RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d NOTES AND QUERIES 153 Land, labour and gold; or, Two years in Victoria, with visits to Sydney and Van Diemen's Land, by William Howitt, London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855. 2 vols. The chop of the Victoria Library and Reading Rooms appears on the front end-paper of each volume, with the shelf-mark C244 written in ink. The transfer of this work to the City Hall Library in 1871 is evidenced by its chop on the half-title and title-page. It is interesting to speculate whether the selection of this book, the title of which on the spine is "Two years in Victoria”, was due to a confusion between Victoria, Australia, and Victoria, Hong Kong. At least one user of the Victoria Library, or possibly the City Hall Library, got as far as p.57 of vol. 1, since a bookmark consisting of a strip from an old Hong Kong newspaper (not identified) is inserted there. Similar marks of successive ownership appear on the other book, though here the Victoria Library chop appears on the title page and dedication leaf as well as on the front end-paper or fly-leaf. The shelf-mark on the fly-leaf appears to be F404. The title-page is reproduced at plate 18, to show the two ownership chops. The rectangular chop at the top is the processing chop of the University of Hong Kong Library, to which this book came as a gift from an unknown source in 1962; it is impressed on the back of the title-page, but shows through. All three volumes are bound in a typical mid-Victorian style, brown polished calf with marbled paper. The shelf-marks do not appear on the spines, though they may have been on labels which have long since come off. The precise significance of the shelf-marks is not clear, though probably they were similar to those used in the Morrison Library, where the letter indicated a broad subject grouping (e.g. C for books of travel, D for natural history), each volume being given a running number within the appropriate group when added to the collection. It is much to be regretted that no copies of the catalogues of any of the earlier Hong Kong libraries appear to have survived, other than the 1873 catalogue of the Morrison Library, when it was located in the old City Hall. Hong Kong, 1969. H. A. RYDINGS ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p CARL T. SMITH THE HONG KONG AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB AND ITS PREDECESSORS THE PROLOGUE To set the mood for an article on Amateur Dramatics in Hong Kong, I quote a prologue to the performance of "the screaming farce", 'I've Written to Brown' presented on 21 April 1871 by the Hong Kong Amateurs. Ladies and Gentlemen, the pleasing task Is mine tonight your kindly smiles to ask, For those who now behind the curtain wait, With biding, anxious hearts to learn their fate. So let your verdict generous be, the while We strive a pleasant hour to beguile. But who can now a pleasant hour boast, With thirteen steamers daily up the coast Sharebrokers pressing one to sell or buy With telegrams cach minute from Shanghai With stern Welsh witnesses, who'd rather brook A Judge's ire than kiss a dirty book, And, by their word prepared to stand or fall Say they'll be if they will swear at all! With piece goods market all to pieces gone, Through sales of damaged shirtings ex the Don, And, piling agony, beyond endurance With Oily Phantom's new Chinese Insurance;† Where, of our interests most august protectors, They've such a crushing army of Directors! Since last we met, though some enlivening rays Of social light have cheered our nights and days, A quiet Picnic to Victoria Peak Photos in High Life, taken once a week †The American firm of Olyphant and Company organized in 1871 at Hong Kong the Chinese Insurance Company. It was the first insurance company on the China coast to cater especially to Chinese shippers and merchants. Its Board was composed of both Chinese and foreigners. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 238 CARL T. SMITH The Regiment Amateur Dramatic Society put on in 1876 at the Garrison Theatre two short pieces, "Maud's Peril" and "John Brown John's Holiday". Both were written by an anonymous local resident. Capt. Bunbury wrote a burlesque entitled "Butter Cup Bower" for presentation at an open air fete to raise funds for the Alice Memorial Hospital in 1886. It was repeated several months later as the dramatic portion of “A Musical and Dramatic Entertainment" to raise funds for an annual treat to the children of non-commissioned officers and men of the Garrison. GARRISON AMATEUR GROUPS We have noted that the first amateur dramatics were encouraged as diversion and entertainment for the military. Through the years various army and navy amateur groups have been organized in Hong Kong. They performed under different names. These often included the name of the ship, regiment or unit of the performers. In the 1860s a group called the Garrison Amateur Theatrical Society was active. It was composed of officers. In 1897 there is notice of The Garrison Dramatic Society. The Military Mummers flourished from 1889 to 1892. In the 90s other groups called themselves "The Sons of Neptune" and "The Beetles". During the 90s it was popular to put on productions called "Grand Assault at Arms" accompanied by "Military Spectacular Exhibitions". An 1893 production of this type concluded with "a grand representation of an attack on the Fortress of Ali Musjid", and at another in 1898 by a naval group from H.M.S. Powerful, the finale was three "real life Tableaux": Ready for Action, Battle Scene, and the Death of Nelson. At this particular performance Prince Henry and Princess Irene of the Prussian royal house were present. A patter song was introduced expressing these hopeful sentiments: One word before I end my song To welcome in far Hongkong The grandson of our Gracious Queen† Prince Henry's mother was Victoria, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria, and wife of Frederick III, of Germany. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 Sheilah Hamilton - The District Watch Force ... 199 NOTES AND QUERIES Hong Kong (From the Notes of a Russian Traveller), translation of an article written by Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich in 1871.... 229 Hong Kong, translation from a book chapter written by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov in 1853 237 ...... 247 R.G. Horsnell - The Story of Stanley Fort 257 R.G. Horsnell - The Story of Gun Club Hill Barracks ..... 265 B.C. Fawcett - First World War Labour Corps Cemeteries in Flanders 281 Keith Stevens - The American Soldier of Fortune Frederick Townsend Ward: Honoured and Revered by the Chinese with a Memorial Temple 285 Ronald Bishop Smith - Sir Ralph Moor and the 'Benin' Cannon of the British Museum and the Royal Armouries 293 Photographs from the Hong Kong 1906 Typhoon contributed by Victoria Brown 297 Dan Waters - Arnold Graham, 1905 - 1996. 305 Translated letter from the Bishop of the Philippines to the King of Spain dated 1584 contributed by Robin M. Bridge.............. 315 Geoffrey W. Roper - The Drunken Dragon Dance and the Tam Kong (Tam Kung) Festival: Notes on the RAS HK Visit to Macau, May 1997 .. 323 Robert Nield - Bits of Broken China: The RAS Visit to North-east China in Search of Colonial Remnants, 1999 329 viii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 00 WW PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE HONG KONG 1906 TYPHOON Contributed by Victoria Brown Yaumati police station Hong Kong 1906 typhoon 297 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x Being chairperson of the Activities Committee is a demanding position and we thank Valery Garrett for her considerable effort and for a job well done. We also thank her Committee comprising the Reverend Carl Smith, Doctors Elizabeth Sinn, Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, as well as May Holdsworth, Sarah Parnell, Peter Stuckey and Jason Wordie. Others who have helped with the organising of activities include Stephen Selby, Michael Broom and Arthur Hacker. A vote of thanks is accorded to all of them. Projects and other activities Again our Society has been involved in various ways with projects and other activities which sometimes amount to a form of community service. For instance, over the summer we pieced together information for Mrs Victoria Brown of Australia. She was trying to trace details about her great-grandmother, Mrs Miranda Main (née Mann), who served as a school principal in Hong Kong at the end of the 19th and early in the 20th century. When Mrs Brown visited Hong Kong in October of last year, together with Mr S T Chiu of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, he and I showed Mrs Brown the old school building at 136 Nathan Road where her great-grandmother had been principal. Also, RAS members David Clinton and Dr Gillian Bickley met Mrs Brown and provided her with useful information. With the help of Council member Tim Ko, we also provided information regarding bullet and shrapnel marks on a wall on Lower Stubbs Road where a great deal of fierce fighting took place when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong in December 1941. In another case a lady in England, Frances Howell, was trying to trace details of her relatives who lived in Shan Dong Province and Hong Kong. Again, in response to a letter in the press, information was provided for a relative in England regarding Lieutenant Henry Dallas who died in Hong Kong in 1844. Information was obtained regarding both the grave and a monument on the wall inside Saint John's Cathedral up until World War Two. Also, our Branch was invited to send a representative to make its views known to a government working party which was looking into the subject, 'Conservation and the Natural Environment.' This is the xvi ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 PROJECTS AND ENQUIRIES DAN WATERS 449 The main role of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society is to organise lectures and visits both within and outside the Territory. We also publish an annual Journal together with other occasional publications and mount infrequent exhibitions. But in addition, the HKBRAS also undertakes various projects. Some of these are carried out by its Volunteers who assist the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office. See JHKBRAS, Volume 40, 2000, page 231. Your Branch also receives enquiries, often from overseas, requesting assistance or information about Hong Kong history and the like. We normally help the enquirer if we can and treat it as a form of community service. A typical example was in 1998 when we received a letter from the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia. They had received enquiries about the locations of seven graves thought to be in Hong Kong, 'Could we help?' Yes, we would try. This project has been written up in some detail under the title, “Tracing Graves in Hong Kong: Research Methodology,” by Dan Waters, see JHKBRAS, Volume 38, 1998-1999. Then again two of our members living in England, Mrs Rosemary Lee and Captain Tony Bromfield, were undertaking research for the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia, about a Captain Samuel Plant. He was an authority on navigating the Upper Yangtze. There is an article about the good Captain and his wife in JHKBRAS, Volume 41, 2001. In 1999, we received an enquiry from Australia from Victoria Brown. She wanted information about her great-grandmother, Miranda Main (née Mann), who was headmistress of Kowloon British School during the first decade of the 20th century. Again we were able to help. Then we had an enquiry from a relative of Lieutenant Henry Dallas who died in Hong Kong in 1844. Up to World War Two there was a memorial to him in Saint John's Cathedral. 'No,' we were informed, it ================================================================================