RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v The keen and active interest in the Society shown by our patron, Sir Robert Black, and members of his family is very gratifying and is warmly appreciated. Despite the exacting calls on their time they have been attending our meetings, and this is a noble example to other busy people in the Colony. We appreciate also the zeal of many other prominent personages including the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Hogan, and the Hon. W. C. Knowles who is a member of the Council and whose business house has provided us with both an Honorary Treasurer, Mr. T. J. Lindsay, and an Honorary Librarian, Mr. John Le Mare. I should like also to refer to the interest in the Society taken by members of H.M. Forces and particularly to the interest taken by Col. Halliday and Col. Mackenzie, both of whom have now left the Colony, but it is greatly hoped that this interest will be sustained by their successors. In this connection it may be interesting to mention the first office-bearers of the Society in 1847: President: Sir John Francis Davis (Governor); Vice-Presidents: Major-General D'Aguilar, Major H. P. Burn, John Stewart, Dr. Kinnis; Council: Lt.-Col. Brereton, Peter Young (Colonial Surgeon), W. T. Mercer (Colonial Treasurer), J. C. Bowring (Son of Sir John Bowring); Secretary: A. Shortrede; Corresponding Secretary: Capt. Clark Kennedy; Chinese and Foreign Secretary: Thomas Wade;* Treasurer: F. Bevan; Curator: C. T. Watkins. In conclusion I wish to thank all the officers and members of the Society for their loyal and wholehearted support. I am probably in a better position than anyone to appreciate and also to pay tribute to my colleagues on the present Council, in whom you have a hard working and active body, and each of whom pulls his or her full weight in the furtherance of the objects of the Society. * Afterwards Sir Thomas Wade, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., British Minister at Peking from 1871 until 1883, and later first Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 CONTENTS PAGE PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1964 HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1964 TRANSACTIONS OF THE BRANCH, 1964 - 1965: ✓ Archeological Discovery in and around Hong Kong S. G. Davis Niah Cave, 1947 - 1964 T. HARRISSON CHINA BRANCH TRANSACTIONS REPRINT: The Population of China SIR JOHN BOWRING ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED: The Dialects of Hong Kong Boat People: Kau Sai J. McCoy The Southern Sung Stone Engraving at North Fu-t'ang JEN YU-WEN Piracy on the China Coast A. D. BLUE The Hong Kong The Chinese University of S. HUANG Review Article: Government and People in Hong Kong, by G. B. Endacott C. LUPTON BOOK REVIEWS NOTES AND QUERIES LIST OF Members 1 6 9 20 27 46 65 69 86 95 101 116 127 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 42 SIR JOHN BOWRING To GEO: GRAHAM, Esq., Registrar General, &c., &c., London. (Table No. 1) Reign of Monarch 1 Hungwu, 26th Year, 2 Hungchi, 3 Wanleih, 4 Shunchi, 5 Kanghi, 6 7 + A. D. Population 1393, 60,545,811) Mirror of History, Chi- nese Repository, vol. x. 1662, 21,068,600) General Statistics of the www Empire, Medhurst's ++ 4th ** 1492, 53,281,158 6th * 1579, 60,692,856 page 156. ++ 18th 6th ++ 49th ** - 1668, 1710, 25,386,209 23,312,200) China, page 53. 49th ** J 8 ** 9 Kienlung, 50th 1st 10 8th ** 11 8th 12 * *** 1710, 27,241,129 1711, 28,605,716 1736, 125,046,245 1743, 157,343,975 1743, 149,332,730 8th 1743, 150,265,475 13 18th ** "J 1753, 103,050,060 14 1760, 143,125,225 25th ** 15 16 25th 26th H 17 27th 1762, 198,214,553 4,552 1760, 203,916,477 1761, 205,293,053 18 55th 23 1790, 155,249,897 19 57th ++ 1792, 307,467,200 * 20 57th ** 1792, 333,000,000 21 Kiaking 17th >> 1812, 362,467,183 Yih-tung Chi, a Statistical work, Morrison's View of China. General Statistics, — Chi- nese Repository, vol, i. page 359. Memoires sur les Chinois, tom. vi., Grosier, and by De Guignes: quoted by Voyages à Peking, tom. iii. page 72. "Les Missionnaires" De Guignes: tom. iii. page 67. General Statistics, — Chi- nese Repository, vol. i. page 359. Yihtungchi, a Statistical work, Morrison's View of China. Memoires sur les Chinois, tom, vi.,- De Guignes, tom. iii, page 72. Allerstain; Groster: De Guignes: tom. iii. page 57. Z. of Berlin, in Chinese Repository, vol. i. page 361. General Statistics, ― Dr. Morrison, Anglo-Chin: Coll: Report 1829. Statement made to Lord Macartney - Statistics, Chinese Repository, vol. i. page 359. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d # CONTENTS ## PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1968 ## HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1968 ## TRANSACTIONS OF THE BRANCH 1968 ## Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong up to 1941 ### T. C. CHENG ## ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED: ### Y ### Militia, Market and Lineage: Chinese Resistance to the Occupation of Hong Kong's New Territories in 1899 #### R. G. GROVES ### Tung Kwu Island; the Type Site of Hong Kong's Older Prehistoric Culture #### W. SCHOFIELD Page 1 Page 5 Page 7 Page 31 Page 65 ### King Mongkut and the Kingdom of Siam #### R. BRUCE ### The Linguistic and Literary Value of Ming Dynasty 'Mountain Songs' #### JOHN MCCOY ### The Chinese Descent System and the Occupancy Level of Village Houses #### H. G. H. NELSON ### Some Notes on Ethno-botany in the New Territories of Hong Kong #### ARMANDO DA SILVA ### The Mapping of Hong Kong #### J. T. COOPER Page 82 Page 101 Page 113 Page 124 Page 131 ## ARTICLE REPRINTED: ### The San On Map of Mgr. Volontieri #### RONALD C. Y. NG Page 141 ## NOTES AND QUERIES: ### Bethesda and the Berliner Frauenverein Für China #### ALBRECHT PLAG ### The Comet of 1532 — #### L. Carrington GOODRICH ### What Inspired Sir John Bowring's Hymn? #### L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH ### Books from the Victoria Library — #### H. A. RYDINGS ### Early Hong Kong Libraries #### J. R. JONES Page 149 Page 150 Page 151 Page 152 Page 154 Page 154 ### Defence Wall at Pass between Kowloon City and Kowloon Tsai — #### W. SCHOFIELD ### Removal of Villages for Fung Shui Reasons. Another Example from Lantau Island, Hong Kong #### JAMES HAYES ### The Occupancy Level of Village Houses in the Hong Kong Region #### JAMES HAYES ### A Pair of Pottery Covered Jars found at Shek Pik, Lantau Island #### JAMES C. Y. WATT ## BOOK REVIEWS ### Kelly and Walsh ## THE LIBRARY, 1968-69 ## LIST OF MEMBERS ### HON. EDITOR Page 156 Page 158 Page 161 Page 163 Page 165 Page 179 Page 183 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 28 T. C. CHENG NOTES 1 During these early years, schools like the Morrison School, operated by the Morrison Education Society founded by Dr. Robert Morrison, the Anglo-Chinese School (or Ying Wah School) operated by Dr. James Legge of the London Missionary Society (Dr. Legge is best known for his translation of the Chinese classics and for his appointment as the first professor of Chinese at Oxford University in 1874), and St. Paul's College operated by the Anglican Bishop, were dismal failures whether from the missionary or from the educational point of view. In 1855, the Governor Sir John Bowring had this to say about St. Paul's College: "For the last six years, £250 a year has been voted by Parliament to the Bishop's College for the education of 6 persons destined to the public service, and not a single individual from that College has been yet declared competent to undertake the meanest department of an interpreter's duty See E. J. Eitel, Europe in China, London; Luzac and Co., 1895, p. 349. 2 On p. 60 of Fragrant Harbour by G. B. Endacott and A. Hinton, a statement was made that Ng Choy was "educated at the old Central School (Queen's College)". I find no evidence to support this. 3 As a result of the founding of the Government Central School (the present Queen's College) in 1862, a number of educated Chinese well-versed in both Chinese and English had been produced, who began to regard Hong Kong as their home town and who began to develop a keen interest in the welfare of Hong Kong. Thus leading Chinese founded the Tung Wah Hospital in 1870 and the Po Leung Kuk in 1880. It is of interest to note that in the 1870's, the educated Chinese actually pressed for the election of representatives to form a Chinese Municipal Board. In 1878, when the foreign community protested against Sir John Hennessy's policy of lenient treatment of prisoners, the Chinese in Hong Kong for the first time despatched an address to Queen Victoria which was in effect a vote of confidence in the Government. 4 G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong, p. 94. *G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong, p. 94. 6 In 1862 an Institute of Foreign Languages was founded in Peking and translation bureaux were established to translate scientific books into Chinese. In 1866 the first modern shipbuilding yard was started in Foochow, Fukien, and from 1872 to 1875 four batches of selected young Chinese scholars, totalling 120, were sent to the U.S.A. to further their studies. 7 General Chan (陳炯明, Chen Chiung-ming) revolted against Sun Yat-sen in Canton in June 1922. For details about this revolt, see Tang Leang-li's The Inner History of The Chinese Revolution, London, p. 140. 8 G. B. Endacott, A History of Hong Kong, p. 199. 9 G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong, p. 98. 10 After 2 years there, Yung Wing (容閎, Rong Hong) went to Yale University and was the first Chinese to graduate from that famous institution in 1854. Yung later became a famous person in the history of modern China, being responsible for the opening of the first school of mechanical engineering in Shanghai; the formation of the China Merchant Steamship Navigation Company; the translation of many scientific books into Chinese; and the sending of young Chinese scholars to the U.S.A. for western studies in the 1870's. In the case of Wong Foon, after 2 years' study in the U.S.A., he crossed the Atlantic to Scotland and entered the University of Edinburgh where he graduated with honours in medicine and surgery. He returned to Canton in 1857 and distinguished himself as a surgeon. See also Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and Western Cultures, Honolulu, East-West Center, 1964, Chapter 4, "Yung Hung (Yung Wing) and Foreign Schemes". ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 94 R. BRUCE necessary for the late King? He would be welcome then, that is in 1852. At the same time he took the initiative in improving trading conditions. Monopolies were partly removed and duties on imports and exports reduced. For a moment it seemed that Siam's foreign relations could be improved without formal treaty and the British Government did not press the matter. But in fact there was much to be done, and with a new British Plenipotentiary at Hong Kong it was opportune to resume discussions. Sir John Bowring was a very different diplomat from his three British predecessors, Crawfurd, Burney and Brooke or the American envoys Roberts and Ballestier. He was an intellectual, a radical reformer, a disciple and editor of Jeremy Bentham, a linguist who could prattle in a dozen languages, an ex-Member of Parliament and a writer of hymns, an inveterate talker, a man with limitless energy and a Victorian capacity for pomposity and self-glory. After a career of business, politics, writing and self-appointed diplomacy in the courts of Europe, Bowring, being short of money, accepted public office as Consul at Canton. That was in 1849 when he was fifty-seven. Some five years later he became Governor of Hong Kong, Superintendent of Trade and, most glorious of all, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary responsible for relations with China, Japan, Siam and all countries in the Far East. Bowring's five years' Governorship of the island colony on the coast of China was anything but successful. Some of his senior officials were incompetent and even corrupt, and he was unpopular among the British merchants. Worst of all he precipitated the second Anglo-Chinese war by sending warships to bombard Canton over a quite unworthy incident. But he was completely successful when he sailed to Bangkok in March, 1855, to negotiate a treaty with the Siamese. Most of the detailed business of the negotiations was done by Bowring's young assistants, his son John C. Bowring, an employee of Jardine, Matheson and Co. in Hong Kong, and Harry Parkes, his secretary, who was later to have a distinguished career as Consul at several ports on the China coast, (Mongkut referred to the young men as "Mr. Parkes and Your Excellency's upspring".) But it was Bowring and King Mongkut who created the favourable atmosphere which allowed progress to be rapid and the discussions congenial. It was clear from the start that the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d NOTES AND QUERIES 151 So, on November 18, he despatched a memorial to Peking which laid the blame for mismanagement of the country not only on Chang Fu-ching, but also on several others in responsible positions. The emperor, naturally, was infuriated, and Feng nearly lost his life as a result; but that is another story. Now back to the comet. Becoming curious about its very long duration, I wrote to Mr. D. J. Schove of St. David's College, Beckenham, Kent, with whom I have previously corresponded on sun spots and similar phenomena, and asked if there had been any report on it by observers in Europe. He replied: +4 The comet of 1532 was more important than that of Halley and was visible even in the daytime. It is recorded e.g. in Italy, Switzerland, England, Russia, Japan and Korea.” And one of my American correspondents, Dr. C. Doris Hellman, professor of history at Queens College, New York, adds to this a Spanish record left by Gaspar G. Molera, who published a tract on it in Barcelona in 1533. Now I am curious as to whether there is any notice of the comet's appearance in the New World. Mr. Schove writes that Aztec chronicles record the comets of 1490 and 1529, but not those of 1531 and 1532. If any reader of this Journal knows of one I hope he will let me know, or publish it in the JRAS, Hong Kong branch. Columbia University, 1968. L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH WHAT INSPIRED SIR JOHN BOWRING'S HYMN? Ever so often one hears that John Bowring's famous hymn “In the cross of Christ I glory Tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time” was inspired after he saw the facade of the Collegiate Church of St. Paul in Macao. But is this true? These words were penned in, or shortly before, 1825, the date of the publication of Bowring's own book entitled HYMNS, in * See for example, M. Hugo-Brunt in his excellent article on St. Paul's Church in the Journal of Oriental Studies, 1-2 (1954-55) p. 344. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 the Society included the hierarchy of the Government, Military, Medical and Mercantile communities. In his Inaugural Address as President of the Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by the Rev. C. Gutzlaff at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring, and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society. The Society was fortunate in enjoying influential Government and press support, including that of the China Mail, and continued under Sir George Bonham who gave the Society a room in the old Supreme Court building to hold its meetings and to house its library. With the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859, and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary, the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail. The collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would undoubtedly have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which eventually appeared only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine (and his successor Sir Robert Jardine) and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong. It was thus with a deep sense of responsibility, and also of duty, that it was decided to revive this Society in 1959 after the lapse of a century. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g CONTENTS Page 1 1 1 1 PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1970 HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1970 THE LIBRARY 1970-71 9 13 ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED: The Taipings at Ningpo: The Significance of a Forgotten Event STEPHEN UHALLEY, JNR. 17 33 The Debate on National Salvation: Ho Kai Versus Tseng Chi-tse-CHIU LING-YEONG 52 Letters from China 1835-36-HON. EDITOR Chinese Voluntary Associations in Southeast Asian Cities and the Kaifongs in Hong Kong-ALINE K. WONG 62 The Emergence of a Chinese Elite in Hong Kong-CARL T. Smith The District Watch Committee: "The Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'-H. J. LETHBRIDGE A Brief Report on Sung-Type Pottery Finds in Hong Kong-J. C. Y. WATT A Short History of Military Volunteers in Hong Kong-JAMES HAYES 74 116 142 151 Articles Reprinted: The Colony of Hong Kong-Rev. James LEGGE 172 NOTES AND QUERIES Visit to the Tung Lin Kok Yuen, and other places on Hong Kong Island 194 Rope-making and Dyeing/Calendering on Ap Lei Chau, Hong Kong JAMES HAYES 198 Charcoal Burning in Hong Kong 199 What Inspired Sir John Bowring's Hymn?-J. M. BRAGA 203 Ceremonies of Propitiation Carried Out in connection with Road Works in the New Territories in 1960 G. C. W. GROUT & HON. Editor 204 BOOK REVIEWS List of MEMBERS 210 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 22 H. A. RYDINGS We began this review of the China Medico-Chirurgical Society with some account of those who were officers during the first year of its existence. It is therefore appropriate to finish with a look at the office-bearers of the 'Philosophical Society of China”, and to note how many of them had been associated with the former society. The original office-bearers (22) were: President Major H. P. Burn Vice-Presidents Dr. Kennedy Council Dr. Balfour A. Shortrede J. C. Bowring General Secretary W. F. Bryan Treasurer Curator Dr. Young C. T. Watkins Dr. Harland Dr. Barton There are five doctors on this list, of whom three are known to have been members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, namely Drs. Kennedy, Balfour and Barton. The Dr. Young was probably Peter Young, the Colonial Surgeon, and not J. H. Young, who had been Secretary of the Medico-Chirurgical Society but had resigned. Dr. W. A. Harland, who read a paper on "The Chinese system of human anatomy and physiology" (23) at the meetings in September and October 1847, was later to become the Society's "devoted Secretary" (24), but is not included in the membership list of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, though he may have joined it after the list was compiled. A new set of office-bearers was appointed with the first change of name of the Society (21) and adoption of a constitution on 19th January 1847, with His Excellency Sir John F. Davis, Bart., F.R.S. as President: but that is another story. NOTES 1 [J. R. Jones] in JHKBRAS, v. 1, 1961, p. 1. 2 There are three copies recorded in libraries in the U.S.A., i.e. the National Library of Medicine at Washington; the Boston Medical Library; and the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine. 3 Trans. China Med. Chir. Soc., v. 1, 1845-46, p. 28. 4 Memoirs of the life and labours of Robert Morrison, comp. by his widow, London, 1839, v. 2, p. 148. 5 Chinese repository, v. 16, 1847, p. 187-9. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r NOTES AND QUERIES 149 ragés par le gouvernement, y accouraient en grand nombre. Beaucoup de Chinois venaient s'y établir et y construire des maisons. C'est ainsi que furent jetés les fondements de la nouvelle ville de Vittoria, avant la ratification du traité de Nankin, qui porte la date du 5 avril 1843. L'administration de l'île, comme il fut arrêté à cette époque, est confiée à un gouverneur. Il est assisté d'un conseil exécutif composé du secrétaire de la colonie, du commandant de la garnison et du procureur de la couronne, et d'un conseil législatif dont le gouverneur est le président. Ce conseil est composé d'un juge, du secrétaire de la couronne, du trésorier, de l'auditeur général, de l'inspecteur général et de trois des principaux négociants de l'île, nommés par la couronne, sur la présentation du gouverneur. La police emploie 60 Européens, 382 Indiens et 180 Chinois qui forment un personnel respectable de 550 personnes. Sous les cinq gouverneurs qui se sont succédé depuis 1843 jusqu'à 1863, la colonie s'est formée et accrue comme par enchantement, en sorte que, sur ces rochers, presque déserts en 1839, on comptait, en 1863, 3,080 habitants européens ou américains, et plus de 121,900 Chinois, dans la ville et dans les villages, avec une entrée de 120,028 livres sterling et une sortie de 121,880 livres. Elle avait un grand palais pour le gouvernement et un autre palais pour le gouverneur. La nouvelle ville de Vittoria, avec ses édifices somptueux, offre tout le confort de la vie, toute la propreté et tout le luxe anglais : des rues larges et souvent bordées d'arbres, des trottoirs, des portiques. Elle renferme des hôpitaux, des casernes, des théâtres, des clubs, une cathédrale protestante, une loge maçonnique inaugurée anno lucis 5854 (1852), des mosquées, des pagodes et des chapelles réformées. Toutes ces récentes constructions s'échelonnent, du rivage de la mer au sommet de la colline, sur une étendue de plus de cinq kilomètres. La mer elle-même, refoulée sur plusieurs points, 3 Gouverneurs de l'île: Sir H. Pottinger, du 28 juin au 7 mai 1844. Sir John Davis, de mai 1844 au 1er mars 1848. Sir George Bonham (sic) de mars 1848 à avril 1854. Sir John Bowring, d'avril 1854 à mai 1859. Sir Hercules Robinson, de septembre 1859 au 15 mars 1865. Sir F. MacDonnell (sic) de 1865 à 1872. Sir A. Kennedy. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 234 NOTES AND QUERIES mountains about Kuatun and Sanchiang.... It is secretive, hiding by day in the beds of the streams and apparently prowling by night." The only other record of the distribution of this species of which I am aware lists it for both Fukien and Chekiang (Anon., 1977). Doubtless the specimen found in a catchment channel near Shek Kong had been carried down with water collected from a stream at a higher altitude, most likely from Tai Mo Shan. REFERENCES Anonymous (Compiled by the Amphibians and Reptiles Research Department of The Biological Research Institute of Szechwan Province) 1977 Systematic Keys to China's Reptiles. (In Chinese) Press, Peking. Boulenger, G. A. 1912 A Vertebrate Fauna of the Malay Peninsula. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor and Francis, London. Pope, C. H. 1935 The Reptiles of China. Natural History of Central Asia, Vol. 10. The American Museum of Natural History, New York. Smith, M. A. 1935 Sauria. Reptilia and Amphibia, Vol. 2. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Taylor and Francis, London. Hong Kong, 20 July 1978 J. D. ROMER THE PUBLIC BOTANIC GARDEN OF HONG KONG Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong from April 1854 to May 1859, was a Governor with wide interests. In his History of Hong Kong, George Endacott relates (pp. 104-105): He cared for cultural things; he set up a museum in one of the rooms of the Supreme Court to the annoyance of the court officials, and he was the leader of the local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was also very keen to set up a public Botanic Garden, and lectured to the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong on its value in spreading knowledge of Chinese trees, woods and fibres. ================================================================================