RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811
98

HOLMES WELCH

43 Reichelt quotes a warning by the late Ming monk, Hsi-ming, against "being deceived into joining the Catholic church or some other outside sect,” and states that it was often reprinted (Truth and Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai, 1927, pp. 157-158).

44 It was in 1920 that Reichelt first proposed an "institute for special work among the Buddhists." He wanted to make contact with monks whose hearts were filled with bitterness towards Christianity because some Christians were "so fatally lacking in a sympathetic and gentle attitude towards others." It was to be "a half-way house" with many of the features of a Buddhist monastery, including a wandering monks' hall, a meditation hall, a bell tower, a crematorium, and a hall for the aged. See K. L. Reichelt, "Special Work among Chinese Buddhists" Chinese Recorder 51.7 (July 1920), 491-497. When it finally went into operation, under the name of the "Christian Mission to the Buddhists," in the autumn of 1922, it had only a "very small, semi-foreign house." After a year and a half, it moved to somewhat larger quarters which included a dining room, where vegetarian meals were served, and the all-important "pilgrims hall" where monks were allowed to put up for three days (as they would be at a Buddhist temple) and stay longer if they were interested in serious study. The layout was "just as in monasteries with two long platforms where they can spread their bedding, and, above them, shelves where they can place their things. Between the two platforms, there is an altar with an incense burner and two candlesticks and above all an impressive crucifix." Even more significant was the arrangement of the chapel, to which they were summoned for worship twice a day (as they would be in a monastery) by "a Chinese bell with deep tones." The altar was of red lacquer "in a true Chinese style," adorned with gilt designs that included the following: "the lotus lily symbolizing the purity, the fire, and the water of the cleansing spirit” (but also, of course, symbolizing the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land), "the swastika of peace and cosmic union" (but also one of the Buddha's sacred marks and a general symbol for Buddhism), and the cross over a lotus, which was the Mission's emblem.

Just as in a Chinese temple, plaques with parallel inscriptions were hung on the walls. One bore a quotation from the Gospel according to St. John: "The true light that enlightens every man has come into the world." The other legend was more Buddhist in flavour than Christian: "[Join in] the great vow compassionately to help people across to the other shore" (ta-yüan tz'u-hang).

These efforts to make Buddhist monks feel at home attracted a large number of them as visitors (about a thousand annually) but in the first four and a half years of operation, only seventeen male Chinese were converted and baptized. See Notto Normann Thelle "The Christian Mission to the Buddhists," Chinese Recorder (September 1927), 571-575. A photograph of four of the Buddhist and Taoist novices, whom Thelle says were enrolled in the boys' school opened by the Mission, appears in the Chinese Recorder 54.11 (November 1923), facing p. 671. When the permanent headquarters of the Mission were constructed at Tao-fung Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong during the 1930s, the approximation of a Buddhist monastery became almost as close as Dr. Reichelt had originally envisaged it. Some missionaries were afraid that he was being too broad-minded in his use of Buddhist motifs and even that he might be fostering a kind of Buddho-Christian syncretism. He and his colleagues maintained, however, that their only purpose was to "lead these people into a living faith in Jesus Christ." (Thelle, p. 571).

45 Maha Bodhi, 41.3.4 (March-April 1933), 133,

46 Most of the information on Chao-k'ung up to this point is taken from David Lampe and Laszlo Szenasi, The Self-made Villain, London, 1961.

47 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1951, p. 47.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241
CHINATOWN IN HONG KONG:

THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN

DAFYDD Emrys Evans

It seems unrealistic to talk of a 'Chinatown' in a place as obviously Chinese as Hong Kong. But for a very long time, there was indeed an area thought of by the Europeans as a part of the city into which they would not normally go. This area has, right from its inception, been known as "Tai Ping Shan' or Mountain of Peace, after the Chinese name for the mountain the Europeans called Victoria Peak. When the British arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of 1841, the north shore of the island was substantially unoccupied, there being nothing more than scattered huts between the village of Sai Ying Pun in the west and Wong Nei Chung in the east. The principal site for the new city lay in the present Central District of Hong Kong, and the first areas built up by the Europeans (apart from the waterside godowns and houses which extended from the Central Market to Causeway Bay) lay around the present Central Magistracy but rapidly extended within the first three years of the Colony's existence east and west of that spot. Although a small number of Chinese obtained grants of land in this area it is true to say that the town was exclusively European (with, of course, a number of Parsee merchants from British India) from the line of the present Garden road as far as the present Aberdeen Street and up the hill to Hollywood Road. At the time of the Colony's inception there were never more than a few hundred Europeans contrasted with several thousand Chinese who came as tradesmen and artisans. Where, then, did the Chinese live?

Apart from the small town that Jardine, Matheson & Co. built out at East Point, there were three principal areas where the incoming Chinese settled at first. It is known that in the early days after June, 1841 a good many matshed huts sprang up on the hillside to the west of the area later to be the site of the main part of the town (and these were destroyed by the great typhoon in August, 1841) and one stretch of the waterfront was 'taken over'. As early as August 1841 the 'Lower Bazaar' was forming in the area of what later became Jervois Street and Bonham
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY

99

adjacent to the European business centre, the so-called Central District (Chung Wan), or, eastwards along Queen's Road, in the district of Wan Chai." Once Kowloon was acquired, pong-paân were attracted to this new area of settlement because of low rents and the propinquity of the docks, wharves and godowns soon established there, which in time gave employment to numerous European overseers. At the end of the century, Kowloon had become the principal habitat of lower class Europeans. There were terraces of houses occupied solely by them. A witness wrote:

These are generally employees in the dockyards, or clerks, or the families of engineers and mates of the small steamers that have their headquarters in Hong Kong... Hong Kong looks down on Kowloon with all the well-bred contempt of Belgravia for Brixton. And even in the despised suburb on the mainland these social differences are not wanting. The wives of the superior dock employees are the leaders of Kowloon society; and the better half of a ship captain or marine engineer is only admitted on sufferance to their exclusive circle.18

But the part of Victoria most frequented, especially at night, by the European lower orders—soldiers, sailors, merchant seamen, beach-combers and others—was Tai Ping Shan, a densely populated Chinese residential area west of the Central District. In 1875 a visitor to Hong Kong wrote:

Passing westward along Queen's Road, we come upon a quarter of the town much frequented by seamen of all nations. Here spirits are sold in nearly every second shop, and bands of common sailors may be seen spending their time and money on questionable drink in more questionable company, roaring out some rough sea-song in drunken chorus, or dancing to the time of a drum and flute, accordion or cornopean. The piles of Chinese houses which rise above this locality embrace Tai-Ping-Shan, or the hill of great peace. The name is a fine one, but a fine name will not hide the sins of the place. Tai-Ping-Shan is inhabited, for the most part, by Chinamen; but men are found there belonging to all the nations of the East. As for women, these are principally Chinese; they are numerous enough, but of the lowest type. There are strange hotels in this quarter,

* There are a number of 19th century street maps available for early Hong Kong, held in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
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107

of the underdog Portuguese or Eurasian communities. The one social event that united—for one evening—all classes of European was that great Scots tribal festival, the St. Andrew's Day Ball. Celebrated on November 30, it ushered in the Hong Kong season, a season that closed with the Volunteer Ball.* The St. Andrew's Day Ball was open to any Scot or his friends who could afford the price of a ticket. Held in St. George's Hall, a spacious ball-room within the City Hall edifice, it was attended normally by over a thousand adults. Although an Army chaplain inquired plaintively: "Why should pig-iron turn up its nose at ten-penny nails (in Hong Kong)?" for one evening at least status distinctions between retailers and wholesalers were partially ignored, although the proceedings were always dominated by the chieftains of Jardine, Matheson and Co., the patriarchal Scottish hong,

The European lower orders were excluded not only from the more amusing social life of the colony, they also had little say in its government. In 1885, for example, the total number of ratepayers was eighty-two: from this small group the unofficial members of the Legislative Council normally were elected or chosen. The pong-paân were thus totally unrepresented in this, a British colony. Their names, moreover, are not found on the lists of Justices of the Peace, Special Jurors, and those of members of official and other important committees. They were of course sworn in on occasion as common jurors.

Why did the European lower orders experience such treatment from the well-to-do and influential? Partly, it was a consequence of social attitudes formed in the homeland: Victorian notions about the ordering of social classes and occupational groups, such as are analysed in Thackeray's The Book of Snobs. However, in early Hong Kong another notion was also prevalent: the view that there were 'dangerous classes', a term that connoted the lumpenproletariat, a class of persons spawned in the new industrial cities of Europe, 'those who had so miserable a share in the accumulating wealth of the industrial revolution that they might at any time break out in political revolt as in France'.32 Predictably enough, working-class Europeans were often viewed with some suspicion; there was fear that middle-class control over them would cease to prevail in certain

For the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force see James Hayes' article in this Journal Vol 11, 1971: 151-171.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q
232

MAURICE FREEDMAN

road is being cut; it disturbs the Dragon; the evil to follow must be averted ritually. And so on.

66. It is nothing new for the government to encounter fung shui difficulties. It has faced them from the very beginning when police posts had to be put up and roads made. In 1899 Lockhart received a petition from a group of elders:

and all the inhabitants of the villages in those districts, praying that as the geomantic influence of their neighbourhood will be interfered with, another site may be selected for the construction of a carriage road, whereby the fung shui of the place may not be injuriously affected, and the houses and graves of your petitioners may be protected and the wishes of the people gratified. Your petitioners have dwelt in this land for more than a hundred years, and all their villagers have been law abiding, and have depended upon fung shui for their peace and prosperity....... the proposed route of the carriage road, situated behind the houses of the villages, traverses the geomantic line along the hill at the back of the petitioners' ancestral temple, and if this did not affect the fung shui of the place the construction of the road would not be objected to. But the matter is one of highest importance, involving life and death for if the geomantic influences are once interfered with great indeed will be the calamity which will befall your petitioners, and their houses and ancestral temple will be rendered uninhabitable. (1 May 1899)

Lockhart told the petitioners that, while the British Government was always prepared to respect the beliefs and customs of the people, it would not tolerate agitators making an improper use of popular beliefs in order to obstruct public works and welfare. And he went on to warn them that the agitators were working for their own private ends and would be severely dealt with if they persisted. The Governor suggested a different approach, proposing a ‘judicious arrangement' with the geomancers which might be made 'with a small expenditure'. Lockhart demurred. If the geomancers were paid, they would become more troublesome than they are already, as they would discover that the creating of trouble is a paying game.' (Correspondence of 7, 8 and 14 May 1899). Ever since, the Administration has been faced with the dilemma of yielding to fung shui objections (every act of tolerance being a pledge to further acts)
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207
86

-

DAVID LUNG

conducted in the New Territories, the British anthropologist ascertains that "... action in geomancy can be seen to be a form of social control, which works as long as the individuals or communities in contrast are concerned in the long run to maintain peace among themselves,”13 “It is not social,” says Stephen Feuchtwang, the author of An Anthropological Analysis of Chinese Geomancy (1974), more precisely, "but the social world is subject to it. It is not a supernatural order such as would entail the concepts of fate or predestination. A good site is where this order is unconfused. The [geomancy] manuals continually stress this in their concern with the clear recognition of patterns, with proper balance, with elegance, and in the frequent injunctions to avoid disaster, confusion and conflict,"14

The segment of fung-shui practice which perplexes a great number of foreign scholars, especially the missionary-sinologists, is the application of the principle to burial sites. They find this metaphysical aspect deceptive and superstitious — how can the fortune of the living be benefited from the proper burial of the dead? This has to do with ancestor worship, a cult which is as old as Chinese civilisation itself. The Chinese believe that after a person is dead, he does not turn into a god or deity, but becomes part of the "principles of Earth, [and] Earth is the source of amoral fortune."15 While the bones of the dead are buried underground, the spirit resides in the tablets housed in the ancestral hall. That is why the siting of graves and of the ancestral hall is of prime importance. The location of the ancestral hall should have a commanding view not impeded by any obstacle in front. Thus, such halls are never built inside walled hamlets. Despite all the rituals and rites performed in a ceremonial ancestor worship service, one has to grasp the spiritual essence of the belief. While one is paying tribute to one's ancestor, at the same time, one is teaching (very subtly) one's children to have respect and filial piety towards the aged. Having children who will take care of one at old age is the highest form of virtue in Confucian ethics. Hence, this goes back to the anthropocentric cosmic schemata of Heaven, Earth and Man, where man is in it and part of it.

Microcosm of Kam Tin's Fung-shui

The microcosm of Kam Tin's fung-shui can be traced through its topographical features. The Kam Tin village area lies in a
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p
75

number of Chinese women moved to safety in Canton from the 6th onwards.11 On the night of the 7th, a procession going from Hunghom to Yaumati created some anxiety for the police, but it did not lead to any violence.12

The Executive Council met on the 8th to review the situation, and on the following day, at an extraordinary meeting of the Legislative Council, a bill was passed without any opposition. It was the Peace Preservation Ordinance of 1884 which was to be in force until April of the following year. It gave the Governor power to banish for five years from Hong Kong 38 persons regarded as being suspicious and dangerous characters. It prohibited Chinese possession of firearms, and it enabled the Governor-in-Council at any time to extend the provisions of the Night Pass Ordinance14 of 1870.48

Only seven of the thirty-eight persons whose banishment had been decreed were found, but the Government believed the rest had already left the Colony. As for arms, 16,000 items of different arms were reported to have been surrendered on the 10th.44

Perhaps because it was now armed with emergency powers, and could now see the return of order, the Government felt it could afford to show leniency toward those rioters who were still awaiting sentence. On the 10th they were tried; several of them were defended by Ho KaiE, a Chinese barrister, and were fined $20.45 This was much lighter than the sentences imposed on the 3rd. The Magistrate had then said that sentences would depend on the progress of affairs, and the new leniency certainly reflects the return of the Government's confidence.

Yet, as late as November, cargo boats and coolies still refused to work for French ships. On the 1st, when coolies discovered that they had been unloading cargo transferred from a French ship, they became very agitated. It was reported that upon making the discovery, they yelled, "This cargo is French! Don't touch it!" In the midst of great excitement, they walked off, leaving the cargo on board the lighter unattended.46

So far what we have done is to relate what had happened. Questions as to why and how are yet to be answered. Some of
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
250

CARL SMITH

tions between the Government and the Chinese. He believed Chinese views on matters affecting public welfare should be known and taken into consideration in decisions made by the Government and its officials. He was a strong advocate of equal treatment of all groups within the Colony and was opposed to class legislation. These policies were not welcomed by a large part of Hongkong's expatriate population. When Ng Choy was named to the Legislative Council there were murmurs of displeasure.

The choice, however, was a happy one.

Ng Choy, a barrister educated in England, was a diplomat by nature. During the period he represented the Chinese on the council, he steered successfully the treacherous course of cooperation with Governor Hennessy's "pro-Chinese policy" and cross currents of opposition it aroused among the European colonials. All of his good sense, ability to relate to people, integrity of character and humour were needed, and these did not fail him.

In 1882 he resigned to join the staff of Viceroy Li Hung-chang at Tientsin as a legal adviser. It was not easy to find someone who would fill the seat so capably. Ho A-mei, never backward, was willing and eager to compete for the high prize. His competitors were only a handful. Prominently mentioned were Dr. Ho Kai, Wei Yuk, Leung On and Wong Shing. Ho A-mei aspired to join their ranks.

Who were these men and what were their qualifications?

Wei Yuk had been educated in Scotland and was compradore of the Chartered Bank, having succeeded his father in that position.

Governor Hennessy had made him a Justice of the Peace in one of his bids to tie the Chinese more closely to the Government. The editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph described Wei Yuk as "a gentleman of great intelligence besides his wealth and position, exercising vast influence in all local matters appertaining to the Chinese." He served on the Legislative Council from 1896 to 1914 and became known after receiving a knighthood as Sir Wei Po-
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g
78

star or a god shrine decorated with 'prayer flags' (). All these have the power to protect the occupants.

Also, just inside the front door of the flat, the electric light, symbolising the sun, is always switched on. Dark rooms oppress. Brightness stimulates chi and transforms yin to yang. A chandelier can distribute chi around a room. Conversely, a room cluttered with objects will obstruct the flow of chi.

The flat in this case study faces Victoria Peak, which towers over Tai Ping Shan (Hill of Great Peace) District. The flat also faces (approximately) 'compass south'. Fung shui south, namely 'Red-bird Aspect' (a Chinese constellation in the southern sky), is not always true south. An old Chinese proverb states:

Even with 1,000 taels of gold, it is not easy to buy a house facing south.

It is believed by many that houses, temples, graves, and the Emperor on his throne should all face sunny south (Tatlow, 1993: 9). The south is pure, auspicious, and warm. In short, it is yang. With the south-westerly monsoon (actually, it mostly blows from the south-east, the direction that most typhoons come from) blowing in the summer, and the north-easterly monsoon in the winter, no one quarrels with this assumption. A flat facing south is thus warmer in winter and cooler in summer. This helps promote harmony among family members. Some Chinese believe people living on the south side of a building have better chi than those living on the north side. The latter are said to be less intelligent, less successful, and lack the vitality of their neighbours who live facing 'sunny south'. For a person who was born during the cold of winter, it is even more important for him or her to live in a building facing the warm spirits of the south (Tatlow, 1993: 9).

But, having said all that, it must be pointed out that in the Sha Tin district, in Hong Kong's New Territories, out of 60 villages or hamlets, only two or three face due south. Facing south is more important in the north, where bitterly cold winds blow, than in the sub-tropics, where other factors, such as the back-up of a mountain or copse, may have to be considered.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g
There is a resident dragon living within Victoria Peak, as in all remarkable mountains, and it is believed to have spiritual influence over the people living below it. Energy is harnessed from cosmic forces and this affects mere mortals who inhabit the earth. Most people, the fung shui master who accompanied the author explained, need a strong 'back-up'. Such persons are likely to prefer working for the Government rather than engaging in the rough-and-tumble of private enterprise. Although it can be described as geomantic imagery, psychologically, in some ways, it is like sitting in an office chair with a high substantial back, as compared to a low-backed chair formed with slender slats. Likewise, living in a flat close to the Peak with its good topography, whose green slope is covered with a mattress of vegetation, helps provide much needed moral support.

But vital elements can be dispersed, and, with too much wind blowing and too much water flowing, cosmic breath can be excessively dissipated. Too little or 'neutral' fung shui can bring about stagnation. It is something like salt. Add too much and the food is inedible. Sprinkle too little and the meal is tasteless.

After a heavy rain the 'eyes of Victoria Peak' (springs) open up and water courses (the arteries) flow. Slopes come alive. Water, the emblem of wealth and influence, cascades among rocks and down gullies worn over centuries. If this flow ceases, people living under the influence of the Peak will lose their fortunes. (The flat in this study also has the added advantage that it is close to water in the swimming pool). All these features provide a sound back-up in addition to being a scene on which 'one can feast one's eyes'. Here in the twilight the world can seem like a dream; the trees and bushes surge as if at anchor on the 'tide', the heave of the slope running from the Peak down to Realty Gardens comes alive.

Early in the 20th century, however, the Chinese were not at all pleased when Lugard Road and Harlech Road were constructed encircling the mountain at Victoria Gap level. People likened the effect to putting a halter around the neck of the 'Hill of Great Peace'. Nevertheless, there has not been a severe hill fire on the Peak, where erosion is limited by stands of verdant trees, bushes and undergrowth, for half a century. Figuratively, above the flat in this study the heavily overgrown, evergreen slope has 'vegetation as its hair and mist as its complexion'. The Peak is the home of a fair amount of wildlife.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g
134

Pokfulam and Bethanie, July 1972

During an address at the 1990 Annual Dinner in the presence of our Patron and Lady Wilson, I reminded members of this visit to the "Maison de Bethanie" in its centenary year, some eighteen years before. This particular local tour had meant a great deal to me; on its own account, and for its insights into bygone Hong Kong. Made in the height of the Hong Kong summer, it took in University Hall the former "Nazareth" of the French Mission's complex at Pokfulam with its famous Mission Press, operated between 1884-1953 together with "Bethanie" itself, and the old Pokfulam Village. As was stated in the programme notes for the visit, it was being made to a part of Hong Kong Island that had not witnessed the same degree of change as other districts. "Even today", I wrote in 1972, "it is easy to imagine what Pokfulam was like in 1841 when Britain occupied Hong Kong."

"Bethanie" had been built by the Fathers of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris; otherwise called for short, the French Mission. Suffice it to say here, that this particular Catholic Mission provided more workers and more martyrs than any other of the bodies that evangelized the Far East. It originated with some French priests who, in the mid 17th century, had been invited to Tonkin to help with the Jesuits' work there, and its first missionary to China had begun work there in 1681. By the time the Mission received a mention in Samuel Couling's Encyclopaedia Sinica in 1917, it had under its care 12 Vicariats with 462,321 Christians, and more than 160 of its members had been made bishops.

But it was by "Bethanie" itself, the embodiment of so much heroic effort, that I was so stirred. As stated in the Journal, its chapel had then still contained beautifully finished ecclesiastical furniture and fittings that, in mediaeval fashion, had obviously been made by artisans working on and round the site for as long as required, when the building was nearing completion. Its walls carried memorials in marble to martyred priests, and the adjoining Mission cemetery had held the remains of a hundred former priests and high dignitaries, many of whom had come to "Bethanie" to die of sickness contracted elsewhere or to spend their declining years amidst its peace and safety - for the "Maison de Bethanie" was essentially a sanitarium for the entire overseas Mission, and Hong Kong had been selected on account of its climate and the medical facilities available. Father Caminondo, who permitted our visit and provided a valuable note,
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997
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The roads (some sections being only bridle paths) that followed included one from Shau Kei Wan to Sai Wan in 1845 and subsequently onto Stanley, another from Victoria to Aberdeen in 1846, one from Aberdeen to Stanley in 1848 and, at about the same time, another to Pok Fu Lam. These early roads and tracks were shown on the first contoured topographic survey (scale 4 inches to a mile, say 1:16,000, with 100ft contours) of Hong Kong Island which was carried out by Lieutenant Collinson of the Royal Engineers. The map was first published in 1845 and the quality was such that it remained in use, with periodic revisions, for some 50 years.

As might have been expected, the early roads were poorly constructed and often damaged in the summer rains with the wooden bridges being frequently washed away. Gradually the lesson was learnt and roads were surfaced and bridges constructed with masonry. Even so, as late as 1890, an editorial reported "The recent rains once again worked up Queen's Road into a quagmire. Some months ago the road was re-metalled on a principle which it was believed would be sufficiently strong to withstand the wear and tear of jinricksha wheels, but it is now as bad as ever......... Until jinrickshas were introduced Queen's Road was always fairly clean, even in the wettest weather."

**

While the built-up areas were slowly expanding the road system was developing and, by 1908, Hong Kong could boast a network of 153 kilometres of roadways on the Island with cut hillside slopes typically being 75° and filling contained by masonry retaining walls. At this time a writer commented "vehicular traffic is confined chiefly to handcarts, rickshaws and chairs suspended from poles borne on the shoulders of coolies, there being but a few pair-pony gharries and a Victoria or two used by the Chinese". Around the turn of the century when Lugard and Harlech Roads were constructed encircling the Peak, local inhabitants were displeased - they thought it "likened the effect of putting a halter around the neck of the Hill of Great Peace". Fortunately no adverse consequences became apparent! The diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 was marked by a proposal to build a road around the Island; the scheme was opposed by the military and, after lengthy delays, the section below Mount Davis along the 45m contour (Victoria Road) was commenced.

The advent of the motor car stimulated upgrading the existing
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