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he himself had opposed the appointment, but perhaps the matter should be reconsidered.

He made the positive suggestion that the Hongkong Government and the Chinese authorities discuss together the problem of smuggling and the methods China employed to collect its duties. He stated, however, that he was still opposed to having a Chinese in Hongkong with the position of a consul.

As far as the "blockade" was concerned, Mr. Whittall remarked that "many of the Chinese merchants had said to him that they were perfectly satisfied with the present arrangements. It was a protection to the honest merchants and only a disadvantage to the dishonest man."

No view was presented by a Chinese. The foreign and Chinese communities were still too separate to discuss public issues together.

In the published newspaper account of the meeting, it is stated that there were about two hundred present from every sector of the community. A list of some seventy-five names is given.

Among them, there is only one Chinese, Ng Moon-koon. He was, I believe, the same as Ng Man-kwan, one of the leading Chinese opium dealers.

Mr. Whittall's statement about Chinese opinion on the matter did not go unchallenged. The senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council, Mr. Phineas Ryrie, had apparently been gathering Chinese views. He reported that "some dozen" had told him it was hurting the trade. He did not specify whether the dozen were from the honest or the dishonest class of traders referred to by Mr. Whittall.

The remarks of the Jardine taipan may have influenced others at the meeting, for when the vote on the resolution was taken, there were seven against it.

His views having received such a cold reception, Mr. Whittall,
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public. Its conclusions were considered not acceptable and its tone would have aggravated differences between China and Britain.

In December 1873, the Governor of Hongkong had appointed a three-man commission to investigate the alleged interference by China with the trade of Hongkong. Its members were Phineas Ryrie, a businessman and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, H. G. Thomsett, the harbour master, and M. S. Tonnochy, his assistant. They submitted their report in April 1874.

The General Chamber of Commerce requested a copy, but it was told that as the Colonial and Foreign Offices were still considering the report, it could not be released to the public.

The merchants felt that the Government was deliberately withholding the findings of the commission. To draw attention to their views, which were similar to those expressed by the commission, the merchants encouraged a group of aggrieved Chinese to petition Her Majesty. They then followed this up with their own public meeting.

The commission had taken the position that the method China was using to enforce its revenue collection was seriously hurting Hongkong trade. The main premise of the report, that China had encroached on Hongkong's sovereignty, was rejected by the representatives of the British Government at Canton and Peking.

Although the Foreign Office in London, Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister in Peking, and Sir Brooke Robertson, Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, were not in complete agreement about the various points raised by the commission, they all agreed that the commission had greatly overstated the case.

It was conceded that the employment of a low type of foreigner by the Chinese was objectionable, that in the nature of the case there must have been some violation of Hongkong waters when a junk was being chased by cruisers, and that no doubt there had been instances of squeezing.

In commenting on the report of the commission, Sir Brooke
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The Honourable Phineas Ryrie, a long-time resident and senior member of the Legislative Council, spoke against the amendment of Mr. Francis. He opposed sending to England any funds raised in Hongkong.

He admitted that a few years before he had not opposed sending a substantial contribution to help Irish famine sufferers, but the present object was of a different nature.

Throughout his many years in Hongkong he had contributed liberally to many subscriptions. He had great faith in Hongkong's ability to raise funds for causes that had a popular appeal.

He was sure that: "We are good enough in this Colony to subscribe for a memorial to Her Majesty the Queen, and we should do so.

At this point the chairman interrupted. He informed Mr. Ryrie that his remarks were out of order. He had been speaking to a specific proposal, while Mr. Francis' amendment, after he had rephrased it, was general.

The amendment proposed by Mr. Francis was then put before the meeting. It was rejected. Mr. Francis did not raise the question again.

The fourth resolution was that of Mr. Chater proposing that the permanent memorial of the jubilee year be a park in the Wongneichong Valley to be called Victoria Park. After some other suggestions were discussed, the park scheme was approved by a small majority. Many at the meeting, however, abstained from voting.

This did not settle the matter however. After the public meeting there was continued opposition to the decision. Demands were made that it be rescinded.

The Chinese went off and held their own meeting and adopted a plan more to their desires. Amid all the confusion new proposals were advanced and old ones revived.
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Queen had to be abandoned.

Inability to proceed with the agreed plan resulted in the two subsequent meetings. These were chaired by the Honourable Phineas Ryrie. Many of the difficulties which resulted can be attributed to the manner in which he conducted the meetings.

It is not a simple matter to keep a meeting in order and progress towards its goals when the atmosphere is charged with tension created by strongly held opinions and personal ambitions. The meetings chaired by Mr. Ryrie were like this.

A good chairman is not only fair and impartial but also firm and decisive. He gives room for free expression of opinion but does not permit the meeting to digress into irrelevant matters or get muddled in improper procedure. To do this he must adhere to accepted parliamentary rules.

Mr. Ryrie was a public spirited man who had long — perhaps too long — been prominent in public affairs. He was the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council and therefore a natural choice for chairman. His handling of the meetings, however, suggests he may have been tottering into old age. He was a man of decided opinion and also irascible, a dangerous combination.

As senior partner of the firm of Turner and Company, he belonged to the small interlocking circle who sat on the boards of the leading companies and institutions in Hongkong. As such, he had presided over many meetings. These, however, were usually quite routine and required a minimum of parliamentary skill.

It was a different matter to chair a meeting in which there were strong differences of opinion accompanied by a feeling of frustration over the mess in which the community was increasingly getting itself involved.

The main business of the meeting was to decide on another memorial now that the idea of a park in the Wongneichong Valley was no longer feasible. Before the meeting people who wished to have a scheme considered were asked to submit them in writing.
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would not usually condescend to undertake manual work the dairy created quite a stir by employing milkmaids from England. However when the Scottish parasitologist, Dr. (later Sir) Patrick Manson, arrived in Hong Kong he was appalled by the unsanitary living conditions and took a special interest in the local milk supply. This led to the founding of the Dairy Farm (well known today for its chain of 'Wellcome' supermarkets), in 1886, in spite of the fact that the Chinese had no place for dairy produce in their cuisine and many found the taste offensive.

In addition to Dr. Manson, W.H. Ray, J.B. Coughtrie, Granville Sharp, Phineas Ryrie and Sir Paul Chater were directors. The aim was to provide a hygienic supply of milk from cows kept on about 300 acres of good land in the neighbourhood of where the Wah Fu housing estate now stands, on Hong Kong Island. Although the site is exposed to the south-westerly breezes in the hot summer, which helped to keep the cows in better condition, all food-stuffs and building materials had, in those times, to be shouldered from the sea shore to the top of the hill by coolies. The subtropical climate affected the imported animals and the bulls were not keen to perform their duties during hot weather. After a disappointing first year of trading, nonetheless, in spite of disease among cattle and plague among citizens, a profit was recorded.

Meanwhile Dr Manson returned to England, in 1889, to help found the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

A bad outbreak of plague struck the Colony in 1894 when Dairy Farm was brought to a standstill. This was followed by a rinderpest epidemic which affected most of its herd. Cheuk Yau, a cowman, had the initiative to drive 30 animals away from the infected area, and he brought them back later when the danger had passed. Ah Cheuk died soon afterwards but his widow received a special allowance from the company, and his two sons were given jobs with the firm.

The herd was later replenished with Frisians from Scotland, and a farmer, James Walker (also Scottish), was sent out by Dr. Manson in 1890 to be the first manager of the farm. He remained in the post until 1920 (some records say 1919).

By 1918 (some records say 1916), the original Hong Kong Ice
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being until this century. In the last decade of the 20th century, however, it provides three-quarters of the electricity consumed in Hong Kong. Not long after the Company placed what was reported to be the largest ever single order with British industry, in 1980, six members of the board were made Commanders of the British Empire. There have also been two Knighthoods in the Kadoorie family.

Transport

Motor transport was mainly introduced into Hong Kong in the present century, and, by 1909, the Colony boasted five private cars. Steam power was, however, used at sea before it was employed on land, and by 1876 there were nine steam launches operating in the harbour, and the first regular cross-harbour ferry, employing steam launches, commenced in 1880. In 1898, the Star Ferry was incorporated and took over from Dorabjee Nowrojee the previous ferry owner.

British firms were, nonetheless, involved with transport, and a proposal was made by Jardine's, in 1881, for a system of trams on Hong Kong Island. The same year another proposal was made for a tramway to Victoria Gap, and in 1885 the original promoters sold their rights to Phineas Ryrie and Alexander Findlay Smith (Findlay Path on the Peak is named after him) for $2,000. The latter, a merchant who arrived in Hong Kong in the 1860s and who had been an employee of Scotland's Highland Railway, was the driving force. In 1881, it was he who requested approval from Sir John Pope-Hennessy, for this innovative scheme.

According to Mrs Maud Grant-Smith, the Governor told her late husband's uncle, Findlay Smith:

"My dear chap, you are simply throwing your money down the drain. Do you imagine anyone wants to go to the top of the Peak?"

Because His Excellency would not help, Smith brought his own engineers from Scotland. As early as the 1840s Doctor William Morrison, the Colonial Surgeon (1847 to 1859), recommended spending the summer on the Peak. He also suggested a sanatorium be built there to alleviate the effects of heat and humidity. This was constructed but by 1868 it had fallen into disrepair, and had been rebuilt as
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'Mountain Lodge', the Governor's summer residence. Smith was convinced the Peak Tram had a future.

The original promoters included F.B. Johnson of Britain, F.D. Sassoon of Hong Kong, C.V. Smith of Shanghai, and W.K. Hughes of Hong Kong. Capital for the new company amounted to $125,000 in $100 shares. Construction began in September 1885, when 30 to 40 families customarily spent their summers on the Peak. The Peak Hotel was opened in 1873.

The Peak Tram consulting committee included Phineas Ryrie, Findlay Smith, A. McIver, J.B. Coughtrie, and McEwen and Company. The project was completed and opened on 30th May 1888. The original tram had 30 seats, the front two of which were reserved for the Governor until two minutes before departure. The steepest gradient is one in two, at May Road, and the original steam engines were not replaced by an electrically powered system until 1926. The ten-minute journey on the cable car provided the only mechanical form of transportation to the 1305-foot high Victoria Gap until Stubbs Road was completed in 1924.

In 1905, the original firm was sold to the newly-incorporated Peak Tramways Company which included entrepreneurs such as Sir Paul Chater, H.N. Mody (Mody Road is named after this Parsee merchant), Abraham Jacob Raymond, Charles Wedderburn Dixon, and Creasy Ewens. The Kadoorie family has been connected with the Tramway since 1905.

Trams and trains

In spite of the original 1883 Ordinance, mentioned above, the tramway scheme along the North shore of Hong Kong Island was delayed. It finally opened in 1904. In those early years, trams were a prestige form of travel.

Similarly, although Jardine's and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank formed a company in 1898, which was granted rights to build a railway from Kowloon to Canton, construction did not begin until 1906 and was undertaken, in the event, by Government. The British section was completed in 1910. By October 1911, the railway opened for through traffic to Canton.
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