RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881 Editor TIN-YUKE CHAR* Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch Sir: I am submitting a manuscript for publication in your Journal on King Kalakaua of Hawaii and his visit to Hong Kong in 1881. It gives a clear explanation why Hong Kong was chosen as the principal embarkation port for the Chinese labor recruitment to Hawaii. The strict administration of British regulations on emigration, the designation of an honorary Hawaiian consul in Hong Kong, and the reasonable contract between employer and employee signed in Hawaii, as documented in an appendix, all give a better understanding of the good treatment of our Chinese immigrants to Hawaii compared with the abuses in Peru and Cuba. The first reigning monarch to make a trip around the world was King David Kalakaua of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The year was 1881. King Kalakaua, born November 16, 1836, reigned for twenty-three years (1874-1891) until his death in San Francisco on January 20, 1891.† He had already had his first experience travelling abroad in November 1874 when he called on President Ulysses S. Grant in Washington and addressed the United States Congress in fluent English. As a result of this visit, the Hawaiian government was * Mr. Char was born in Hawaii in 1905 and has had a colorful life combining business and education. A graduate of McKinley High School in Honolulu, he received his B.A. degree from Yenching University in Peking and his M.A. from the University of Hawaii, and pursued graduate studies at Columbia University. He then taught, both in Hawaii and in China. In 1938, Mr. Char and his family returned to Hawaii as refugees from the Japanese military invasion of Canton. He spent the next thirty years in the insurance business. In 1952, he became the first person in Hawaii to gain the national professional designation of CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter) in the field of insurance. Always active in community affairs, Mr. Char served on the boards of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Hawaii Congress of Parents and Teachers, the Nuuanu YMCA, and the Board of Underwriters of Hawaii (insurance), among others, and is currently a member of a number of historical societies, including the Hawaii Chinese History Center. Upon retirement in 1969 as president of the Continental Insurance Agency of Hawaii, Mr. Char spent a year on the campus of Chung Chi College, a division of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as a volunteer in student counseling and placement service. Since then, he has devoted his time to historical research and writing. Mr. Char is also the author of The Hakka Chinese: Their Origin and Folk Songs and Chinese Proverbs, both published by the Jade Mountain Press of San Francisco in 1969, and The Char Family Genealogy Book, privately published in Honolulu in 1970. † See Plate 15. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881 93 successful in negotiating a Reciprocity Treaty effective in 1876. This gave Hawaii and the United States duty-free trade with each other. For Hawaii, it meant that sugar and rice, the principal agricultural products exported to America in that period, brought about an era of prosperity to the islands. Hawaii, since its chance discovery by the English explorer, Capt. James Cook, in 1778 in his search for a Northwest passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, advanced rapidly from a primitive, feudal state into a stable monarchy under Anglo-American tutelage. Beginning with King Kamehameha I in 1795, King Kalakaua was the seventh ruler of this tiny kingdom in the central Pacific Ocean, which is over 2,000 miles from San Francisco and 5,000 miles from Hong Kong. By 1898, Hawaii was annexed as a United States territory until 1959 when Hawaii became the fiftieth state of the American Union. Early relations between China and Hawaii started soon after Capt. Cook's discovery in 1778. American and European trading vessels passed by Hawaii on their way to the Pearl River estuary. The sandalwood trade from Hawaii to China flourished from 1790-1840. To the Chinese in the Canton-Macao area, the Hawaiian Islands became known as Tan Heung Shan #2 or Sandalwood Mountains. By the time of King Kalakaua's reign, the Pearl River delta area furnished the principal labor supply for Hawaii's agricultural development and Hong Kong had become the principal port of departure. In 1864, the Hawaiian government started to take an active part by establishing a Bureau of Immigration. The ending of the American Civil War (1861-1865) affected the sugar market favorably for Hawaii. Dr William Hillebrand, newly appointed Commissioner of Immigration, went to Hong Kong and other areas in the Far East in 1865 in search for labor suitable to Hawaii's burgeoning sugar plantations. With the help of the Reverend Wilhelm Lobscheid and the Chinese emigration agency, Wo Hang *, Hillebrand carefully selected 521 Chinese laborers, including ninety-five women and thirteen children, They left Hong Kong in two single-deck ships, the Alberto and Roscote, arriving in Honolulu on September 23 and October 12, 1865.2 Chinese labor, both under contract or as free immigrants, contributed greatly to the agricultural economy of Hawaii. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 94 TIN-YUKE CHAR The 1876 Reciprocity Treaty with the United States increased the demand for labor. The 1876 biennial report of the Hawaiian Minister of Finance furnished some data of government expenditures for its active assistance in importation of Chinese labor. The expenditures for the aid of immigration during that past fiscal period was $8,850; of which $3,850 was to pay the passages for 154 arriving Chinese laborers and $5,000 was advanced to a firm of rice planters, Chulan and Company, who had 210 Chinese laborers on their way from Hong Kong. 3 Letters of credit were also given to Afong and Achuck and to Luke Asiu to assist passages of 400 laborers to come to Hawaii's sugar plantations. The Hawaiian government expected return of the money advanced by an arrangement with the plantations through payroll deductions. Labor conditions in Hawaii were strongly influenced by Christian missionary presence in Hawaii. In the 1882 report of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, it was said that missionaries kept vigilant watch on the treatment of laborers. "A responsibility rests upon the plantations and the Christian public for the moral and spiritual welfare of the Chinese laborers who are not mere chattels but as human beings possessing rational and immortal souls and having the same natural rights as all others. The labor supply problem was one of the concerns that led King Kalakaua to make his historic voyage. With the affairs of his Kingdom in good order, King Kalakaua started on his world trip on January 20, 1881, on the City of Sydney which was then northbound from Australia to San Francisco. Accompanying him were Attorney General William Armstrong and the Royal Chamberlain, Colonel Charles H. Judd. Armstrong was commissioned as Minister of State, which would place him in the same rank as the Cabinet Ministers of any sovereign and entitle him to the respect and courtesies due to that rank. He was also made Royal Commissioner of Immigration to look for "cognate" sources of labor to solve the problem of a depleted native population. Colonel Judd, also from an American missionary family and an 1849 schoolmate of David Kalakaua at the Royal School, joined the Royal party to advise and guide the King on protocol and etiquette. Robert von Oehlhoffen, former German baron and an... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881 97 Peking. The China Merchants Steam Navigation Company had been doing business with Hawaii. Their two steamers, the Ho-Chung ** and Mei-Foo, ✯✯ were used to transport Chinese laborers to Hawaii in 1879 and 1880.* In Tientsin, King Kalakaua was received by Viceroy Li Hung-chang ✶ who asked penetrating questions about Hawaii: "How many islands are there in your Kingdom? Do you have a Parliament? You have many Chinese in your country. Do you treat them well?" The secretary and interpreter for the Viceroy was Li Sun (Tsang Lai-sun, a graduate of Hamilton College in New York.) The King wrote back on April 6, 1881 to William L. Green, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, that he went to North China to see Li Hung-chang "for the purposes I had in view: First, of stopping, if possible, further immigration of Chinese to the Islands [who came alone] without carrying their wives, and Secondly:--to secure for our government the same privileges as granted to the United States Government, the right at any time to restrict, return, or remove, the large influx of Chinese to our islands. On these two subjects our mission has been successful.” The Royal party returned to Shanghai and embarked on the S. S. Thibet for Hong Kong, arriving on April 12, 1881. Already Hong Kong officials had been informed of the King's coming and were ready to extend a royal welcome. Owing to the considerable commerce between Hong Kong and Hawaii, the King was represented as Consul General by a British merchant of high standing William Keswick of Jardine, Matheson and Co. The twelve-oared barge of Sir John Pope Hennessy, the Colonial Governor, also appeared alongside with an invitation asking the King, in the name of Queen Victoria, to be his guest. The Hawaiian King had to adjust his schedule to accept the Governor's invitation for a royal reception at the Government House. As Armstrong recorded in his book, "While we were taking coffee, the next morning, the forts, with seven warships, fired the usual salute of twenty-one guns. From the balcony of the Government House, high above the city, we looked down on a dense mass of smoke, rolling away to the mainland, pierced with the flashing of the guns, the Hawaiian flag ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 98 TIN-YUKE CHAR at the main mast of every war ship. . . . It was a pretty sight, very noisy and warlike.”* The Hong Kong Government Gazette of April 16, 1881, published the announcement with the Chinese and English placed side by side: GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION-No. 131. His Majesty the King of HAWAII arrived in Hongkong on Tuesday evening, the 12th instant, and was welcome to the Colony by the Governor, in the name of Her Majesty Queen VICTORIA. His Majesty, the King KALAKAUA, was accompanied by His Excellency W. N. ARMSTRONG, Minister of State, and Colonel JUDD, Chamberlain, By His Excellency's Command, FREDERICK STEWART, Acting Colonial Secretary. Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 16th April, 1881. 號一十三百一第報憲 署輔政使司史 爲篩論事照得現有 浩德護送前來於本月十二日卽禮拜二晚抵港 夏威儀國大君主加拉嘉華隨帶宰臣士當及司儀長參將 香港總督郎敬用 大英后帝城克多壢阿名迎接登岸爲此特示俾衆週知 一千八百八十一年 四月 十六 示 A tiffin (luncheon) party was given by Mr. Chater, a rich merchant.† Men of all nationalities came to meet the King and his party at this magnificent affair. The King asked Armstrong to take his place and propose a toast to the Governor who later asked Armstrong to write out the speech for transmission to the Home Government in London. Armstrong in his letters back to Foreign Minister Green mentioned, "I must admit having a glorious time with Sir John Pope Hennessy, as he is a man of immense information, great experience, and liberality. . . . Governor Hennessy will * The Hawaiian flag was designed by Capt. Alexander Adams, Englishman, in 1810, with eight stripes for the islands and the British Union Jack in the upper left corner. † See Plate 16. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881 99 kindly put me in communication with the British Minister in Rome so that I can command his good offices. . . . In the matter of decorations. Sir John ranks high among the Colonial Governors of England." And a Grand Cross of Kalakaua was later conferred on him. Hong Kong Chinese merchants who traded with the people in Hawaii came to call on the King, and told him that their countrymen in his Kingdom appreciated the opportunities in the islands and were loyal to the Hawaiian government. At the last State banquet in Hong Kong, as Armstrong reported, "the lifeless air and heavy food made the King drowsy. The numerous receptions and late hours had deprived the King of sleep. His eyelids dropped . . . The Governor's wife was seated on the King's right, and I was seated next to her. I feared a nasal explosion if the King's doze should deepen, and devised ways of preventing it. It was a case of emergency. I whispered to the Governor's wife what my fears were, and asked her aid in preventing a loss of royal dignity. The clever wife of the Governor whispered to me, 'Will any special piece of music waken him up?' . . . She quietly called the majordomo, and in a minute the military band in the balcony filled the air with the music of 'Hawai'i Pono'i' (the Hawaiian National Anthem)." The King woke up and the banquet ended. Page 100 On April 21, 1881, the Royal group left Hong Kong on the ship Killarney for Bangkok. Acting Consul General F. Bulkeley Johnson sent his report to W. L. Green, "His Majesty the King and suite arrived here on the 12th [April] and left on the 21st April for Bangkok on a visit to the King of Siam." And the King and his party travelled to Singapore, Penang, Calcutta, Suez, Cairo, Rome, London, Brussels, Vienna, Paris, Madrid and Lisbon. King Kalakaua, in his July 12, 1881 letter from London, wrote of his meeting with Queen Victoria, “She came up to me and took my hand and then sat on a sofa asking me to sit down on a chair facing the sofa near her. She said that I was making a very long tour. I answered very fluently asked particularly where I learnt English as my accent was perfect." Homeward bound, the group crossed the Atlantic on the S. S. Celtic to New York. Then to Philadelphia, Washington, where he called on President Chester A. Arthur, and overland to California ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 102 TIN-YUKE CHAR APPENDIXES A. Wo Hang Labor Recruitment Contract, June 3, 1865; reproduced from Tin-Yuke Char, comp, and ed., The Sandalwood Mountains: Readings and Stories of the Early Chinese in Hawaii, (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1975), pp. 275-276. B. Hong Kong Emigration Officer's Certificate issued to the Alberto, July 22, 1865; reproduced from The Hawaiian Journal of History, Vol. VI, 1972, p. 151. C. Plantation Labor Contract, 1890, in English and Chinese, to be signed by both employer and employee; reproduced from Char, op. cit., pp. 280-284. APPENDIX A Labour Recruitment Contract, 1865 On 23 June 1865, Dr. Wilhelm Hillebrand for the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society signed an agreement with Wohang Company of Hong Kong for the recruiting of laborers in Hong Kong. Hillebrand, not familiar with conditions in Hong Kong and China, was glad to negotiate with an emigration broker to help him recruit the desired number of strong and healthy workers. Such brokers undertook to recruit emigrants for a fee, to provide food and lodging for them before departure, and to put them on board ships to sail to their waiting employers abroad. It has this day been agreed between the Hon. W. Hillebrand, acting as agent for the Hawaii Government on the one part and Wohang on the other part: That Wohang contracts for the supply of about 500 Chinese emigrants for Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, to be sent by two ships of about equal size, the first vessel has to be dispatched on or before 25th July next and the second ship on or before 20th August next. That the said emigrants must be strong and healthy able to perform field factory and domestic labour, none above 35 years of age, unless he belongs to a family to serve... under a contract drawn up by the Hon. W. Hillebrand in accordance with the regulations of the Hawaii Government. Families are preferable and Wohang engages to procure at least a proportion of Twenty to Twenty-five per cent married women of the whole number of emigrants That a present to the emigrants is given on embarkation at the rate of ($8) eight dollars to each male and ($20) twenty dollars to each female emigrant. That the emigrant must be subject to inspection on embarkation, those found unfit for the purpose required to be rejected. Wohang further agrees: To fit out the ship for fifty-six (56) days passage to the above-named port of Honolulu—to erect berths, to provide water casks and water, firewood, wholesome provisions, ventilators and cooking utensils—to furnish the passengers each with two suits of clothing, one winter jacket, one pair shoes, one bamboo hat, a mat, pillow, and bed-covering. *Interior Dept., Misc.: Immigration-Chinese, 1864-June, 1865 (Archives of Hawaii). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 104 TIN-YUKE CHAR and for which sum the Laborer has signed a note; and in further consideration of the wages and other benefits to him moving, as hereinafter set forth: THE FOLLOWING AGREEMENT HAS BEEN ENTERED INTO BETWEEN THE AFORESAID PARTIES HERETO: THE SAID EMPLOYER, in consideration of the stipulations hereinafter contained, to be kept and performed by the said Laborer, covenants and agrees as follows: 1. To procure for said Laborer proper lodgings and food at Honolulu while waiting for a steamer to go to plantation, and also proper transportation from Honolulu to the aforesaid plantation. 2. To give employment to said Laborer, as an agricultural laborer, for the full period of three years from the date such employment actually begins. 3. To pay or cause to be paid to said Laborer, during said 3 years, wages for each month of 26 days' labor actually performed at the rate of Twelve Dollars and Fifty Cents per month, and out of such wages earned to pay for said Laborer to the Hawaiian Government the sum of $1.50 per month for the first 24 months of this agreement, or in all $36.00, which sum the Government holds to the credit of the Laborer until such Laborer elects to return to China, when the said sum of $36.00, and accrued interest thereon, will be applied to the payment of his return passage, and the balance, if any, given to him in cash. And after 3 years' faithful work not to collect his note for $54.00 for passage money and expenses, but the note of $54.00 shall be due and collectable of the Laborer, if the Laborer deserts his employment at any time before the expiration of this agreement. 4. Also that overtime work exceeding 30 minutes shall be paid for at the rate of 10 cents per hour to the Laborer. 5. During the continuance of this agreement the Employer guarantees to the Laborer the full and equal protection of the laws of the Hawaiian Islands, and to provide the Laborer with unfurnished lodgings, and with water and fuel for cooking purposes, medical attendance and medicines, but no rations, and to pay his personal taxes. THE SAID LABORER, in consideration of the sum of $54.00 lent to him by his said Employer, and in consideration of the stipulations hereinbefore mentioned, to be kept and performed by the said Employer, covenants and agrees as follows: 1. After arrival at Honolulu to proceed to the plantation, there to perform such agricultural labor in the field, or in or about rice or sugar mills, or as domestic servant, as the Employer under this agreement, and under the herein contained terms and conditions, shall direct. 2. During the continuance of this agreement, being the full period of three years from the date such employment actually begins, to fulfill all the conditions of this agreement, and to diligently and faithfully perform all lawful and proper labor, and to obey all lawful commands of his employer, his agents or overseers, and to work during the night and rest during the day, if called upon to do so, and work on all days, but not on days which are holidays and as such recognized by the Hawaiian Government, or on Chinese New Year, the last mentioned holiday not to exceed two working days; but if the said Laborer should be employed in domestic ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 110 TIN-YUKE CHAR Aldersey brought over from her Batavia, Java mission school to become assistant leaders in her Ningpo school. Ruth and Laisun had a family of six children: Elijah, Spencer, Willie, Annie, Lena, and Amy. Chan later left his mission work and went to Shanghai in 1853 where he became quite successful through his connections with an English mercantile firm. On a corner of the American Board's property in Shanghai, he built a school house where his wife opened a girls' school. As he was acquainted with Yung Wing and was qualified, he was engaged to accompany the Educational Mission to America in 1872. He took along his wife and six children. His two eldest sons were ready to enter college in two years and his two eldest daughters received part of their education in England. In 1875 Chan was detached from the Educational Mission and appointed interpreter to Li Hung-chang, Governor-general of Chihli. Thus, he met Hawaiian King Kalakaua in Tientsin in 1881. The February 1887 issue of the Hamilton College Literary Monthly had this letter from Chan, "We all love the United States, for many reasons. Our hearts are still there, although we are back in China. I am in Tientsin, with the well-known viceroy, Si [Li] Hung Chang, as his Secretary, and Interpreter. Annie, our eldest daughter, is married to a Dane, Captain of the Chinese government revenue cruiser; and is the happy mother of a beautiful son. Elijah, the eldest boy, graduated from the Yale Scientific School in 1887. He then went to Freiburg in Saxony, and remained there eighteen months. On his return to China, he was commissioned to open the copper mines in Eastern Mongolia. His prospects are very bright. He was offered the post of chief engineer for the government railroads, but declined to accept it. He is the first scientific engineer China has produced. His field is the largest ever offered to a single individual, for the mineral resources of China are almost infinite.” From Carl Smith's article, it was learned that another son, Spencer Tsang Lai Sun, married Man Kwai, daughter of the Reverend Ho Fuk-tong (1818-71) of Hong Kong. A further lead to more information was given by Chi Wang of the Orientalia Division, United States Library of Congress. In Shu Hsin-ch'eng's Chinese book on Chinese Students in Foreign Countries, the interpreter of the Educational Mission was identified by his official name, Tseng Heng-chung. The same is true in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m THE HONG KONG ORIGINS OF DR. SUN YAT-SEN'S ADDRESS TO LI HUNG-CHANG 169 building up a wealthy nation and a powerful army, and to their laws for social reforms. I also discerned the essentials of current events and changes, and the means of maintaining peaceful relationship with other countries. In addition to the medical training and earlier schooling he received in Hong Kong, by "education abroad", Sun was referring to his schooling in Hawaii. The first Western school which Sun attended was Iolani, and it was an elementary school run by the Church of England in Honolulu, whose staff, except for one Hawaiian, was entirely British. After his graduation from school in 1882, he spent less than a year in a high school, Oahu College, run by American Congregationists and Presbyterian missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands. He was sent back to his native village, Ts'ui-heng, by his brother in the summer of 1883 and enrolled shortly afterwards at the Diocesan Home, a school set up by the Church of England in Hong Kong. The next year he entered the Central School, the first government secondary school in Hong Kong, now known as Queen's College. No record is available as to the class he entered. According to an article in Vol. 37 of Yellow Dragon, the school magazine, Sun entered the school under the name Sun Tai Tseng (Ti Hsiang), at the age of eighteen. He left in 1886 to join the Canton Poh Tsai Hospital as a medical student and then transferred in early 1887 to the Hong Kong Medical College for Chinese. The college was affiliated with the newly established Alice Memorial Hospital, which was set up by Ho Kai, a civic leader in Hong Kong, in memory of his wife. For the next five years, Sun studied under the general supervision of Ho Kai and two Scottish physicians, Dr. Patrick Manson and Dr. James Cantlie. He graduated in 1892 at the age of twenty-six, two years before he wrote the petition. Thus from 1883 to 1892, except for the interval of about half a year in 1886 when he joined the Poh Tsai Hospital, Sun received a major part of his secondary education and then his medical training in Hong Kong. The schools which he attended, the Diocesan Home and the Central School were Anglo-Chinese schools. Since the 1880s, the Hong Kong Government's educational policy had been directed towards the encouragement of the learning of the English language and Western knowledge, and these schools offered subjects such as those referred to by Sun in the opening of his letter. Yet the impact of school upon the mind of a youth like Sun might go much deeper than knowledge obtained from learning in class. The environment or "culture" of the school itself played perhaps a more significant ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 226 to Hawaii. CARL SMITH In calling for support of the proposal, Ho A-mei reflected that when he was a boy there was little business in Hongkong, but after emigration started better times came. Further, while the Governor called the proposed Hawaiian emigrants contract labourers, A-mei suggested that most of the members present came out to Hongkong on contract. To this observation there was a hearty "Hear, hear!” from the taipan "contract labourers" present. The resolution was passed by the meeting. There was still another matter Ho A-mei wished to present to the meeting. He proposed: "That the manufacture of salt be allowed to be carried on in Hongkong." The reason for this proposal was the Government's rejection of an application for the grant of a large waste tract along the shore near Stanley. The applicants planned to convert it into salt pans for the production of salt by evaporation of sea water. Ho A-mei did not understand why the request had been refused, as he felt it would in no way interfere with China's salt monopoly and would give employment to about 300 workers. He mentioned that Hongkong was importing salt from Indochina, but he did not refer to the large quantities of salt which were smuggled from Hongkong into China. He assured the members that the venture would be of great benefit to the Colony. Furthermore, it was the duty of the chamber to encourage all kinds of manufacture. — The chairman of the meeting, William Keswick, head of Jardine, Matheson and Co and a member of the Legislative Council and, as such, privy to certain Government decisions assured Ho A-mei that there was no more need to get sanction for the manufacture of salt than, say, for sugar. He suggested that perhaps the refusal of the land was not because of the purpose for which it was to be used. ================================================================================