RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 8 T. C. CHENG It was as late as February 1880 that an eligible Chinese took his seat as an unofficial member in the Legislative Council. He was Ng Choy, later known throughout China as Dr. Wu Ting-fang. Ng's parents went to Singapore from Chung Shan District,* Kwang-tung Province, and he himself was born in Singapore in 1842. He came to Hong Kong as a boy and was educated at St. Paul's College.2 Having served as an interpreter in the Magistrate's Court in Hong Kong from 1861 to 1874, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, London, to study law and was the first Chinese to qualify as a barrister-at-law in January 1877. He was admitted to practise as a barrister in the Supreme Court in Hong Kong in May the same year. Ng Choy's appointment to the Legislative Council was entirely a result of the efforts of the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy (April 1877 - March 1882), an Irishman, and a great champion of the Chinese community which had changed a great deal since the 1850's.3 In 1880 when Hugh Gibb, a member of the Legislative Council, went on leave, Sir John took the opportunity to appoint Ng Choy to a provisional seat in the Council. When he addressed the Secretary of State on this subject, he quoted a memorial from leading Chinese in which they asked that since the Chinese out-numbered the foreigners by ten to one, they should be allowed a share in the management of public affairs. He then went further and suggested a reorganization of the Legislative Council so as to enable Ng Choy to have a more permanent seat. The Secretary of State was not sympathetic with Sir John's views but agreed to Ng's appointment only on a temporary basis until Gibb's return to Hong Kong, or for three years. One view expressed in the Colonial Office was that should the Governor want to consult the Legislative Council secretly or should relations with China become strained, the presence of a Chinese member on the Council might be awkward.4 In any case, when Ng Choy took his seat in the Legislative Council for the first time on 19th February 1880, it was a great occasion for rejoicings among the Chinese community and a deputation of leading Chinese members called at Government House to congratulate the Governor and themselves on the appointment.5 * Then known as Heung Shan District. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 20 T. C. CHENG authorities should look into the teaching of Chinese boys in English so as to increase the efficiency of the teaching of English. As a result, a Committee was appointed in 1917 "to enquire into the teaching of the English language to Chinese boys in Government schools, and to examine the question whether by a reduction in the number of other subjects more time can be devoted to such teaching". The Committee reported the same year, but did not recommend any changes in the school curriculum. However, they recommended (a) small classes, better buildings and better-paid teachers which would bring better results, and (b) the appointment of one English teacher to a maximum of 120 pupils. The Committee also advocated medical inspection of pupils in Government schools, as a result of which a system of medical examination was instituted the following year. In recognition of Lau's services towards his fellow-men in Hong Kong, the Chinese Government conferred upon him “The Order of the Excellent Crop, Third Class" in 1916. He died in 1922. There is a Chinese belief that “good deeds will be rewarded by bearing good offspring". This seems only too true in his case, for his eldest son, Lau Tak-po, founded the Hong Kong & Yaumati Ferry Company and his eldest grandson, Lau Chan-kwok, J.P. is now the Managing Director of the Company. When Sir Boshan Wei Yuk retired from the Legislative Council in 1917, he was succeeded by Ho Fook, younger half-brother of the late Sir Robert Hotung. He was another outstanding student of the Central School. In 1878 when the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, attended his first Prize Giving at the Central School, Ho Fook, then in Class 2, received from him a prize in the form of a gold pencil case.23 He served in the Compradore's Department of Jardine, Matheson & Company and in 1900 was a founder of the Chinese Merchants Bureau. He remained in the Legislative Council for only four years and retired in 1921. Ho Fook was a generous benefactor of education. In 1917 he donated HK$50,000 to the University of Hong Kong for the erection and equipment of the School of Physiology. He also endowed prizes in all the faculties of the University. Like the Honourable Lau Chu-pak he produced some very fine offspring.24 ================================================================================ 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-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 228 CARL T. SMITH and 1877. The burlesques were particularly popular because local references could be injected into them. For instance in the 1877 performance of Alladin, the following takes place in the Sultan's Palace: We ha'n't been asked to Government House; perhaps Sir Arthur's busy packing up his traps.* The time, alas, is drawing very nigh When I shall have to call and say goodbye Adding, 'Good voyage, and good wind, good water” Both to Sir Arthur and his charming daughter. I'm sure that everybody here who knows him Is very sorry we're about to lose him, And when he leaves as I can only hope That we may job along as pleasantly with Pope† Free from disasters, typhoons and tornados Or "rows" like those which happened in Barbadoes.= The musical finale was composed by a local music teacher, Professor Felix Panizza. The scenery was painted by Mr. Kerr (probably Charles Morland Kerr, accountant at the Oriental Bank) and Mr. Marciano Baptista, Junior, whose father had been a pupil of Chinnery at Macao. In the second act Queen's Road was depicted as a thoroughfare in the capital of China. ENTER THE LADIES Before 1879 there were no ladies in the productions of the A.D.C. Female roles were taken by men. This was acceptable for farces and burlesques but not so suitable for realistic love-scenes. A review of a production in 1870 noticed, however, that "Miss de la Courcy has certainly the happiest way of performing female parts. Her performance showed her knowledge of the woman's character". * Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy, Governor of Hong Kong April 1872—March 1877. † Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hong Kong April 1877—March 1882. There had been disturbances during Governor Hennessy's administration at Barbadoes. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 233 question. The reply was properly evasive and noncommittal. In 1881 when Ma Kei-chung, Li's representative to India, passed through Hongkong, he was most anxious to confer with Governor Hennessy. According to local notices, the Governor played hard to get, though it was rumoured that they had discussed the formation of a syndicate which would buy opium in India, bring it to Hongkong and from there distribute it throughout China. It is here that Ho A-mei enters the story. According to Eitel's history of Hongkong, Europe in China, A-mei was to arrange for the $20 million proposed as capital for the new syndicate. Just which capitalists would back the project was not stated. Undoubtedly a number of wealthy Chinese in Hongkong were interested. Not long after Ma's stopover in Hongkong, Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hongkong, made a trip of a “private” nature to Peking. A John Pitman went to Peking at about the same time. He was a financial adventurer who became involved in several big schemes backed by Chinese capital. In one of these, the bid for the Wei Sing gambling monopoly at Macau, Ho A-mei had been associated with Pitman. Pitman was an intimate friend of Sir John Hennessy and it is possible that the Governor was presenting a scheme in Peking in which his friend had an interest. In January 1882, a report was circulated that Li Hung-chang had done a turnabout and appealed to the Emperor not to establish an opium syndicate. Fast upon this news came the rumour that the Tsung-li Yamen (the Chinese Foreign Affairs Bureau) was so pleased with Ma Kei-chung's negotiations, after his return from India, with Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, that it was going to recommend him for the post of superintendent of the syndicate should it be established in Hongkong. The authenticity of the report was put in doubt by the comment that a British Minister had never previously negotiated with anyone under the rank of a Viceroy, a position ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 235 the official governing Hongkong, a matter of extreme difficulty." Ho A-mei regarded Sir Richard Macdonnell (1865-1872) as the first Governor to make any attempt to ascertain the views of the Chinese and give them some measure of impartial consideration. Though perhaps the attitudes and policies of the Governors had changed over the years, according to a letter which appeared in 1878 over the name "Chinese,” there were still giant steps to be taken if any kind of mutual acceptance was to be established. "Chinese" stated bluntly: "That we Chinese in this Colony are despised individually, collectively, and socially, and that we are ignored as a community (except in a few instances) there cannot be the least doubt. Individually we have imposed on us certain burdens peculiar to our nationality and we receive uncivility and indignity even at the hands of the police, to whom we contribute to pay largely for our protection. In European society we particularly have no status. To correspond socially with Europeans with whom we are daily brought into contact, to be admitted as favoured guests at their dinner table, to have the privilege of counting them as personal friends, are things which no Chinese, however ambitious he may be in other respects, would ever aspire to obtain. As a political body we are unknown. We are unrepresented, and it would be easier to find a fish climbing up a tree, as our adage says, than to see a Chinese Justice of the Peace, or a Chinese member of the Legislative or Executive Council in Hongkong.” Happily this situation, after exactly 100 years, is greatly altered. Though today things are different in Hongkong, a completely mutual relationship is yet to be achieved between all sections of the community. The colonial status of Hongkong mitigates against equal treatment in all areas. With the arrival of John Pope Hennessy as Governor in 1877, the Chinese had an advocate in high places. His so-called "pro-Chinese policy," however, exacerbated the tensions between the foreign and Chinese population of Hongkong. The longer he governed, the more he tried to advance the Chinese, the greater became the bitterness and hostility of the European population towards him. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 238 CARL SMITH CHINESE PROTEST AT BEING KEPT OUT OF MEETING Ho A-mei as a public figure participated in a number of important and interesting affairs which illustrate the strained relations between the foreign and Chinese portions of Hongkong's population during the closing decades of the 19th century. The first such occasion was a public meeting held in October 1878. For the Chinese it was the first such meeting they attended in numbers with the intention of active participation. The Chinese view of events at the meeting was set before the English reading public in a letter Ho A-mei addressed to the editor of the Daily Press. This letter marked his first appearance as a leader among the Chinese in Hongkong. His involvement in public issues affecting the Chinese continued for the next twenty years or until his retirement in 1898. The meeting on which the letter comments had various tones and overtones, currents and sub-currents. Its stated purpose was to pass a resolution concerning the low state of security in Hongkong and the frequency of robbery and assault. Behind it was a large part of the European portion of the community who hoped the resolutions passed at the meeting would discredit the administration of the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy. Governor Hennessy had introduced humane measures for the treatment of criminals, had abolished flogging and had improved conditions in jail. Many attributed the increase in crime to these reforms. The complaints, however, were only a symptom of a deep dislike the foreign community had taken towards its Governor. Sir John had come to Hongkong with a record of favouring the local population in the colonies he had governed and of introducing measures to elevate them to a more equal status with the expatriate colonials, a policy not welcomed by the colonials. These principals, as they were applied in Hongkong, were labelled by the press as "Hennessy's pro-Chinese policy." He believed that the Page 255 Page 256 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 races to be included...?" 257 The learned barrister may have spoken eloquently but accord-ing to his critics not wisely. GROPING TO CLOSE THE COMMUNICATION GAP The Chinese deputation which called on the Acting Governor in 1883 to draw his attention to certain concerns of the Chinese community was attacked from several quarters. Within the expatriate group in Hongkong there was a mistrust of the practice of Chinese having the direct ear of the Governor. It was felt that the previous Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, had manipulated such meetings to promote policies which favoured the Chinese to the disadvantage of the interests of the European population. They felt that the old established indirect approach through the Registrar General was the best way for the Govern-ment to relate to the Chinese. The Registrar General was the offi-cer responsible for matters affecting the Chinese. His modern counterpart is the Secretary for Home Affairs. Not everyone in the foreign population looked with disfavour on the idea of Chinese deputations. The senior partner of Jardine, Matheson and Company, F.B. Johnson, expressed his support. He felt it was his duty, as he said, not merely as a member of the Legislative Council, but as a resident of the Colony to be present and "to show every possible sympathy he could with the move-ment this deputation had met to advocate." In commenting on these remarks, the editor of one of the Hong-kong papers was not very kind to Johnson, describing him as "one of those eccentric and ostentatious gentlemen who will rather commit any absurdity than be debarred from a public indulgence in windy and meaningless platitudes." A species not unknown in Hongkong today. The Chinese criminal power group was also not happy about the visit, especially as it was to present matters which touched upon their activities. They were prospering under the status quo ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 70 32 For further details and comments about the establishment and failure of the 1881-1883 Normal School, see CO129/197, p. 326f. In this file, Colonial Office minutes are critical of Hennessy's extravagance, note that "the scheme is evidently Dr. Eitel's with Governor Hennessy's fiat" and other correspondence (e.g., Eitel first report on the Normal School, in Eitel to M.S. Tonnochy, Acting Colonial Secretary, 19th January, 1882, and his second report enclosed in his letter to Tonnochy of 19th January, 1882) shows that Eitel, the Inspector of Schools, felt that there would be very unfortunate repercussions if the school were to be closed and that the headmaster, A.J. May was even prepared to take a salary reduction (from the original proposal of $2,400 a year to $1,600) rather than see the Normal School break up. In later reports (contained in CO129/202 p. 532f.), Eitel compared the Normal School, with its "special private tuition and instruction" in pedagogy, to the pupil-teacher scheme at the Central School to the disadvantage of the latter, and May, in his letter to Frederick Stewart of 19th July, 1883, mentioned the virtues of being able to utilize simulation techniques for the preparation of teachers at the Normal School. The actual end of the Normal School, which had been dismissed as unnecessary in the Education Commission Report of September 1882, was precipitated by A.J. May's insistence, in September 1883, that the students agreed to a bond to teach for five years at a salary rate of $25 per month on their completion of the course. The immediate result was that four of the ten students left for the Medical College at Tientsin, three joined commercial firms, and one became a government interpreter, leaving only two of the original intake, as mentioned above, to become teachers. 33 In Singapore, a central training college for men teachers using English as the medium of instruction was proposed in 1904 and again in 1910, but the scheme was aborted because of the lack of applications. In Kuala Lumpur, an experimental teacher training course began in 1905, proved successful, and was followed by a two-year course in Penang in 1907. See Wong Hoy Kee, Francis, and Gwee Yee Hean, Perspectives: The Development of Education in Malaysia and Singapore (Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1972), pp. 12-14. 34 What is certain is that his name does not appear in the Blue Book as one of the Pupil Teachers at the Central School at any time between 1880 and 1885. As noted above, Mok Man Cheung won the Class 1 Mathematics prize in January 1884. He was employed as "Fourth Chinese Assistant" at the Central School from September 1884. He did not, therefore, have the time to be enrolled in a pupil teacher's course, which customarily lasted for three years, but he might have taken an examination in "Pupil-Teacher's Theory" while studying in Class 1. 35 The dispute over the opening hours at the City Hall Museum had come to a head in 1880 when the Executive Committee of the City Hall Museum, led by its chairman, William Keswick, attempted to restrict the entry of Chinese to the afternoons. They were opposed by the first Chinese member of the Legislative Council, Ng Choy, and by the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy. See CO129/189 p. 476-614 for correspondence, largely unsympathetic to the Committee's discriminatory proposal and including an extract from the Hong Kong Hansard for 1880 reporting a speech by Ng Choy, and CO129/192 p. 438-446 for correspondence which includes Keswick's opinion that racial distinctions should not be abolished with regard to admission to the Museum of the City Hall. The call for separate schools for the different races had been made on a number of occasions in the past, most notably in 1845, 1856, and 1870-1872, but the most recent resurgence of interest and argument about the issue had been provoked by a speech made by the Anglican Bishop Hoare at the Prize Distribution of the Diocesan Boys' School in January ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 126 nese and to provide for the better Security of the Residents of the Colony.” Ordinance 18 of 1888 brought together measures for "The Regulation of the Chinese." It contained the light and pass requirements. Ho A-mei, who was a student of the Anglo-Chinese College, must have experienced the troubled time of 1856 and 1857. Forty years later, as a prominent leader of the Chinese, he chaired a meeting held to request the Government to repeal the measures enacted when he was yet a youth. STORM OVER PLAN TO ABOLISH THE LIGHT AND PASS LAW Ho A-mei, educated in the 1850s at Dr. Legge's school in Hong-kong, became in later life a leader in the Chinese community. As such, he participated in many public affairs. In December 1895, he chaired a protest meeting against the strict enforcement of the light and pass regulations. They required Chinese out at night after a certain hour to carry lanterns and passes. These regulations became Hongkong law in 1857 during a time of crisis. It was the opening period of the second Sino-British conflict which extended from 1856 to 1860. At the time the rules were enacted they were regarded as emergency measures to guard against arson and other subversive activities by agents sent to Hongkong by the Chinese authorities at Canton. After the emergency was over, the requirement for Chinese to carry lights and passes was not suspended. It remained as law but was enforced spasmodically. Since the rules applied to only one section of Hongkong's population, the Chinese, it was labelled by some as “class legislation.” As such, a growing number of Chinese began to resent them, not only for the inconvenience they caused, but on the principle they were discriminatory and humiliating. It was felt that they implied that the Chinese as a group were lawless and treacherous. This resentment surfaced when Sir John Pope Hennessy be- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 120 77 *Reports on the New Territories for the Year 1932; B. Southern District”, Hong Kong Administrative Reports 1932, p. J22. # Nathan, p. 282-283. "Imports for the Year 1855", Hong Kong Blue Book 1855, p. 323, "Imports for the Year 1857". Hong Kong Blue Book 1857, p. 183. 26 Hennessy, J.P., "Address of Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy, KCMG, on the Census Returns and the Progress of Hong Kong", Hong Kong Administrative Reports, 1880-1881. די Hong Kong Annual Report 1946, p. 42. + Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce +*** "Business Conditions", in: Report for the Year 1949 Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce). E‡‡ƒ), (Hong Kong: 29 Ingrams, H., "Industry”, in: Hong Kong, (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1952), p. 139. Fieldwork, 1987. 31 Registrar of Trade Unions, Annual Departmental Reports, 1960-1969. +2 Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Trade Statistics. 1968-1978. See Plate 15. See Plate 16. 15 See Plate 17. See Plates 18 and 19. 17 Osgood. Cornelius, The Chinese, a Study of a Hong Kong Community, Volume 2. (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1975), p. 769. 18 **Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries", Hong Kong Blue Book 1911. P. V3. 39 Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries", Hong Kong Blue Book 1903-1906, p. V4. 40 "Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries", Hong Kong Blue Book 1946, p. V3. "Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries", Hong Kong Blue Book 1920-1925, p. VI. See Appendix 1 for a table of Locations of Joss Stick Factories, 1902-1930. + Leeming, Frank, Streets Studies in Hong Kong: Localities in a Chinese City. (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 105. 4.1 + ibid, p. 109. See Appendix II for plans of a Number of Factories. See Appendix III for a Map showing the 1987 distribution of Joss Stick Factories. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 251 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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 408 was said to have been a British Member of Parliament. Alice was a gracious lady. Choa gives her maiden name as Walkden. It is sometimes elsewhere, puzzlingly, quoted as Whitcome. Did she have a step father one wonders? Or was this an unfortunate mistake by some writer and a case of give a slip-up five minutes start and the truth never catches up with it?' This could be the case. Certainly the name on the huge family memorial, in the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley, is carved as Alice Walkden. Before the couple arrived back in Hong Kong in 1882 the then Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, announced to the Legislative Council that this young Chinese had taken the highest honours at Lincoln's Inn. 'It was something that a gentleman belonging to the Colony should have gained such honours.' Anyway, back in the British colony in those days the 'superstitious' Chinese generally did not take readily to 'newfangled,' western medicine and Ho Kai switched to law. But a brilliant Chinese with fluent English was rare in those days. He was enticed into business. He also entered public service and, in addition to sitting on a number of other government committees, sat on the Sanitary Board (the forerunner of the Urban Council) and, in 1890, became a Legislative Councillor. He was the third Chinese to sit on this august body. He was also a Justice of the Peace. Having lived in the West for a number of years it is not surprising he developed strong views about social reform and the modernisation of China. He became an associate of statesman Dr Sun Yat-sen. This was at a time when China was striving to rid itself of the Qing dynasty and there was danger the country would be assimilated by colonial powers. In his latter life Ho Kai spent most of his time serving the community. He helped, together with his colleagues, to mould the Territory in which we now live. Ho Kai was capable and, understandably, there was no need for him to take to heart the Chinese axiom: 'If you do not become a good minister be a good physician.' He was 'lionised and eulogised' after his death by all sectors of ================================================================================