 1931." This covered the period before Japanese textiles began to flood into colonial markets. British textiles and empire textiles were excluded from quota, provided that they had 50 per cent imperial content. This measure aroused considerable opposition in many colonies since the poorest customers would be deprived of their only source of cheap clothing for the benefit of the British textile industry. The official majority was used to carry the bill through the colonial legislatures in the face of opposition from the unofficial members. In Ceylon, where elected unofficials had a majority in the legislative council, quotas were imposed by an Order in Council issued by the British government. In spite of its long history as a free port Singapore agreed to impose quotas on imports retained in the colony. Hong Kong refused because of possible damage to its entrepôt trade, much to the annoyance of the colonial secretary, Cunliffe-Lister.52

In 1936 the Colonial Office asked for reports from all colonies on the effects of the quotas imposed two years earlier. The replies from governors indicated that quotas had been generally successful in excluding Japanese and foreign textiles, but this had had very little effect in increasing the trade of Britain and Canada. As happened when discriminatory duties were imposed on rubber shoes the chief beneficiary was Hong Kong. Imports of shirts, singlets and hosiery from Hong Kong had made their appearance for the first time and were now the dominant supplier at the cheaper end of the market." The governor of Jamaica complained that imports of ready-made apparel were driving the local garment industry out of business and suggested specific duties or quotas on Hong Kong textiles on the same lines as the restrictions against Japan.

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After the Ottawa conference other Hong Kong goods besides rubber footwear began to appear in the British market. The Import Duties Act 1932 had allowed free entry into Britain to imports provided that at least 25 per cent of their value was derived from materials grown or produced or from work done within a part of the empire. This provision enabled a number of small manufacturers in Hong Kong who had previously exported their products to China and Asian countries to turn their attention to the British market. Exports of wearing apparel to Britain increased from HK$2,000 in 1932 to HK$498,000 in 1933, and HK$1,169,000 in 1935. Exports of electric torches went up from none in 1932 to HK$30,000 in 1933, HK$128,000 in 1934, and HK$131,000 in 1935." The Board of Trade feared that foreign manufacturers such as Japan were shipping goods substantially
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