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16 

T. C. CHENG 

Dr. Ho died in September 1914 at the age of 55 leaving over ten sons and daughters by his second wife who was a Chinese. 

The fourth Chinese to serve on the Legislative Council was Wei Yuk, son-in-law of Mr. Wong Shing. He had another name Wei Bo-shan17 and Po Shan Road is named after him. He was born in Hong Kong in 1849 of a wealthy family, his father, Wei Kwong, being compradore to the Hong Kong branch of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China (now the Mercantile Bank Ltd.). After many years of Chinese studies under private tutors, he entered the Government Central School. In 1867, at the age of 18, he proceeded to England to attend the Leicester Stoneygate School. In 1868 he went to Scotland and studied for four years at the Dollar Institution. After a European tour, he returned to Hong Kong in 1872 and then worked in China for a short period. When his father died in 1879 he succeeded him as compradore to the bank. He was a very public-spirited citizen, well-known for his charming manners and pleasant personality. In 1880 he was elected a director of the Tung Wah Hospital and in 1887 became its Chairman. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1883. 

Wei Yuk's appointment to the Legislative Council was additional to and not in replacement of Ho Kai, and came about as follows. 

During 1894, the Governor, Sir William Robinson, forwarded to the Secretary of State a petition signed by the Honourable Messrs. Thomas Whitehead, Paul Chater, Ho Kai and other residents in the Colony, asking for unofficial membership in the Executive Council; "free election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council"; "a majority of such representatives in the Legislative Council"; and freedom of the official members to vote according to their conscientious convictions.18 

The Secretary of State, Lord Ripon, criticized the petitioners' demands as lacking in clarity on the ground that the petitioners "asked for the free election of representatives of British nationality without reference to the qualifications of the voters". Thus if the petitioners intended that only those from the British Islands should vote and be eligible for election, this would exclude the Chinese who comprised nine-tenths of the entire population. He dismissed the claim to have a majority of elected representatives,
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and stated that free debate by officials was impossible because paid servants must support Government measures or resign.

However, in a confidential letter to the Governor, Lord Ripon agreed that unofficial representation on the Legislative Council should be enlarged and that there should be two unofficial members nominated to the Executive Council. Considering the extent of the Chinese contribution to Hong Kong and the undesirability of making any distinctions of race, he was of the opinion that one of them ought to be a Chinese. In his reply, the Governor, Sir William Robinson, doubted the advisability of the proposed increase in the Legislative Council and opposed having a Chinese on the Executive Council on the ground that he "could not and would not be an independent member". He also added that the Chinese did not understand representative Government.

In 1896, the new Secretary of State, Joseph Chamberlain, approved the appointment of an extra unofficial in the Legislative Council, preferably a Chinese, and the appointment of two unofficial members for the first time in the Executive Council. Thus in 1896 Wei Yuk became an unofficial member in the Legislative Council, and Messrs. Paul Chater and J. Bell-Irving of Jardine, Matheson & Co., took their seats in the Executive Council on 22nd October, 1896. From the year 1896 to 1929 there were two Chinese unofficial members serving concurrently on the Legislative Council.

Although he was junior to Dr. Ho Kai in the Legislative Council, yet because he was older in age and much more Chinese in his mentality and approach, he was just as much respected by the Chinese as was Dr. Ho Kai. He did a good deal to bridge the gap between the Europeans and the Chinese on the one hand, and the Government and the Chinese population on the other. His advice was highly respected by the Government, especially at times of strikes and troubles among the Chinese masses, e.g., the coolie strike against the health regulations for plague prevention in 1894. He was noted for his ability to settle matters amicably before they assumed serious proportions. He was very much concerned with law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was formed in 1888, the district
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merchants in this Colony. In all necessary measures to that end, I know that I can rely upon the whole-hearted support of this Council". At the same meeting, the Senior Unofficial member, Sir Henry Pollock, paid the following tribute to Sir Shouson Chow and Robert Kotewall; "During the last seven months, in particular, we have felt indebted not only to Sir Shouson Chow but also to his Chinese colleague on the Council. We, Sir, behind the scenes, can appreciate perhaps more fully than the general public the work of the Chinese members of this Council during the period I have referred to”. 

On 9th July 1926, Sir Shouson Chow was also appointed the first Chinese member of the Executive Council, following the death of Sir Paul Chater who had served on that Council since 1896.26 Although the appointment was made on personal grounds, it was evident that political considerations also came in, viz., to pacify anti-British sentiment in China and to further encourage the loyalty of local Chinese towards Hong Kong. 

Sir Shouson Chow served on both Councils until 1930, when he resigned from the Legislative Council. He continued, however, to be a member of the Executive Council until he retired in 1936. He died many years after the war, in 1959, 

When Lau Chu-pak retired from the Legislative Council in 1922, he was succeeded by Ng Hon-tsz who was born in 1877 and was compradore to Shewan, Tomes, Ltd. He was a director of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1907 and was a founder of the Tsan Yuk Hospital. He was at various times a member of the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board and the Council of the University of Hong Kong. He served in the Legislative Council for only two years and died in 1923 while in office. After his death, Sir Henry Pollock remarked at the Legislative Council meeting held on 10th May 1923 that Mr. Ng had always been a "wise, sound and faithful councillor”. 

Mr. Robert Kotewall, who succeeded Ng Hon-tsz as a member of the Legislative Council in 1923, was born in Hong Kong in 1880. Educated at the Central School as well as the Diocesan Boys' School, he was a noted English as well as Chinese scholar and was a very good speaker. After a distinguished career in the Hong Kong Government until 1916, he turned to business and
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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".
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and half-caste parentage, and to board, clothe and instruct them with a view to industrial life and the Christian faith according to the Church of England'. (Resolutions of Jan. 18, 1870) 

After the reorganisation, the Committee came under male domination; local firms were liberal supporters. Some members of Jardine, Matheson and Company were on the Committee from 1869 to 1901, William Keswick serving the longest from 1869 to 1888, except for his absences from the Colony. Sir Catchick Paul Chater served from 1874 to 1925. 

The school was particularly useful in meeting the educational needs of the increasing Eurasian element in Hong Kong and the China Coast. It educated many of the future leading members of these communities. In 1869, it was decided not to admit any more girls as boarders, though they could continue as day students. In 1892, the girls then in attendance were transferred to a Boarding School 'Fairlea' conducted by Miss Margaret Johnstone. 

Before occupying a building especially erected for the school on a lot on Bonham Road at Eastern Street in 1863, the school had been at the Albany, a building loaned to them by the Government. The Bonham Road building was enlarged and improved over the years. In time, however, it became inadequate for the needs of the school, especially as a growing emphasis on the role of sports in the life of the school was frustrated by a lack of proper playing fields. In 1917, a definite decision was made that a new site be secured. The firm of Messrs. Little, Adams and Wood drew up plans for a new school in 1920, but negotiations with the Government for a site were not completed until 1923. Site formation began in 1924. The general strike of 1925 and the resulting financial recession slowed down the construction and necessitated the elimination of certain parts of the original plans. An imposing tower, a feature of the original plan, was never erected. 

The buildings were occupied in 1926, but in 1927, the school somewhat reluctantly released the premises to the Army for a hospital for the Shanghai Defence Force. The school took up temporary quarters in a recently built block of buildings on Nathan Road near Prince Edward Road. In January 1928, the premises were returned to the school. The school faced another crisis in 1932 when suggestions were made that the Government resume the property in default of payments on the debt the School owed and
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and 1860s. Like Hung Shing, its image is taken out in procession on the major festivals and placed in the seat of honour at opera performances given on the island and in neighbouring Aberdeen. Members also visited a soy sauce factory, a shipyard specialising in fishing boats and a fishing store. In November, Miss Werle arranged another visit, to a ceramics factory at Yuen Long, and to the single lineage village of Sam Tung Uk in Tsuen Wan, a joint excursion with the Hong Kong Ceramics Society. In January this year, I arranged a visit to the Sikh temple, with the kind cooperation of Mr. Pritham Singh, who is an active member of the temple. Sikh religion is a revisionist movement from within Hinduism, founded formally at the close of the seventeenth century as a reaction to what the Sikhs saw as the ritual and social excesses of orthodox Hinduism. There are some 2,000 Sikhs in Hong Kong. The occasion this time, we had a previous visit last year, was the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the last Guru of the Sikhs. Members of the Society attended part of the religious service at which members of the congregation came up to the altar to sing sutras, give comments or make observations relating to their religion, or play musical instruments and sing. We were then invited to the vegetarian curry luncheon prepared and served by members of the congregation for the congregation. Finally, in March, we were invited by our Council member M. Geoffroy-Dechaume, the French Consul-General, to his house in Old Peak Road. This is one of the few surviving old houses on the Island. Built in 1895 by Messrs. Leigh and Orange, still one of the large architectural firms in the Colony, on a piece of land acquired by Sir Paul Chater, it was named Victoria Lodge and has been the home of successive French Consuls since the earliest part of this century. Tea was kindly provided by Madame Dechaume.

FILMS

Most of our film shows were arranged by Miss Werle and shared with members of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, with which Miss Werle is professionally associated. In May, we had an evening of Japanese films, one on Noh drama, one on Kabuki and one on Japanese print-making, all in English and supplied by courtesy of the Information and Cultural office of the Consulate-General of Japan. A highlight of our film programme was a film made by Mr. Hugh Gibb, an old friend and member of the Society, whose
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gilded roundels and a scholar's cap. He is clean shaven and holds a short-handled round fan in his left hand. His wife is dressed in faded robes and is bareheaded. Both have strong faces, probably adequate if not good likenesses. The images are about 12 inches high.

Malacca too, has strong Fukienese connections, and again I would expect this couple to have been of Fukienese origin.

Hong Kong.

October, 1979

KEITH STEVENS

MARBLE HALL*

Marble Hall was a very fine private residence in Conduit Road, Hong Kong, built by Sir Catchik Paul Chater. It has since disappeared, but the photographs which this note supplements reveal how imposing and sumptuously furnished a home it once was.

The owner

Sir Paul Chater, born on 8 September 1846 of Armenian parents from Calcutta, arrived in Hong Kong in 1864. His career began in a bank, but he soon went into business as an exchange and bullion broker and later ventured into various successful commercial enterprises. He established the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, having been authorised by two ordinances in 1884 to construct piers and wharves in Victoria harbour, and was a co-founder (with Jardine, Matheson & Co) of the Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Co Ltd (now better known simply as "Hong Kong Land"); later he formed the Hong Kong Mining Company to exploit deposits of iron ore in the New Territories and operated coal mines in Tonking. He was a public-spirited gentleman who initiated the Praya reclamation scheme in 1887 and campaigned vigorously for acquisition by Britain of the territory where he later discovered iron. Chater served as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council for nearly twenty years, elected to that position by his fellow Justices of the Peace, and was one of the first unofficials to be appointed to the Executive Council.

*Plates 24-32 illustrate this Note,
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He won his knighthood in 1902. His activities also extended to religion (he built St. Andrew's church in Kowloon), sport (he presided over the Jockey Club for many years) and the arts (the "Chater Collection" of porcelain, pottery and paintings was highly valued).

The house

Marble Hall was built towards the end of the nineteenth century. About five hundred feet above sea level, it was said to command excellent views of the harbour and stood amidst two acres of shrubs and tropical plants. A Public Works Department memorandum noted that its external walls were of "stuccoed brickwork finished in the Classic Style through which runs a strong Jacobean tendency"; the main staircase was "of monumental design executed in polished Italian marble." The house was flanked on three sides by wide verandahs and contained a spacious hall, drawing room, card room, dining and billiard rooms, four bedrooms (each with its own bathroom and easy access to a drying room), a large kitchen, pantry, scullery, silver and wine closet, and ample servants' quarters. Internal materials included mahogany from England and stained and polished teak.

Admiralty House

Sir Paul Chater died on 26 May 1926 and, in his will, bequeathed Marble Hall and its furniture, fixtures and household effects (including pottery, paintings and all his racing cups but excluding some china and curios) to the government of Hong Kong. The gift was to take effect when his widow, Lady Maria Christine Chater, ceased to live in the house. She apparently left the colony in 1927 with no intention of returning, but the house did not become the property of the government until her death on 11 March 1935. Governor Sir Cecil Clementi had suggested in 1926 that Marble Hall be offered to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for use by the Naval Commander-in-Chief of the China Squadron, and in 1935 the gracious residence became the colony's "Admiralty House."

The Admiral found other accommodation after Christmas Day, 1941, but following expulsion of the Japanese from Hong Kong in 1945 he once again took residence in Marble Hall. Soon afterwards, however, the house was damaged by fire. It apparently stood dere-
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lict until demolition commenced in November 1953 and a block of government flats was erected. This more modern and far less attractive building was originally to be known as "Marble Hall Flats" but is now called Chater Hall. What seems to be some of the brickwork associated with Sir Paul Chater's home can still be seen near the site.

Hong Kong, June 1979

A Note on Sources

PETER WESLEY-SMITH

The photographs were contained in the Governor's despatch to the Colonial Office written when the gift of Marble Hall to the Hong Kong Government seemed to be about to take effect. See Clementi to Amery, No. 475, 23 Nov. 1926: C.O.129/498. Also included with the despatch were extensive plans of the house and a description provided by the Public Works Department, Hong Kong. Short biographical notices of Sir Paul Chater appear in Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai etc. (London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., Ltd., 1908), pp. 107-8 (there is a photograph of Marble Hall at p. 156) and W. Feldwick (ed.), Present Day Impressions of the Far East etc. (London: The Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917), pp. 518-20. See also Nigel Cameron's brief history of The Hong Kong Land Company Ltd., published in 1979. Further (though scanty) information can be discovered in the various reported cases on Chater's much-litigated will; see (1927) 22 H.K.L.R. 80; (1927) 22 H.K.L.R. 89; (1930) 24 H.K.L.R. 43; (1936) 28 H.K.L.R. 1; (1937) 157 T.L.R. 376 (on appeal to the Privy Council); (1949) 33 H.K.L.R. 283. Chater was authorised to embark on pier and wharf schemes by ordinances Nos. 4 and 19 of 1884. After his death, the Chater Masonic Scholarship Fund Ordinance (No. 25 of 1929, now cap. 1007, L.H.K. 1975 ed.) was passed. His collection of pictures is catalogued in James Orange, The Chater Collection: Pictures Relating to China, Hong Kong, Macao, 1655-1860 (London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1924).

I am much indebted to Mr. J. F. G. Marshall, of the Public Works Department, Hong Kong, for information he painstakingly gathered several years ago on the postwar history of Marble Hall. Hong Kong, September, 1979

PETER WESLEY-SMITH
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CARL T. SMITH

After nine years a lying-underground

That wants unveiling; is it the Duke of Connaught? I fear we cannot hold him tho' we ought,

Has Chater found his long-last C.M.G.

Or is the new club† opened by the sea?

Even the Kowloon-Canton Railway is referred to a dozen or so years before it became a fact.†† Fra Diavolo comments on reading a newspaper:

Next comes the news China is awaking Railways in all directions she is making. Fancy from Kowloon city setting forth,

'Change here for Shanghai, Peking, and the North".

One of the lyrics gave tips for cutting a figure during the pre-race season:

If you want to know the way to be a genuine Hong Kong sport,

Listen to me.

A griffin* you must have of course, no matter of what sort. At five o'clock in the morning you must trudge to the course;

A stop watch in your pocket is the game;

And though you need not know a job about a horse

They may think you Morny Cannon all the same.

Come along with me, come along with me.

With boots and breeches spick and span,

The latest pattern from Ah Man.**

† Sir Paul Chater, Hong Kong merchant and philanthropist. Made Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George 1897.

The Hong Kong Club moved from Queen's Road and Wyndham Street to its new building on the Praya (now Connaught Road) 26 July 1897.

††† William Danby, Civil Engineer, was requested by Chinese authorities to make a survey of a railway line from Canton to Kowloon (Daily Press 30 Aug. 1884). In 1888 a group of Chinese capitalists in Hong Kong revived a scheme to build the railroad. They received permission to proceed from the Peking Government in 1890,

A survey team began work in July 1890 (Daily Press 12, 18 June, 17 July 1890). The project fell through. One of its promoters, Lo Hok-pang, formed another syndicate at Canton in 1892, but again the proposal had to be dropped. (Hong Kong Telegraph 28 Oct. 1892).

* One of the China ponies sent from North China to Shanghai and then to Hong Kong.

** A Chinese tailor.
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twelve o'clock gun firing is due to the liberality of Mr Magniac (a partner) of Messrs. Jardine Matheson and Company, who, when the Home Government ceased to provide this small return for the heavy Military Contribution forwarded annually from this Colony, purchased a gun, etc. and had it fixed up at Messrs. Jardine's, where it is fired daily.

Although their gun is still at East Point, not far from where Jardine's started trading in 1841, their head office moved to Central District as long ago as 1864. It has been said there is not one field of commerce in which it does not hold a prominent position and its 'tentacles' extend to interests in many other firms.

Hong Kong Land

The Colony's leading businessmen have usually had considerable interests in land, and it was thus fitting that two of them, Paul Chater (later Sir Paul) and James Johnstone Keswick, should be prime movers in the Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Company which was incorporated in 1889. The latter, as Taipan of Jardine's, following in the footsteps of his great-uncle William Jardine, was also founding chairman of Hong Kong Land. James was the first of six Keswicks, spanning five generations, to hold the position.

The company soon began buying sites and erecting office buildings. Between June 1904 and December 1905 it erected Hong Kong's first 'skyscrapers', five major buildings each of five or six storeys, which dwarfed the two and three-storey structures surrounding them.

Hong Kong Land acquired Humphrey's Estate and Finance Company, which owns residential property in Mid-Levels, in 1972, and for 14 years 'Land' had a controlling interest in the Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company. Today, the latter is once again an independent public company. In its centenary year Hong Kong Land owned some six-million square feet of commercial space of which five-million is in the so-called 'Core Central' area. The firm has been described as "... perhaps the most valuable property company in the world and certainly in the region ...." Whether this is true is not known. Certainly, today, some Japanese companies hold considerable interests in real estate on a global scale.

L
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The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company

735

Another important associate company of Jardine's until the mid-1980s was 'Wharf, which was a pioneer in the development of Kowloon. The firm was established in 1886 by Paul Chater and Kerfoot Hughes. About the same time Jardine's started a wharf at West Point, but largely because of labour difficulties with Chinese lightermen Kowloon Wharf and Jardine's Wharf amalgamated. In 1887, they acquired the P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) wharf at West Point although this was later sold,

Sir Paul Chater

It is appropriate here to say something about Anglophile Catchick Paul Chater, born of Armenian parents in 1846, who came to Hong Kong from Calcutta at the age of 18. He started work as a clerk in the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan, but soon branched out on his own as an exchange and bullion broker. Chater later became a business associate of the Sassoons, who were Jewish merchants. Chater's interests were many and varied. In addition to Hong Kong Land and Kowloon Wharf they included substantial real estate holdings. Hong Kong Bank, Dairy Farm, Star Ferry, Hong Kong Tramways, and Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels. Chater was also a pioneer in the 57 acre Praya reclamation scheme, in Central District, which included Des Voeux and Connaught Roads, and is now one of the most valuable areas of land on earth.

Although he was sometimes accused of showing indecent regard for Royalty and all things British, including cricket, others believed, "Where Chater goes today Jardine's follow tomorrow". Venturesome in business, few men have contributed so much to Hong Kong as he did, and he worked closely with the British for several decades. One of the busiest roads in Central, as well as Chater Garden and Catchick Street, is named after him. As a self-made man with considerable foresight he was generous, and he became a public benefactor and patron of the arts. Unfortunately, the Chater collection of paintings was lost during World War II. Sir Paul, who served on both the Legislative and Executive Councils, died in 1926 an honoured and respected man.

Butterfield and Swire

Another of the great Hongs, Swire's, is Jardine's competitor, even
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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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―

and Godown Company. 'Monuments' still standing include the Helena May Institute (completed 1916), Saint Andrew's Church (foundation stone laid 1904) and Church Hall, and the Peninsula Hotel (official opening 1928) which — along with the Taj Mahal in Bombay, Raffles in Singapore and a few others was classified, before World War II, as one of the 'great hotels of the East'. Another of Leigh and Orange's edifices is the main, 'Renaissance' style, building at Hong Kong University which was completed in 1912 and extended in 1952. It has been gazetted as an historical monument. The now demolished Sir Paul Chater's 'Marble Hall', generally accepted as the most luxurious residence in Hong Kong before World War II, was another example.

The Colony's first, full-time, chartered accountant was Arthur Lowe, who came to Hong Kong in 1902. Joseph Bingham became his partner in 1905, and Frederick Mathews (Lowe, Bingham and Mathews) in 1909. There were other accountants in the Territory before 1902, but few had professional qualifications and auditing was usually a subsidiary activity to their main lines of business. For instance, Linstead and Davis were mainly property agents, but they also sold bicycles, and, up to 1926, they had an agency for Manila cigars. The partners audited the accounts of various companies. The senior partner of Gibb Livingston was one of the two Hong Kong Bank auditors, and so on.

Lowe Bingham (Lo Bing Ham in Chinese) became part of the international firm of Price Waterhouse in 1974,

Hong Kong and China Gas Company

William Glen, who had no knowledge of the gas industry in 1861, obtained from the then Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (when the population was 123,281), a concession to supply gas to the city of Victoria. The company was incorporated on May 31st 1862: most of the shareholders lived in the United Kingdom, although 500 shares were offered locally.

Then, on December 3rd 1864, Hong Kong was lit with gas for the first time by about 15 miles of mains and 500 lamps, in Queen's Road extending up the hill to Upper Albert Road. Previously, the only street lights had been installed voluntarily by residents, and burned peanut oil. The residents of Caine Road complained that they

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and at six o'clock on December 1st, 1890, 50 electric lights were switched on in Queen's Road Central, Battery Path, and Upper Albert Road. All testing had been done in secret so nothing would mar the excitement of that first night. On the second night a fault put the electric lights out and sceptics were saying, 'I told you so!' A week later, during rain, the lights went out again, and they were not restored for two days. There were no more breakdowns from then on for 26 years.

Later, all streets west as far as Bonham Strand and Caine Road at Mid-Levels, and, later still, along Queen's Road East and Wanchai Road to Mission Hospital Hill (the present site of Ruttonjee Sanitorium) were lit. Hong Kong and Shanghai were the first two Asian cities to have a public electricity supply, and Hong Kong Electric is the only surviving company of the many that pioneered electric power throughout the Far East. It is one of the oldest suppliers of electricity in the world.

Of the three chief men who pioneered the Hong Kong Electric venture, Bendyshe Layton is credited with providing the momentum, and Sir Paul Chater, who was a director for 37 years, was responsible for finance. Capital amounted to $300,000, divided into 30,000 shares of which half were offered to the public. The third person was William Wickham the electrical engineer. He designed and supervised the building of the first power station and remained as manager of the company until 1910.

Interest in electricity soon developed, and, in the 1890s, the first private homes were wired up and electric fans began to replace punkas. Also, by 1898, the first substation was constructed to service the new tall buildings, which had electric lifts (elevators), along the newly reclaimed waterfront. By 1905 the company was supplying power for 15 lifts, hundreds of fans, the equivalent of 34,500 lamps and street lighting. The Royal Naval Dockyard, near where Queensway now runs, was a blaze of light.

Power was later extended, underground, to West Point, then the centre of the colony's busy night life. Subsequently electricity reached the Peak and Shau Kei Wan, and, by 1916, Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau were supplied. Gradually large organisations like Dairy Farm, Taikoo Docks, the Peak Tram and the University, which had been
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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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July 2nd

Lockhart and Governor now making themselves obnoxious bloody fools They are now walking into the mite properly

July 4

Saw Governor about suggested plans, gave him a lecture as to what to do and who to take advice from

July 6th

Governor and ADC round hospitals Governor said to Chater (Sir Paul Chater, the well-known Hong Kong personality) in Club (Hong Kong Club) before me "We expect to go to Laichikok tomorrow" This was a boast that he was actually thinking about running into some danger at last

July 7th

Lockhart, Cantlie and Hartigan at Laichikok, (2) did not visit graveyards at all Castle, II and L to Hygeia Never visited graves

July 8th

Preston and Westcott to Laichukok, no graves visited

Cantlie was Dr. (later Sir James) Cantlie, dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine. He and Dr. William Hartigan were asked to visit Laichikok Hospital and report to the Governor. Also asked were two army medical officers, Surgeon Colonel A.F. Preston and Surgeon Captain S. Westcott. Lowson paid much attention to the way the plague victims were buried. He insisted that the graves should be dug down to a certain depth so that the coffins could be properly covered up with soil and lime and not exposed. A reporter from the Hong Kong Weekly Press described what he saw in Laichikok before the two visits as follows: 'The average depth of the graves was not more than nine inches. In some cases, not a few, the coffin was actually above the level of the ground and merely had a little mound of loose earth above them. Lowson's specifications had therefore not been properly carried out. In spite of Lowson's question mark, Cantlie and Hartigan did visit the graveyard. They wrote: 'We saw eight graves ready for use; they were in a row about 2 ft. apart and quite 6-1/2 ft deep.' They added that the official accompanying them volunteered the information that for the first graves the depth was insufficient because burial had to be done in a hurry. Preston and Westcott wrote that they did
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establish a branch there of the new Deutsch Bank. Mr. Mammelsdorf to take charge in Yokohama. A special branch will be opened in Hong Kong. Both of these gentlemen were formerly in the Comptoir as was also Mr. Wallach who will take charge at Berlin. Mr. Probst, formerly of Pustau and Co. takes the branch at Hamburg. At Bremen will be Mr. Van der Heyde, formerly of Behre, Meyer and Co Singapore."

At the same time as the Deutsch Bank was in the process of opening offices in China, the Deutsche National Bank of Bremen was organised and appointed Melchers and Co. their agent in Hong Kong and Siemssen and Co. their agent in Shanghai (DP 29 June 1872).

The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was registered at the Imperial German Consulate in Shanghai on 15 May 1889. In 1905, M. Hemann, the manager of the Hong Kong branch of the Bank was succeeded by Hugo Suter (DP 17 July 1905). The Bank redeveloped in 1913 the property on Queen's Road which it had occupied since 1901. The building, of modern renaissance style "on chaste and simple lines", was occupied for only a few months before it had to shut its doors with the outbreak of hostilities between England and Germany (SCMP 14 Aug. 1913, HKT 6 Jan. 1914). The building was purchased from the liquidators in 1917 by Sir Paul Chater for $355,000 (SCMP 14 Aug. 1917).

From the time of the organization of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1864 to 1914 there were Germans on the Board of the Bank. Woldemar Nissen of Siemssen and Co. was on the Provisional Committee. Another member of the Provisional Committee was Waldemar Schmidt, whose name sounds German, a partner in the English firm of Fletcher and Co. In May 1868 Julius Menke of William Pustau and Co. joined the Board. With the failure of William Pustau and Co. in 1877 the firm was no longer represented. But in the meantime Hermann Melchers of Melchers and Co. was elected to a seat on the Board in 1872. The bank was watchful that the British interests should not be swamped by German and American, Arnhold, Karbegg and Co. had a representative on the board from 1888 and Carlowitz and Co. from 1875. In 1914 all the firms mentioned, but William Pustau and Co., had a partner on the Bank (Dr. King's detailed history of the bank has lists of the directors for each year).
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Reclamation

Victoria Harbour, the raison d'etre for Hong Kong's foundation, formed the focal point around which the new settlers clustered and around which the banks, business houses, the shipyards and, later, commercial factories were built. Hemmed in by hills both to the north and the south, the population around the harbour became concentrated on the limited flat or less steeply sloping land available along the coast. Expansion was only possible by reclamation into the sea (and later by higher buildings), spoil being obtained from nearby hills thus providing additional building land. Until the advent of motor vehicles, reclamations were unable to benefit from more remote fill sources, like the Peak where site development necessitated balanced cut and fill. In all several hundred hectares of land were reclaimed in the hundred years up to 1941 (compared with many thousands in the 50 years following).

Some of the people who were lucky enough to lease the first lots of land fronting on the sea, which had been auctioned in 1841, extended their lots by illicit reclamation over the foreshore absorbing such land as could easily be reclaimed, a procedure which was soon forbidden. Quite early, probably in 1842-3, some valuable land was reclaimed in Victoria, part of which was subsequently occupied by the Hong Kong Cricket Club (now Chater Garden).

The first formal praya (waterfront) reclamation scheme was partly carried out in 1851, by the filling of a small creek in the Bonham Strand area, but as might be expected it aroused stiff opposition from affected lessees who claimed marine rights. This, compounded by the destruction of part of the original praya wall by severe typhoons in 1867 and 1874, delayed matters but, despite these problems, by 1886 an 8km-long near-continuous strip of land (the major discontinuance being the section adjacent to the naval and military areas), perhaps broadly averaging around 100m wide was formed between Kennedy Town and North Point, the seawalls providing much needed access for handling marine cargo. In 1887 further reclamation was recommended to alleviate overcrowding in the city. As a result, the Praya Reclamation Ordinance was gazetted in 1890 and a year later Paul Chater (later Sir Paul) initiated a band of reclamation, totalling 26 hectares and extending three kilometres westward from Murray Road along the northern foreshore.
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had eight (some say nine) concubines. In 1928, the house was passed on to his son, Mr. Mok Hing Shung.

Up until the 1950s and 1960s, there were several palatial mansions standing in their own grounds in the Mid-Levels. Some had tennis courts. One splendid example was Marble Hall, at 1 Conduit Road where Chater Hall now stands. Marble Hall was built by Sir Paul Catchick Chater, a wealthy Armenian merchant and philanthropist. It was said in his days: "What Chater does today Jardine does tomorrow." The general design of Marble Hall was similar in many respects to the old mansion at 41 Conduit Road. In addition to the photographs hanging in the entrance lobbies of the five blocks at Realty Gardens today, there is an artist's embellished impression of No. 41 in the Hong Kong Museum of Art at Tsim Sha Tsui.1

From 1951 to 1961 the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC), a period some members describe as its heyday, was ensconced in the splendid building at No. 41. One could drive to the Club then and either drive up the slope or, alternatively, there was space for about three cars to park at the Conduit Road level. One could then take the lift (the first installed in a private dwelling in Hong Kong) up to the main entrance. There were nine bedrooms on the upper floor and the fireplaces were of Italian marble. The whole house had a wonderful ambience. With a little stretch of the imagination one can almost picture Han Suyin sitting under a cupola on the roof partaking of afternoon tea. The FCC was offered the lovely old building for a mere HK$250,000 in the 1950s, but the political situation was considered too precarious at the time to contemplate purchase.

I first came to live in Conduit Road in March 1955, at the previous (then newly completed) block at No. 56. I frequently walked past the old Foreign Correspondents' Club, sometimes when boisterous parties were in full swing. On Saturday nights it was considered the place to be. The FCC had its own band but it also hired bands from the armed forces. Private parties were common there as well as diplomatic corps and airline lunches.

But, in spite of the noise emanating at times from No. 41, Conduit Road was generally quiet and peaceful. At the western end especially it was almost like a country road, with trees and undergrowth, and one
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