RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g CONTRIBUTORS Edwin Haydon is a retired Registrar of the Hong Kong Supreme Court. D.H. Liu is a member of the Society with a deep interest in Chinese opera. Alfred Y.K. Lau is a member of the Society with an interest in early colonial Hong Kong. David Faure is a member of the Society, a noted sinologist and a former Editor of the Journal. He is now with the University of Oxford. Anne and Stephen Selby are members of the Society and noted sinologists. Stephen is currently Director of Intellectual Property of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Richard Webb is a member of the Society and a former Administrative Officer of the Hong Kong Government now in business in the Republic Of Ireland. John Hodgkiss, Ph.D is a member of the Society and the Head of the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong. He is a noted authority on mangroves and kindred flora. R.G. Horsnell is a member of the Society and a Chief Property Services Manager with the Architectural Services Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Keith Stevens, B.A. served with the British Army and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office before his retirement in 1991. He has an abiding interest in Chinese temples and deities and has written numerous articles for the Journal. Dan Waters, M.Phil, Ph.D is a retired Assistant Director of Education of the Hong Kong Government. He is a long-time Member of Council of the Society, and became President in 1997. He has written prolifically on the history and culture of Hong Kong. Peter Vine, LL.D (Hons) is a solicitor in private practice and a prominent resident of Hong Kong since 1947. He is currently, inter alia, President of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Society of Notaries. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT ...... HON AUDITOR'S REPORT vii xxiv ARTICLES: Edwin Haydon - Chinese Customary Law in Hong Kong's New Territories: some Legal Premises.... 1 D.H. Liu - The Peking Opera 43 Alfred Y.K. Lau - An Outline of the Urban Development of Sai Ying Pun in the Nineteenth Century 59 David Faure - The Emperor in the Village: Representing the State in South China 75 Anne and Stephen Selby - China Coast Pidgin English......... 113 Richard Webb - the Use of Hill Land for Village Forestry and Fuel Gathering in the New Territories of Hong Kong 143 NOTES AND QUERIES: John Hodgkiss - Life on the Fringes: The Biology of Mangroves and the Role They Play in Hong Kong 155 R.G. Horsnell - The MacIntosh Cathedrals 171 Keith Stevens - Singapore's Disappearing Temples and The Decline and Apparent Demise of a Popular Religion Cult 181 Keith Stevens - Two Groups of Chinese Deities Rarely Seen on Chinese Altars ........... 187 Dan Waters - The Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War: Labourers Buried in France 199 Peter Vine - Experiences as a War Crimes Prosecutor in Hong Kong. BOOK REVIEW vi 205 217 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g ARTICLES CHINESE CUSTOMARY LAW IN HONGKONG'S NEW TERRITORIES. SOME LEGAL PREMISES. EDWIN HAYDON Last year [1961—Editor] the legislation regulating the New Territories of Hong Kong was amended1 and jurisdiction was conferred on the Supreme Court of Hong Kong and on the District Courts subordinate to it. "to hear and determine all questions and disputes at law or in equity in connexion with or in anywise arising out of or regarding any land in the New Territories." At the same time the Land Officer was divested of his former powers to decide questions of land in the New Territories summarily,3 and District Officers were divested of the summary jurisdiction, which for many years4 they had exercised in Small Debts Courts, in actions or matters where the claim, debt or damages sought to be recovered did not exceed one thousand dollars. Since 1953 the District Courts had exercised a concurrent jurisdiction with the Small Debts Courts in such actions. The effect, therefore, of this amending legislation was to confer from henceforth exclusive jurisdiction in all proceedings arising in the New Territories on the courts of law staffed by the professional Judiciary. Section 17 of the New Territories Ordinance reads: "In any proceedings in the Supreme Court or the District Court in relation to land in the New Territories, the court shall have power to recognize and enforce any Chinese custom or customary right affecting such land. So much is clear in respect of land cases, but in respect of other proceedings which may involve Chinese custom or customary right one must search further back to the source from which the British Crown's rights in the New Territories spring. ================================================================================