RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g TEXT OF A LETTER SENT TO THE HON. THE COLONIAL SECRETARY ON THE SUBJECT OF A NEW CITY MUSEUM FOR HONG KONG. 24th May, 1971. Dear Sir, A NEW CITY MUSEUM At a meeting of the Council of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society held earlier this year, the question was raised as to whether we, as the executive committee of a Hong Kong learned society, could, with advantage to all concerned, formulate our views on the above-mentioned subject which is exercising the minds of many residents of this Colony at the present moment. The members of the committee were unanimously of the opinion that we should do this, firstly because the main purpose in founding our Society as long ago as 1847 was to foster the preservation, and to encourage the study, of all matters concerning the history of this part of Asia; and secondly and more specifically because in the inaugural address of our first President, Governor Sir John Davis, he urged the adoption by the young Society of two practical aims in addition to the lecture and discussion programmes usually adopted by learned societies. His suggested aims were the establishment in Hong Kong (a) of Botanic Gardens, and (b) of a City Museum. A brief statement concerning what was accomplished towards achieving these aims about a century and a quarter ago was recently made by Dr. J. R. Jones, the past President of this Branch of the Society, in his letter published in the South China Morning Post on Friday, 18th December, 1970, under the title of "Sir John Davis, and Hong Kong's First Museum". After some discussion which was purposely confined to generalities, and did not extend to the consideration of details, it was unanimously decided that we should support the proposal that the present museum should be re-organized and that the opportunity should then be taken of re-housing it in a new and specially designed building situated on a site chosen for its suitability and adaptability rather than for reasons of expediency. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n PRESIDENT'S Report TREASURER's Report THE LIBRARY CONTENTS Page 1 6 10 TRANSACTIONS : Brunei: A Historical Relic - LEIGH WRIGHT Behind Japanese Barbed Wire: Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong 1942-1945 - G. C. EMERSON A Journey to Yenan 1946 - W. A. REYNOLDS ARTICLES: Two Essays on the Ch'ing Economy of Hsin-An, Kwangtung - J. T. KAMM Under Altars - K. G. STEVENS Social Organization and Ceremonial Life of Two Multi-Surname Villages in Hoi-p'ing County, South China, 1911-1949 - YUEN-FONG WOON "Little Fujian (Fukien)” Sub-Neighbourhood and Community in North Point, Hong Kong - GREGORY E. GULDIN Reprinted ARTICLES: Cheung Chow - Long Island - W. J. HINTON Memories of the District Office South, Hong Kong - W. SCHOFIELD NOTES AND QUERIES: Notes for the Royal Asiatic Society Visit to Tai Mo Shan, 3rd April 1976 — (I) L. B. and S. L. THROWER (II) JAMES HAYES Notes for the Visit to the Tang Family Graves, 11 December 1976 - DAVID LIU and JAMES HAYES Royal Asiatic Society Visit to Tsuen Wan, 10th December, 1977 - A Village War'. JAMES HAYES The Rural History Project in Yuen Long and Field Notes on the Social History and Fung Shui of Kam Tin - J. T. KAMM Bean Skim, A Product of Blood and Sweat Four Chinese Banks Fail, Partners Blame Head Two Letters From Wartime China A Further Note on Feng Yun-Shan and Gützlaff - Jen Yu-wen Reptiles New to Hong Kong - J. D. ROMER The Public Botanic Garden of Hong Kong Birds of Tai Mo Shan - MICHAEL Webster Occurrence of the Birds - J. D. ROMER 12 30 (55) 85 101 112 130 144 179 (185) 199 216 218 220 228 232 234 236 237 Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ 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. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 134 have therefore added it here for the record. The Sowerbys were an old family of Saxon stock that can be traced back to the time of Edward the Confessor, and possibly earlier to the first kings of Kent in the fifth century AD. Arthur de Carle Sowerby was the great grandson of James Sowerby, who died in 1822, the botanist who wrote English Botany and was one of the founder members of the Geological Society. His son in turn continued his work and helped organise the Royal Botanic Society and Gardens in Regent's Park. On his mother's side Arthur was descended from Pierre Séguier, the Chancellor of France in the reign of Louis XIII; he was also the great grandson of Anthony Stuart, the miniature and portrait painter of the early Victorian period. Arthur's uncle was part-founder and first Keeper of the National Gallery of Portraits in Trafalgar Square. At the end of his schooling he began his training to be an artist but soon left it for that of a scientist, working for his BSc. at Bristol. He returned to China having dropped out of College and after his arrival back in China he was appointed in 1906 in the double capacity of lecturer and curator on the staff of the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin. He served in France during World War 1 as Technical Officer in the Chinese Labour Corps, and on his return to China made his headquarters in Shanghai where he remained until the end of the Second World War. He developed an interest in Chinese Art and was impressed by the accuracy of ancient Chinese craftsmen in modelling pottery animals for the tomb, an accuracy that enabled him as a naturalist to identify the breeds of various domestic animals in use in ancient China. He wrote a series of articles for the China Journal on Birds in Chinese Art; the Owl in Chinese Art; The Flora in Chinese Art; Rocks, Mountains and Water in Chinese Art; Animals in Chinese Art; as well as Animals in the Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales of China. His interest in craftsmanship also led him to write a series of articles on Chinese arts and crafts, including four papers on the Chinese ivory industry. ================================================================================