RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 21 A most odd and interesting bird to be seen around Victoria from Garden Road to the University is the Rose-ringed Paroquet, presumably introduced but now firmly established as a resident. Sometimes parties of up to sixteen birds have been seen. A noisy but seldom seen family are the Cuckoos, who are well represented here, nearly all of them summer visitors. The Indian Cuckoo, or ‘One-more-bottle Bird', the Large Hawk-cuckoo or 'Brain-fever Bird', and the Plaintive Cuckoo or 'Rain-bird', are three summer visitors to certain favoured localities, mainly in the northern New Territories. The Koel is more common and widespread. All these four are parasites of smaller birds, too lazy to make a nest of their own. The Crow-Pheasant and Lesser Crow-Pheasant (which are neither crows nor pheasants!) are also quite common and widespread: both of them are to some extent hill birds, and the former likes more wooded country than the latter. Two species of owl are resident in the Colony, the Barred Owlet, whose bubbling call is heard in the northern New Territories, and the Collared Scops Owl both there and on Hong Kong Island, especially on The Peak. The Savannah Nightjar must breed in the Colony, for its whip-lash call is heard frequently over many open spaces in the New Territories during the spring and summer, but no nest has yet been found. House-swifts nest, several pairs at a time, under the verandahs of shops and houses in at least half-a-dozen towns. Many thousands of these and the Large White-rumped Swift pass through the Colony on migration. The kingfishers are one of the sights of Hong Kong's bird-life. The Common Kingfisher, the one seen in Europe, is here all the year round and almost certainly nests. The White-breasted Kingfisher and Black-capped Kingfisher are both large, very gaily-coloured birds, although the first is much more common than the second. The Pied Kingfisher is confined to the Deep Bay area, where probably only one pair nests, although formerly this species used to be quite common also. The Great Barbet, which as might be expected of a close relative of the woodpeckers is a lover of big trees, may be heard calling its monotonous 'coo-lee-you' from the Norfolk Island Pine in the Botanical Gardens and from several woods in the north-eastern New Territories where it breeds. A small relation, the Wryneck, may be seen in winter, quite frequently in scrubby foothill country. Swallows are a well-loved and common summer visitor to the Colony, and occasionally a few birds may be seen even on the coldest days of winter. Large numbers also come through on passage. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 29 Camellia granthamiana with waxy white flowers and golden stamens. Both Camellias are evergreen trees twenty to sixty feet high, growing in a shady and thickly wooded habitat and bearing beautiful shiny bluish green foliage. Camellia hongkongensis was discovered in 1849 by Lt. Col. Eyre. There are many trees growing naturally on Hong Kong Island on Victoria Peak and the hillsides on the south of the Island. Camellia granthamiana was discovered accidentally by Mr. C. P. Lau, a forester at Shing Mun, New Territories, Kowloon, 2,000 feet above sea level, as recently as October, 1955. That this plant was a species new to science was almost unbelievable. Mr. Robert Sealy of Kew identified and described it early in 1956, and the species was named after Sir Alexander Grantham to commemorate his governorship at the time, and his interest in things botanical. Up to date, only one tree about twenty feet high has been found, in spite of thorough combing of the neighbouring hillsides for a considerable period. Attempts have been made to germinate the seeds into seedlings and to propagate from cuttings but the young plants have failed to survive in Hong Kong. However, cuttings sent to America and Kew in 1956 bloomed for the first time in 1959. The blooms are outstanding because of their exceptionally large size, the largest known in the genus Camellia, attaining a diameter of 12 to 15 cm. The waxy white flowers, with their bright golden centres, are each held at the base by overlapping greyish blue bracts and sepals. These blooms, enhanced by the dark green background of the foliage, indeed exhibit a beauty of distinction. This discovery has aroused wide interest among Camellia lovers, and Hong Kong, the land of its native home, has thus botanically added to its fame. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 130 LACEY, J. A. LAI, T. C. - LANYON-ORGILL, Dr. P. A. LAW Chung Kam · LAWRY, R. E. LEE, Harold LEE, J. S.- LEE, The Hon. R. C. LIDDELL, Mrs. M. LINDSAY, Mrs. B. E. LINDSAY, T. J. - LIU, D. H.- - LIU, James J. Y. LIU. Dr. Tsun-Yan LLEWELLYN, J. LOBATO, Dr. P. G. LOTHROP, F. B. LUM, Miss Ada - MA Meng McBAIN, E. B. McCOY, W. J. MCCRARY, M. U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 + Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, H.K.U. - - - · - · + · · - L 1701 Beach Drive, Victoria, B.C., Canada. Victoria Heights, 43-A, Stubbs Rd. Flat 1-A, H.K. The British Council, 133 Gloucester Building, H.K. 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. 74 Kennedy Road, H.K. Lee Hysan Estate Co. Ltd., 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. 10-F Headland Road, H.K. 364 The Peak, Severn Road, H.K. Butterfield & Swire, H.K. 1 Mercury Street, 1st fl., Causeway Bay, H.K. Flat 14, 16-18 Conduit Road, H.K. 83 Sincere Terrace, Grd, fl., Tai Hang Rd. H.K. Dept. of Geography & Geology, H.K.U. P.O. Box 144, Macau, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass., U.S.A. 142 Boundary Street, Kln. Institute of Oriental Studies, H.K.U. Geo. McBain & Co., S.C.M.P. Building, H.K. · U.S. Consulate-General, H.K, - 25-A Robinson Road, Top fl., H.K. McDOUALL, The Hon. J. C. S.C.A., Connaught Road C., H.K. McGRATH, D. B. MACK, A. M. - McKERNESS, Miss J. MANEELY, R. B. + T L + MARQUAND, R. A. - MARTIN, Rev. Canon E. W. L. MELLOR, B. MILLER, P. M. - MOK Shu Wah MORGAN, L. G. MOU Jun Sun MOYLE, G. C. - NETHERCUT, R. D. - NEWBIGGING, D. K. NIXON, F. A. NG, Peter Y, L. · - - U.S. Consulate-General, H.K, - - H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. 5 Magazine Gap Road, H.K. Dept. of Anatomy, H.K.U. 104 Paramount Apt., 2 Shan Kwong Rd. Happy Valley, H.K. St. John's College, H.K.U. Registrar, H.K.U. W U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. + - - - 21 Cochrane Street, 1st fl., H.K. Colonial Secretariat H.K. Dept. of History, New Asia College, 6 Farm Rd., Kln, Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., H.K. U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., H.K. Room 42, Hong Kong Club, H.K. + Dept. of History, H.K.U. NOBLE, H. - Ying Wah College, Bute Street, Kln. O'CONNELL, Miss S. - - U.S. Consulate-General, H.K. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v LAI, T. C. LAMBIE, Dr. J. LANYON-ORGILL, Dr. P. A. - LAU, Wai-mai - LAW, Chung-kam LAWRY, R. E. LEE, H. W. - LEE, J. S. LEE, Hon. R. C. LEFEVOUR, Dr. E. LEHMANN, Miss I. H. LEMARE, J. R. LI, Dr. T. Y.* LINDSAY, Mrs. B. E. - LINDSAY, T. J. LIU, D. H. LIU, Dr. T. Y. LLEWELLYN, J. LO, Chin-tang LO, T. S.* LOSEBY, Miss P. - LOTHROP, F. B.* LUCAS, Col. E. S. S. LUM, Miss A. + • - - Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, H.K.U. 155 c/o Director of Medical & Health Services, Tower Court, Hysan Avenue, H.K. Brentwood College, Cobble Hill P.O., Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada. Institute of Oriental Studies, The University, H.K. Victoria Heights, 43-A, Stubbs Road, Flat 1-A, H.K. The British Council, First Floor, Gloucester Building, H.K. 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. Lee Hysan Estate Co., Ltd., 604 Edinburgh House, H.K. Dept. of History, The University, H.K. 15-A, Magazine Gap Road, H.K. c/o Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K. 1c-3c Broom Road, H.K. 26, Severn Road, The Peak, H.K. c/o Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K. c/o The American Consul, 26 Garden Road, H.K. c/o Faculty of Oriental Studies, Australian National University, Box 197, Post Office, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia, Dept. of Geography & Geology, The University, H.K. Department of Chinese, The University, HK. c/o Lo and Lo, Jardine House, 7th Floor, H.K. c/o Russ & Co., Bank of Canton Building, 6 Des Voeux Road, Central, H.K. c/o Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass., U.S.A. 94, Main Street, Stanley, H.K. 142, Boundary Street, Kowloon. *Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ! I - ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 135 KUMMER, Dr. M. KURATA, Mrs. L. C. - KVAN, Rev. E.* - - KWAN, The Hon. C. Y.* KWOK, Chan* KWOK, Walter LAI, T. C. LAM, Yung-fai LANDOLT, M. A. LANYON-ORGILL, Dr. P. A. LAU, Wai-mai LAW, Chung-kam LAWRENCE, Mrs. I. - LAWRY, Mrs. B. C. LAWRY, R. E. L LECKIE, J. B. H. - LEE, Din-yi LEE, Harold W. LEE, J. S. LEE, The Hon. R. C.*. LEUNG, Kai-cheong LEUNG, Pak-kui LI, Dr. Choh-ming - LI, Shi-yi LI, T. K. Г + Goethe-Institut, German Cultural Centre, 6th floor, Caxton House, H.K. 27 Grenadier Heights, Toronto 3, Ontario, Canada. St. John's College, The University, H.K. Room 736, Alexandra House, H.K. Hang Seng Bank Ltd., Des Voeux Road, Central, H.K. 39-B, Estoril Court, H.K. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hang Seng Bank Building, 12th Floor, 677 Nathan Road, Kowloon. c/o Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., 6 Duddel St., H.K. 20 Coombe Road, Flat B-4, H.K. Brentwood College, Cobble Hill P.O., Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada. Institute of Oriental Studies, The University, H.K. Victoria Heights, 43-A Stubbs Rd., Flat 1-A, H.K. 4-B, Cliff View Mansions, 19 Conduit Road, H.K. A9, Bowen Hill, 10 Peak Road, H.K. British Council, 1st floor, Gloucester Building, H.K. c/o Union Insurance Society of Canton, Ltd., Union House, H.K. United College, 9-A Bonham Road, H.K. Lee Hysan Estate Co. Ltd., Prince's Bldg., 25th Floor, H.K. 74, Kennedy Road, H.K. Lee Hysan Estate Co. Ltd., Prince's Bldg., 25th Floor, H.K. c/o Education Dept., Battery Path, H.K. 44 High Street, 2nd Floor, Sai Ying Poon, H.K. + The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Vice-Chancellor's Office, 677 Nathan Road, 12th Floor, Kowloon. 72, La Salle Road, 2nd floor, Kowloon. 49, Village Road, Ground floor, H.K. *Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 108 REV. MR. KRONE 4,000 feet in height. It is a steep mountain, and its ascent in some parts is dangerous, - even in the commonly-used track, the coolies take off their sandals, and travel barefooted. Some hundred years ago, some rich people caused paved ways to be made to various parts of the mountain, but these paths are now in ruins. The mountain and its neighbourhood afford many plants esteemed by the Chinese which are not found in other parts of the districts, and particularly medicinal herbs, which are sought after by the Chinese doctors and apothecaries. Yeong-toi-shan is reckoned the second mountain by the Chinese, and lies 30 le north of the district town; and, according to Chinese geomancy, its peculiar conformation shows that it exercises a beneficial influence over the district city. The ascent is neither steep nor difficult; the eastern side is almost entirely over-grown with underwood, and the rest of the mountain is covered with grass, among which thickets are interspersed. Regular employment is afforded to a number of Hakka people in collecting this grass and underwood, by which, with hard toil, they earn a scanty livelihood. From the summit of Yeong-toi one has an extended view, nearly the whole district of Sanon is seen, and one is astonished at the barren masses of hills, constituting a veritable sea of mountains, which covers nearly the whole district. In clear weather, Canton itself and Victoria Peak are visible. On the summit of the mountain there is an altar erected, and here the people are accustomed to congregate and offer up petitions for rain when they have been afflicted with an unusual drought. About four years ago I wished to ascend this mountain, but the Hakka people opposed my doing so, because they thought I must be seeking for precious stones; but at last I accomplished my object in the company of a collector of herbs, who interceded for me. Among the plants we gathered were the following,--- Uraria crinita, D. C. Rosa nivea, D. C. Quamoclit vulgaris, Choisy. Dicerma elegans, D. C. Ixora stricta, Roxb. Clerodendron fragrans, Vent. Mussaenda pubescens, Aiton. Platanthera Susanna, Lindl. Osbeckia chinensis, Linn, Baeckia frutescens, L. Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, Wight. Uvaria badiiflora, Hance. Clerodendron pentagonum, Hance. Melastoma candidum, D. Don. Melanthesa chinensis, Blume. Habenaria linguella, Lindl, Buchnera stricta, Ham, Pteroloma triquetrum, Bth. Striga hirsuta, Bth. Vernonia congesta, Bth. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g EVANS, D. M. E. - EVANS, P. J. - EVANS, Mrs. P. J. EVISON, Rev. Frank · EWING, Miss E.* FABER, Mrs. A. FABER, Mrs. G. A. G.* FESSLER, Loren FISCHER, Mrs. Ingrid FISCHER, W. D. - FISHER-SHORT, W. FITZGIBBON, D. J. FLETCHER, A. J. FLETCHER, Mrs. C. M. FLETCHER, W. E. L. FOERSTER, E. J. - FOORD, Dr. Roy D. FREEDMAN, Prof. M. · FUNG, K. S. FUNG, Hon. Ping-fan" GALVIN, J. A. T.* GARCIA, A. GARD, Dr. R. A. - GASS, Hon. M. D. Irving GEORGE, T. J. B. - GIBB, Hugh· - + - · - - Flat 4C, 3 University Drive, H.K. Ray-O-Vac International Corpn., 604 Chartered Bank Building, H.K. 193 33 Tung Tau Wan Road, Stanley, H.K. 4, Epworth Lodge, 51 Barker Road, H.K. 13, Rodmarton Street, London, W.1, England. 10, Cooper Road, Jardine's Lookout, H.K. Inveroak, West End Lane, Stoke Poges, Bucks, England. East Asian Research Center, 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138, U.S.A. P.O. Box 1416, H.K. As above. Education Dept, (H.K. Sub-Off.), Fung House, H.K. 143D Road 4, Dhanmundi, Dacca, East Pakistan, 8, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. 2 "Friston", 15, Old Peak Road, H.K. As above. c/o P. O. Box 25. H.K. 48, The Rutts, Bushey Heath Hertfordshire, England. 187 Gloucester Place, St. Marylebone, London, N.W.1., England. c/o Hang Tai & Fung Co., Ltd., Room 205 Fu House, H.K. Bank of East Asia, Ltd., 10 Des Voeux Rd., C., H.K. Loughlinstown House Co., Dublin, Ireland. c/o South Kowloon Magistracy, Kowloon. c/o U.S. Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K. Victoria House, H.K. c/o Diplomatic Service Administration Office, King Charles St., London S.W.1, England. Lakeside Building, Causeway Bay, Flat C, 3/F., H.K. • Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 205 FLETCHER, A. J. FLETCHER, Mrs. C. M. FLETCHER, W. E. L. FOERSTER, E. J. P FOORD, Dr. Roy D. + - + 8, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. 2 "Friston", 15, Old Peak Road, H.K. As above. c/o P. O. Box 25, H.K. 48 The Rutts, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England. FREEDMAN, Prof. Maurice 187 Gloucester Place, St. Marylebone, London, N.W.1., England. FUNG, K. S. FUNG, Hon. Ping-fan* - + GALVIN, J. A. T.* GARCIA, A. GARD, Dr. R. A. GARTNER, John GASS, Hon. M. D. Irving GEORGE, T. J. B. - GIBB, Hugh + - - c/o Hang Tai & Fung Co., Ltd., Room 205 Fu House, H.K. Bank of East Asia. Ltd., 10 Des Voeux Rd., C., H.K. Loughlinstown House Co., Dublin, Ireland. c/o South Kowloon Magistracy, Kowloon, c/o U.S. Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K. 15 Guildford Lane, Melbourne, Australia, Victoria House, H.K. c/o Diplomatic Service Administration Office, King Charles St., London S.W.1, England. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corp., H.K. GIEDROYC, J. H. Michael* 31, Richmond Way, Fetcham, Surrey, GIFFORD-HULL, Brig. G. B. - GILKES, D. A. · - GIMSON, C. H. · GLASS, Miss M. A. GLOVER, Mrs. J. ► GOLD, Edward L. - - GOLD, Mrs, Sarah T, - GOLDNEY, Miss C. M. GOODBODY, D. M. - GOODRICH, Prof. L. C. GORDON, K. H. A. + + + England. 49 Beach Road, Repulse Bay, H.K. 5 Goldsmith Road, Jardine's Lookout, H.K. c/o P.W.D. Hq., 4th Floor, Main Wing, Central Government Offices Building, H.K. 14 Braga Circuit, Kowloon. "Crossways", 49 Christchurch Road, Sidcup, Kent, England, 12 Pokfield Road, 1st floor, H.K. As above, c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. 16 St. Paul's Road, Cannonbury, London, N.1, England. 504 Kent Hall, Columbia University, New York 27, New York, U.S.A. Room 601 Marina House, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy Page 210 Page 211 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 152 NOTES AND QUERIES which they appear. We know, too, that the author did not go to the East until 1849 when he received the appointment of Her Majesty to be Consul in Canton. Now it is entirely possible that Bowring saw an illustration of the church somewhere. Mr. David Keir, author of THE BOWRING STORY (The Bodley Head, Ltd., London, 1962) to whom I submitted this problem, informs me that Bowring visited Portugal in 1815, and may have run across one there. But it is also possible that he had to go no farther than London. "At the Hispano Portuguese Library in Belgrave Square," Keir writes, "there is an illustration of the church." It "is a high pagoda-like building, rising above many steps, with a Cross at its peak. As most churches have a cross on the roof somewhere, it is still inconclusive whether this was the church he had in mind.” “It is also possible (for instance)," Mr. Keir continues, "that he might have been inspired to write the hymn following his visit to the Pena Convent in Portugal - an experience which seems to have impressed him very much, for he writes in his Autobiographical Recollections: 'I also went to the Pena Convent, which towers [note the use of this word] over the highest of the precipices. The rude path, which leads to it, winds round the rugged steep, and if ever there was a spot fitted for those who would withdraw from the world, it is this. Here might misanthropy revel in perfect abstraction for scarcely could any earthly idea enter into that secluded and weather-beaten temple....' Can any reader of the Journal offer any better hypothesis? Columbia University, 1969. L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH BOOKS FROM THE VICTORIA LIBRARY As a kind of postscript to "Notes on Hong Kong Libraries in the Nineteenth Century," which appeared in the last volume of this Journal between pp. 56-66, it may be of interest to record that two titles formerly the property of the Victoria Library and Reading Rooms (1848-1871) have come to light. The first was bought by Mr. James Hayes, our Hon. Editor, from a 'fly-by-night' bookstall in Causeway Bay. This is: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 195 OBRIEN, Dr. J. P. OLIVER, J. R. ORD, Miss I. M. - OU, Miss G. - + OVERBURY, Miss U. M. PATTERSON, G. N. PAYNE, Miss P. M. PEARSON, Miss E. F. - PENNELL, W. V. - PERESYPKIN, O, P. - PHILLIPS, Prof. J. G. PICKFORD, J. B. PIKE, E. N. PIMPANEAU, J. PLAG, Rev, A.* - POLAND, T. D. PORDES, F. T POST, Miss E. M. · + PRESCOTT, J. A. RAINBIRD, S. W. O'C. - RASSIM, Mrs. E. RATH, Mrs. R. H. (Jacqueline) RAYNE, R. N. REDFERN, O'Donnell S. REES, W. RICHES, G. C. P. · J + Sandy Bay Children's Orthopaedic Hospital, c/o Supreme Court, H.K. Sisters' Qtrs., 802 King's Park House, Kowloon. c/o French Consulate General, P. O. Box 13, H.K. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., P.O. Box 64, H.K. 21 South Bay Road, Ground Floor, Repulse Bay, H.K. 24 Buxey Lodge, 8th Floor, 37 Conduit Rd., H.K. Bag 3 Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. C'an Boyer Mear Puerto Pollensa, Majorca, Spain. P. O. Box 1382, H.K. Dept. of Zoology, University of Hull, England. Flat 2, Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, H.K. c/o The Asia Foundation, 2 Old Peak Road, H.K. 15 Tung Shan Terrace, H.K. Shouson Villa, Flat B, G/F, 16 Shouson Hill Road, H.K. 3 Coombe Road, First Floor, H.K. Room 209, Gloucester Building, H.K, c/o American Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, H.K. West Penthouse, 11 Conduit Road, H.K. c/o Training Unit, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. 101 Holland Road, Hove 2, Sussex, England. 79 Deep Water Bay Road, H.K. Chung Chi College, C.U.H.K., Shatin, N.T. 101 Tregunter Mansions, Old Peak Road, H.K. 67 Mount Nicholson Gap, H.K. Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 52 H. J. LETHBRIDGE 12 Malcolm Struan Tonnochy (1840-1882). Educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; died in office while Superintendent of Victoria Gaol. Obituaries of Tonnochy are to be found in the Hong Kong Telegraph, December 14 and 15, 1882, and China Mail, December 15, 1882. The Telegraph tells us "that yesterday the deceased was in good spirits and played tennis in the afternoon, dined out with a friend, and was in the Club until shortly after midnight", A Chinese barber found Tonnochy dead in bed when he came to shave him in the morning. He was a bachelor. 13 Walter Meredith Deane (1840-1906). Educated St. Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; Captain Superintendent of the Police, 1866-1891. Deane was severely wounded on duty in 1878 and resigned in 1891 on account of ill-health. 14 Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840-1916). Educated at St. Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; promoted from Colonial Treasurer, Hong Kong, to Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, 1878. Administered Government 1884-85; appointed Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1886; Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements, 1887; H. M. High Commissioner and Consul-General for Borneo and Sarawak, 1889. 15 Alfred Lister (1843-1890). Educated at University of London. Hong Kong Civil Service 1865; prepared detailed index to the Ordinances of Hong Kong in 1870; Colonial Treasurer 1883-90. Died on board ship near Yokohama while on sick leave, Lister held the office of Treasurer as an adjunct appointment only, and with an almost nominal salary, in conjunction with his substantive appointment of Postmaster-General, Lister left a wife and four children in England. See Hong Kong Telegraph, 15 June, 1890. Governor Des Voeux referred to Lister as an "excellent officer". ** 16 Sir James Russell (1843-1893). Educated at Queen's University, Belfast. Hong Kong Civil Service 1865; private secretary to Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell 1868; Police Magistrate 1870; Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1888. The Hong Kong Telegraph, 4 September, 1893, in an editorial entitled "Sir Judas' Russell: His History" declares "You could not have been much of an expert in the Chinese language two short years after your appointment to a cadet-ship, yet in 1867, you were Government ‘Interpreter'". The editorial referred to Russell as "the Gargantua of Hong Kong social life" and "the Jeffries of the Hong Kong Bench". The writer of the editorial was the atrabilious Robert Fraser-Smith, who founded the Hong Kong Telegraph in 1881. Since Fraser-Smith had been jailed several times for libel, he had reason to dislike the Chief Justice. (See Frank H. H. King and Prescott Clarke A Research Guide to China-Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911, Cambridge, Mass., 1965). Russell, a bachelor like Lister, died at Strathpeffer, Scotland, shortly after resigning from Government. 17 Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845-1929). Educated at Repton School. Hong Kong Civil Service 1867; retired on pension as Police Magistrate in 1898. One son, Peveril, was the first baby born on the Peak and brother of P. G. Wodehouse, the novelist. Wodehouse was the last of the batch of officials originally appointed to the Colony in the capacity of student interpreter. 18 Sir James Haldane Stewart Lockhart (1858-1937). Educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, Watson's Academy, Edinburgh (gold medallist), and Edinburgh University (Greek medallist), Hong Kong Civil Service 1878; attached to the Colonial Office for one year; Registrar General 1887; Colonial Secretary 1895-1902; Special Commissioner to Inspect and Report on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1898; representative of Great Britain to delimit the boundaries of the extension of Hong Kong; first civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei, 1902; retired 1921. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 CHINATOWN IN HONG KONG: THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN DAFYDD Emrys Evans It seems unrealistic to talk of a 'Chinatown' in a place as obviously Chinese as Hong Kong. But for a very long time, there was indeed an area thought of by the Europeans as a part of the city into which they would not normally go. This area has, right from its inception, been known as "Tai Ping Shan' or Mountain of Peace, after the Chinese name for the mountain the Europeans called Victoria Peak. When the British arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of 1841, the north shore of the island was substantially unoccupied, there being nothing more than scattered huts between the village of Sai Ying Pun in the west and Wong Nei Chung in the east. The principal site for the new city lay in the present Central District of Hong Kong, and the first areas built up by the Europeans (apart from the waterside godowns and houses which extended from the Central Market to Causeway Bay) lay around the present Central Magistracy but rapidly extended within the first three years of the Colony's existence east and west of that spot. Although a small number of Chinese obtained grants of land in this area it is true to say that the town was exclusively European (with, of course, a number of Parsee merchants from British India) from the line of the present Garden road as far as the present Aberdeen Street and up the hill to Hollywood Road. At the time of the Colony's inception there were never more than a few hundred Europeans contrasted with several thousand Chinese who came as tradesmen and artisans. Where, then, did the Chinese live? Apart from the small town that Jardine, Matheson & Co. built out at East Point, there were three principal areas where the incoming Chinese settled at first. It is known that in the early days after June, 1841 a good many matshed huts sprang up on the hillside to the west of the area later to be the site of the main part of the town (and these were destroyed by the great typhoon in August, 1841) and one stretch of the waterfront was 'taken over'. As early as August 1841 the 'Lower Bazaar' was forming in the area of what later became Jervois Street and Bonham ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 78 DAFYDD EMRYS EVANS "See their petition, reprinted in Friend of China, 4 May 1844, and also below, P. 10 The contents of the petition, Pottinger's reply and the lot-holders' rejoinder were all published in the Friend of China, 4 May 1844. "I Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842, (Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, English translation, 1963) p. 117, maintains that there had long been a settlement in the area of the present Taipingshan, The name is said to have originated from the pacification of the pirate Cheung Po-chai in 1810 who is known to have had a stronghold there. The mountain now known as Victoria Peak was renamed Taipingshan (the Mountain of Peace) and is so known in Chinese today. The Man Mo temple, standing today in Hollywood Road, is said by Lo to have been built by Cheung in the first decade of the 19th Century. There is considerable documentary evidence as to the existence of such a settlement in the early 1840s. 12 Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon to Pottinger, C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 440. 13 Woosnam to Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon, 17 April 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 442. 14 Caine, Gutzlaff and Gordon to Bruce, 21 May 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 444. 15 Aldrich to Bruce, 20 July 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 445. 16 Notification dated 25 July 1844. It appeared in the Hong Kong Register on 30 July 1844 and the gist of it was contained in the Friend of China on 3 August 1844. Only in the former, official, version, does the information about the date of possession for the purchasers appear. 17 10 August 1844. 18 Friend of China, 2 October 1844. The site is still occupied by a branch of the present Western Market, 19 Davis to Stanley, (no. 44 of 1844), 26 July 1844 and Stanley to Davis, 3 January 1845; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 438. Under-Secretary Stephen commented on the despatch that, though the expenditure would have to be referred to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, "it must, however, ultimately be sanctioned " 20 Davis to Stanley, 29 October 1844; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 157. The additional expenditure was sanctioned without further comment: Stanley to Davis 1 April 1845; C.O.129, Vol. VI, p. 161, 21 Inland Lots Nos. 223A, 223B, 223C, 223E, 224, 224A, 224B, 224C, 224E, 225, 226, 226A, 229D, 231A, 233, 233A, 234, 234D, 238B, 239A, 239B, 240A, 241, 242A, 243, 243A, 244, 244B, 245A, 245B, 245C, 245D, 245E, 245F, 245G, 245H, 245I, 246A, 247B, 247C, 248A, 253, 253A, 272. 22 Inland Lots Nos. 213, 224D, 228, 228B, 229, 231, 232, 232A, 232C, 233E, 234B, 234C, 234E, 238, 244A, 252B, 255B, 256B. 23 Inland Lots Nos. 223, 246, 246B, 246C, 247, 247A, 247D, 248B, 248C, 248D, 249C, 252C, 253B, 254, 255D, 255E, 256. 24 Inland Lots Nos. 214, 234A, 223D, 227, 235A, 241A, 246C, 246B, 253B. 25 Inland Lots Nos. 238C, 239C, 240, 241B, 241C, 242B, 245, 250, 255A, 256A, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE COLONY OF HONG KONG 175 on from them a little way was the Cemetery, still a small enclosed space, which, it had been thought, would be sufficient for the needs of the Colony. Hardly any one but myself, I suppose, ever thinks now of paying it a visit. Beyond that, hardly any buildings were met with, till we came to Spring Gardens, where two or three English firms had begun to occupy the ground on the left. Then came Hospital Hill, with diminutive buildings on it, devoted to the same purposes as the larger erections that now crown it; and Morrison Hill, where the school of the Morrison Education Society was in vigorous action, with the Hospital of the Medical Society, the foundations of which can hardly be traced now, but where I found hospitable quarters for several months. Arrived at the Happy Valley, there were to be seen only fields of rice and sweet potatoes. At the south end of it was the village of Wong-nei-ch'ung, just as at the present day, and on the heights above it were rising two or three foreign houses, with an imposing one on the east side of the valley, built by a Mr. Mercer of Jardine, Matheson and Co.'s House. All these proved homes of fever or death, and were soon abandoned. Beyond the Valley somewhere was a range of buildings, which had already become tabooed as unhealthy, and then came the offices of the great Firm, with the workmen still busy about them, and far from being what they are at the present day. If I have omitted to mention in this retrospective view of Victoria as I first saw it any of the foreign houses then existing, they can only be a very few. When I contrast the single street, imperfectly lined with hastily raised houses, and a few sporadic buildings on the barren hill-side, with the city into which they have grown, with its praya, its imposing terraces, and many magnificent residences, I think one must travel far to find another spot where human energy and skill have triumphed to such an extent over difficulties of natural position. I sometimes fancy Britannia standing on the Peak, and looking down with an emotion of pride on the great Babylon which her sons have built. Although I was charmed with the general appearance of the place, and the energy that was manifest in laying out the ground and pushing on building, I found many of the residents oppressed with gloom because of its unhealthiness. 1843 was, no doubt, a very sickly year, more so, perhaps, than any one has been since. The left wing of the 55th Regiment lost a hundred men between ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h NINETEENTH CENTURY WATER-COLOURS OF CANTON 21 XIV Mahometan pagoda & Belfry from W. gate Canton March 12 58 View over roof-tops from a terrace. Tree-capped pagoda in distance. XVII Macao April 58 View of sea-front, with sampans in foreground. XX Peiho River July 3rd 58 Small British gun-boat, no. 83, in the river with military figures on the banks. XXV North of Formosa Id. July 30th 1858 Junk in rough seas off mountainous coast. XXVI Pagoda Chimmo Bay N. of Amoy Augst 3rd 58 Figures in small boat with mountains and pagoda in the background. XXVII Victoria Hong Kong Augt 14 58 Hong Kong harbour, town and peak from Stonecutters Island. XXVIII In Tartar Yamun August 58 Red-coated soldier in front of a hall, with a pagoda in background. XXXI Canton Septr 58 Magazine Hill 5 storied pagoda N. Gate Chinese carrying a load outside gate of Canton, with walls and features of the town visible in the background. XXXIII Honan Temple Octr 5th 58 GAS Main hall of temple with Chinese walking about. XXXV Canton Octr 58 E. Wall Walls, with a pagoda in the distance. XLIII Novr 18, 58. Gates of Confucius Temple The College From S, Wall Canton Entrance gates in foreground, with temple buildings behind. XLV Howqua's Garden Dec 21 58 GAS Pavillion in lake, with trees and other buildings around. Unnumbered Faint pencil inscription: Tombs in Canton(?) Tombs and coffins in front of a Chinese temple, with a view of water in the background. The sketches show a certain amateur artistic ability. Some of them are of views which were very popular among book illustrators ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND CEREMONIAL LIFE OF TWO MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES IN HOI-PING COUNTY, SOUTH CHINA, 1911-1949 YUEN-FONG WOON* The two villages to be discussed in this paper are: Na-loh Ts'uen (###) of Lo-yeung Heung (✯✯) and Lung-tsai She (** #) of Tsung-long Heung () both in Hoi-p'ing County (BI *) of Kwangtung Province in South China.1† Na-loh Ts'uen was a richer village and had a longer history of settlement. It was founded about 1350. This village was on the outskirt of the general area known as T'oh-fuk (4) which included four Heung—Lo-yeung, Chung-miu († $), Ling-uen (✯) and Ng-wing (). These four Heung were dominated numerically as well as economically by the Kwaan (§§) lineage,2 with its ritual centre at Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall (***) in the intermediate market-town of Che-hom (). Na-loh Tsuen itself was multi-surname: there were one hundred Kwaan families and sixty Oo (*) families in the village. Lung-tsai She was separated from T’oh-fuk by six li (two miles) and was part of Ts'ung-long Heung. Between T’oh-fuk and this village were the Oo lineage of Ue-leung Heung (f), the Chau () lineage of Hin-kong Heung (L) and the Wong () lineage of Paak-hop Heung (). The village was founded about 1500. There were about 200 inhabitants: eighteen Kwaan families, twenty Wong families and four Tang (4) families. It was not known when the Tang and the Wong came, but the Kwaan founder was Yan-waang Kung (#) who came from Na-loh some 160-170 years ago when the latter village had become over-populated. Both villages had ritual ties with the Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall at Che-hom. The Kwaan at Na-loh had an ancestral hall of its own, but the elder members went to Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall to take part in the annual rites there. The Kwaan in Lung-tsai She did not have an ancestral hall of its own, but the elders also attended rites * Dr. Woon is on the faculty of the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C. † The residents of both villages were Punti speakers. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 250 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: CHEUNG, O. CHIAO. Dr. Chien. + CHILVERS, Mrs. A. CHIU, Mrs. C. CHOA, R. CHU, Lee CHUA, Miss Fi-lan CHUNG, Ms. S. CLIMAS. Mr. & Mrs. D. J. COCHRANE, Mrs. V. COCKELL, Miss J. V. COLBOURNE, Prof. M. J. CONNOLLY, Miss M. CRABBE, P. I. CRISSWELL, Dr. C. N. CROSBY, A. R.. CUMINE, E., J.P. DABORN, Miss Carol DAIKO, P. DAVIES, Mrs. L. R. DAVIES, Mrs. Mona DAVIES, Mr. & Mrs. S. J. DAWSON, Prof. J. L. M. DAWSON GROVE, Dr. A. W. DE BURE, Mrs. U. 703 Prince's Building, Hong Kong. Residence No. 8, Flat 1A, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. 3, Mount Nicholson Road, 1/F1, Hong Kong. Twin Brook 11B, 43 Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong. Banque Nationale de Paris, Central Building 2/Fl, Hong Kong. 48, Haven St., 4/Fl, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. 1903 Hang Chong Building, Queen's Road, C., Hong Kong. Mail Collection, H.K. & S. Bank, P.O. Box 64. Hong Kong. Flat A1, Pearl Gardens, 7 Conduit Road, Hong Kong. Apt. 9, 23B Shouson Hill Road, Hong Kong. Apt. 6009, Cape Mansions, Mount Davis Road, Hong Kong. Dept. of Community Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. 5, Wylie Gardens, King's Park, Kowloon. Property Dept., Local Property & Printing Co. Ltd., 54/6 Caxton House, 1 Duddell St., Hong Kong. King George V School, Kowloon. Flat B23, 7 Homantin Hill Road, Kowloon. 28, Yun Ping Road 2/Fl, Hong Kong. Mountain View, 31 Plantation Road, The Peak, Hong Kong. P.O. Box 201, Hong Kong. 75 Perkins Road, Jardine's Lookout, Hong Kong. "Sailing Look", Lloyd Path, Barker Road, Hong Kong. 1201 Luginsland, 18 Old Peak Road, Hong Kong. Dept. of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. 1, Headland Road, Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. 550 Victoria Road, Block 2, Floor 30, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: DE FAZIO, Mr. & Mrs. M. F. - DE SILVA, Ms. Minette - + + · DEUTSCH, R. R. - DIAMOND, A. I. DOLFIN, J. 4 = DOMENACH, J. L. DONALD, Mrs. A. E. - DRAGE-FRANCIS, C. D. S. DRAKEFORD, L. S. DRYSDALE, Mrs. J. G. L. · DUNCAN, N. + 251 16, Tung Shan Terrace Flat 2B, Hong Kong. Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Shatin, N.T. Public Records Office of Hong Kong, 2, Murray Road, Hong Kong. 155, Argyle Street, Kowloon. c/o French Consulate, 2B Kennedy Terrace, Hong Kong. 2, Mount Kellett Road, The Peak, Hong Kong. 12 Miles, Clearwater Bay Road, Kowloon. B 101 La Hacienda, 33 Mount Kellett Road, Hong Kong. 7, Shouson Hill Road, A/2F, Hong Kong. DUNKERLEY, Mrs. C. H. 401 Villa Verde, 14 Guildford Road, The Peak, Hong Kong. EDWARDS, Miss A. H. ELIAS, Mrs. P. E. ELSOM, G. J. B. EVANS, C. J. - · - + EVANS, Prof. D. M. E. FABRY, Mrs. R. G. FABRY, R. G. - FESSLER, L. · FORSYTH, A. J. A FORSYTH, J.- GAILEY, Mrs. N. GAMLEN, R. GARCIA, A. - - GARRETT, Mrs. V. M. GATELY, C. GHOSE, Mrs. R. T - + American Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, Hong Kong. B2 Habitat, Pak Sha Wan, Sai Kung, N.T. 6A, 6M Boven Road, Hong Kong. Flat 9, 8 Mansfield Road, The Peak, Hong Kong. Dept. of Law, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, N.T. Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, N.T. Universities Service Centre, 155 Argyle St., Kowloon. 102, 80 Macdonnell Road, Hong Kong. 102, 80 Macdonnell Road, Hong Kong. Flat 16, 14 Mount Austin Road, Hong Kong. 62 A-D Robinson Road, 19/F, Flat B, Hong Kong. Victoria District Court, Hong Kong. 19, Vivian Court, 20 Mount Kellett Road, Hong Kong. Environment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong. St. Paul's Convent School, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: ROHRS, K. R. ROPER, G. W. + SALMON, Mrs. P. A. SAPSTEAD, G. A. G. - SCOBELL, C. L. - + SCOLLARD, Dr. & Mrs. D. M. + SCOTT, Dr. I. SEARLS, M. W. SHAM, F. + SHANNON, Major J. M. - SHAW, Dr. & Mrs. B. C. - SHOEMAKER, J. F. SHU, Dr. H. T. - SIDNEY, Miss F. A. SLEVIN, B. SMITH, F. K. SO, Dr. C. L. STEAD, Miss S. M. STEINER, H. STEMPEL, A. ++ + - STEWART, Miss J. M. C. STRICKLAND, J. E. - + + + + Flat 3B, 17 Bonham Road, Hong Kong. Police Headquarters, Arsenal Street, Hong Kong. 40 Plantation Road, The Peak, Hong Kong. Mass Transit Railway Corp., G.P.O. Box 9916, Hong Kong. Police Headquarters, Arsenal Street, Hong Kong. 257 35 Baguio Villa 14/FL, 550 Victoria Road, Hong Kong. 35 Middleton Towers, 140 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. Esso Standard Oil (H.K.) Ltd., G.P.O. Box 5369, Hong Kong. 22A, Caine Road 1/Fl., Hong Kong. 1, Salisbury Mansions, Pilgrim's Way, Beacon Hill Road, Kowloon. 72 Middleton Towers, 140 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. 73, Kadoorie Avenue, Kowloon. 70 Mount Davis Road G/Fl., Hong Kong. 18, Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, Hong Kong. Police Headquarters, Arsenal Street, Hong Kong. Flat E2-21 Villa Monte Rosa, 41A Stubbs Road, Hong Kong. Dept. of Geography & Geology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. Flat 19B, 45 Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong. Graphic Communications Ltd., Printing House 6/Fl., 6, Duddel Street, Hong Kong. Flat 18A, 3 Tregunter Path, Hong Kong. 28 Lancashire Road, G/FL., Kowloon. Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., G.P.O. Box 64, Hong Kong. STUMPF, Dr. K. L., O.B.B, - Lutheran World Federation, Dept. of World Service, 33 Granville Road, Kowloon. SU, S. TAYLOR, Mrs. V. V. - Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd., 12 Queen's Road C., Hong Kong. 14A Piccadilly Mansion, 6 Po Shan Road, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS CHISM, Mr. Michael, South Kowloon Magistracy, KOWLOON. CHIU, Mrs. Carol C., Twin Brook 11B, 43 Repulse Bay Road, HONG KONG. CHU, Mr. Lee, 48 Haven Street, 4/F, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. CHUA, MÀ Fi Lan, 1903 Hang Chong Building, Queen's Road Central, HONG KONG. CLIMAS, Mrs. Jane, Flat D18 Pearl Gardens, 7 Conduit Road, HONG KONG. CLIMAS, Mr. D. John, Flat D18 Pearl Gardens, 7 Conduit Road, HONG KONG. COCHRANE, Mrs. Valerie, Apartment 9, 23 B Shouson Hill Road, HONG KONG. COLBOURNE, Prof. M. J., Dept. of Community Medicine, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. COLLINS, Mr. A. J., c/o Legal Aid Dept., 13th FL., Sincere Building, 173 Des Voeux Road, HONG KONG. CONNOLLY, Miss Moira, 5 Wylie Gardens, King's Park, KOWLOON. COOK, Mr. Ian R., Hong Kong Hilton, Queen's Road Central, HONG KONG. COOPER, Dr. Eugene, Dept. of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. COOPER, Mr. Roy, E & M Office, Caroline Hill Road, HONG KONG. CRABBS, Mr. P. I., Property Dept., Local Property Co. Ltd., Baskerville House, 13, Duddell Street, HONG KONG CRAIG, Mrs Peggy, 21 Bisney Road, Pokfulam, HONG KONG. CRISSWELL, Dr. Colin N., King George V School, KOWLOON. CROSBY, Mr. A. R., Flat B32, 10 Caldecott Road, Pipers Hill, KOWLOON. CUMINE, Mr. E., F.R.I.B.A., 28 Yun Ping Road, 2/F, HONG KONG. CUNNINGHAM, Miss Margaret, Flat 27, Block 43, Baguio Villas, Victoria Road, HONG KONG. DAIKO, Mr. Paul, P.O. Box 201, HONG KONG. DAVIES, Mrs. C. E. G., 1201 Luginsland, 18 Old Peak Road, HONG KONG. DAVIES, Mr. S. N. G., Dept. of Political Science, HONG KONG. DAVIES, Mrs. L. R., **The Gums** No. 4 Chuk Kok Village, Hiram's Highway, Sai Kung, NEW TERRITORIES. DAVIES, Mrs. Mona, "Sailing Look", 6 Lloyd Path, Barker Road, HONG KONG. DAWE, Mr. Jock, c/o Travelove Ltd., Suite 823 Star House, KOWLOON. DAWSON, Prof. John L. M., Dept. of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. 243 Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 244 ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS DE BURE, Mrs. Ursula, 550 Victoria Road, Block 29, Floor 30, HONG KONG. DE SILVA, Ms. Minette, Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. DER, The Rev. E. B., Holy Trinity Church, 135 Ma Tau Chung Road, KOWLOON. DIAMOND, Mr. A. L., Public Records Office of Hong Kong, 2 Murray Road, HONG KONG. DOHERTY, Ms. Kathleen Rose, 11 Coombe Road, Flat 1A, HONG KONG. DOLFIN, Mr. John, III, 155 Argyle Street, KOWLOON. DRAKEFORD, Mr. Louis S., 124 Miles Clearwater Bay Road, KOWLOON. DYER, Mrs. C. E., 233 Prince's Building, HONG KONG. ELSOM, Mr. Graham, J. B., G.P.O. Box 11508, HONG KONG. EVANS, Prof. D. M. E., School of Law, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. EVANS, Mr. C. J., Flat 9. 8 Mansfield Road, The Peak, HONG KONG. FABRY, Mr. K. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES. FABRY, Mrs. R. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES. FAN, Mr. Jack F. S., 1-25 Shu Kuk Street, May Lun Apartment 14/F, North Point, HONG KONG FITZPATRICK, Mr. John, c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. World Trade Centre, 30/F, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. FORSYTH, Mr. A. H., c/o Stevenson & Co., 821 Central Building, 3 Pedder Street, HONG KONG FORSYTH, Mr. James J., Flat 102, 80 Macdonnell Road, HONG KONG. GAILEY, Mr. H. G., 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG GAILEY, Mrs. Norah, 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG. GAMLEN, Mr. Richard, 62 A-D Robinson Road, 19th Floor, Flat B, HONG KONG. GARCIA, Mr. Arthur, Victoria District Court, HONG KONG. GARRETT, Mrs. Valery M., 19 Vivian Court, 20 Mount Kellett Road, HONG KONG. GATELY, Major Charles, c/o Environment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, HONG KONG. GHOSE, Mrs. Rajeshwari, St. Paul's Convent School, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. GIBB, Mr. Hugh, c/o Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., P.O. Box 64, HONG KONG. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 WATT, Mr. James, ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NEW TERRITORIES. WATT, Mr. Mo-Kei, Cheong K. Co., Cheong K. Building, 84 Des Voeux Road C., 2/Fl., HONG KONG. WEN, Dr. Ch'ing-Hsi, Rhenish Church College, 30 Hereford Road, KOWLOON. WHOLEY, Mr. J. W., Agriculture & Fisheries Dept., 393 Canton Road, KOWLOON. WILLIS, Mr. David Nye, H.K. Tourist Association, Connaught Centre, 35/F, HONG KONG. WILLOUGHBY, Prof. P. G., 59 High West, 142 Pokfulam Road, HONG KONG. WILSON, Mr. Brian D., Flat 2D, 30 Plunketts Road, The Peak, HONG KONG. WILSON, Mr. D. C., 2 Mount Kellett Road, HONG KONG. WILSON, Mr. James K., Economic Services Branch, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, HONG KONG. WIN, Mr. Oliver, Suite 1, 13th Floor. Imperial Building, 58-66 Canton Road, KOWLOON. WINKLER, Mrs. Rowena, C 62 Carolina Gardens, 30 Coombe Road, HONG KONG. WONG, Miss Marion, 8 Fung Fai Terrace, Happy Valley, HONG KONG. WONG, Mr. Siu Lun, Dept. of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. WOODS, Mrs. Rowena, c/o Flat 18, 9/F, Block I, Scenic Villas, Victoria Road, HONG KONG. WRIGHT, Mr. D. A. L., c/o The Hong Kong Club, HONG KONG. WRIGHT, Dr. Leigh R., Dept. of History, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. WYMAN, Mrs. Pamela, 23B Ventris Road, Happy Valley, HONG KONG. YEUNG, Mr. Michael Wing Chiu, 12D, 80 Gloucester Road, HONG KONG. YOUNG, Mr. Richard, The British Council, Easey Commercial Building, 255 Hennessy Road, HONG KONG. ZIGAL, Mrs. Irene, 12 Bowen Road, HONG KONG. 253 ================================================================================ 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-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 106 JAMES HAYES Nor did he mince his words. “You have disobeyed and neglected your instructions” he told Elliot. "You seem to have considered that my instructions were waste paper which you might treat with entire disregard, and that you were at full liberty to deal with the interests of your country according to your own fancy." The Foreign Secretary accused Elliot of having settled with the Chinese for much less than he had been told to demand “without the full employment of that force which was sent to you expressly for the purpose of enabling you to use compulsion, if persuasion should fail”. He was not impressed by the cession of Hong Kong “a barren island with hardly a house on it” and clogged by conditions which made it doubtful if it was a cession in full sovereignty." 196 This myth, for myth it was, has died hard. Indeed, I fear it is not yet dead. It has always been more striking to compare the glowing present with such an insignificant past, and this has been the case at all times in Hong Kong's later history. Over forty years after the British occupation of Hong Kong, Governor Sir G.F. Bowen, addressing the Legislative Council at the opening of the 1884-85 Session, stated that "... the Island of Hong Kong... when annexed to the British Empire in 1843 (sic) was merely a barren rock, inhabited only by a few fishermen and pirates.” This view was expressed another forty years on by the American Consul-General, George E. Anderson, writing on the Hong Kong Consular District in an official publication of the American Department of Commerce. "The island of Hong Kong consists of a broken ridge of lofty hills, the highest, Victoria Peak, being approximately 1,800 feet in height. There are few valleys of any extent and scarcely any ground for cultivation... In general, the hills and mountains are bare and the soil is poor." He added usefully, "The island of Hong Kong, 28 square miles in extent, is about 11 miles long and from 2 to 5 miles broad; its circumference is 27 miles".* Is this a justifiable description? Was Hong Kong ‘a barren island with hardly a house on it"? Were its people, such as they were, "a handful of fishermen and pirates"? The answer is NO, on both counts. There were several villages of some size, as well as hamlets, and a few larger coastal villages which served as market towns for the villages and as home ports for a permanent boat population and visiting craft. The land people were settled, and as we shall ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 293 is the gayest of the gay cities. Yet I am told that the officers of the army and navy do not care much about being quartered at Hong Kong. Even gaiety becomes monotonous on an island scarcely nine miles long, so rocky that you cannot ride, and where pirates and squalls keep people from boating or fishing. The island formerly constituted a part of the district Sun-on. It is scarcely a mile from Kiu Lung or Kow Loon on the main land, which is also British property. It is mainly granitic, but with a varied geology, so as to make it a most interesting place of study. There are some volcanic dykes in places, and traces of minerals, especially lead and molybdenum, of which fine specimens may be easily obtained. The highest peak is 1,825 feet high, and there are other peaks ranging between that height and 1,000 feet. Hong Kong as far back as the Ming dynasty belonged to the Tang family, whom I suppose everybody knows. It is an island at the mouth of the Canton river, and was a noted resort for pirates, who used to lie in wait for sailing craft in the Ly-ee-mun pass, a very narrow strait between the mainland and the island. In January, 1841, it was ceded to Great Britain. The capital is called Victoria. Wood's description continues with surveys of the vegetation, fauna, and geology. It was part of a long article “Geographical Notes in Malaysia and Asia”, which was published in the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, in 1888, shortly before his death. Woods: An Appreciation As in Sir George Bowen's day, so in our own, there is a tendency to try to set religion and science in opposition. But more than a century ago, we find in Woods a lived conviction that there is no such opposition. His scientific work is certainly a product of his own time, but his Australian research is still cited in official geological publications. In the antipodes, interest in Woods is growing. He has been the subject of three biographies, two of which have a full list of his scientific publications. There are many minor works about him. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 236 One correspondent devoted his letter to reasons why the park scheme was useless. He explained that had he been at the meeting: "I might have been tempted to abandon my customary reserve and lift up my voice to protest." As an alternative, he was presenting his views in the correspondence column. He objected to labelling the scheme a park: “A park without trees is an anachronism." But given the fact that it would be a vast lawn where cricket, football, and tennis could be played, the question remained as to who would use it. In the writer's opinion, "not the gilded youth of our gay city," why travel to Happy Valley when the cricket ground (now Chater Park across from the Hilton Hotel) was within steps of their offices? Furthermore, next to the cricket ground at the seaside was the Victoria Recreation Club with a gymnasium, facilities for swimming and boating, and, perhaps the greatest competitor to Happy Valley, "the seductions of the Boathouse bar." He did concede that the ground at Happy Valley might be used for the occasional game of football, but otherwise it was not likely to pull sportsmen away from their more convenient facilities in Central. Otherwise, what one could expect to see at play in Happy Valley was "a handful of European schoolboys and a few ragamuffins of the lower order of Chinese.” The ground would hardly see the swirling skirts of females playing games. In the first place, a genteel lady would not disport herself on a public playing field. And in the second place, they had had since 1884 their own Recreation Club on the Peak Road as well as the lawns of their own homes for games of tennis and croquet. Use of the proposed park by Chinese could be ruled out because, in the opinion of the writer, "they are not a playing people as playing people are known in the West." The sporting activity of Europeans appeared to the Chinese to be undignified and not in keeping with propriety. Anyone who would expect to find “young Chinese gentlemen ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 TEMPERS FRAY AND WILLS CLASH AT JUBILEE MEETING 245 It takes some ability to properly manage a meeting where temper are short and wills clash. The chairman of the public meeting held on April 12, 1887, to make plans for the Jubilee of Queen Victoria was singularly inept in steering the course of the meeting. The meeting was split over a decision as to what permanent memorial should mark the event in Hongkong. Three ideas were put before the meeting, a sanitarium at the Peak proposed by Dr. Patrick Manson, a library and reading room suggested by Mr. W. E. Crow, and a contribution to the Colonial Institute in London advocated by Mr. J. J. Francis. The institute scheme received little support. Mr. Francis, therefore, threw his support behind the sanitarium. There was a general opinion that the meeting did not have sufficient information to decide on any proposal, therefore Mr. Francis suggested that a committee of five be appointed "to confer with Dr. Manson, communicate with Government, and prepare and submit for approval at a subsequent meeting a detailed scheme for a convalescent home at the Peak to be named after Her Majesty.” To Mr. Fraser-Smith this seemed to be tackling the problem the wrong way. He asked: “If it would not be well to get the feeling of the meeting to whether they approve of Dr. Manson's proposal." The chairman assured him that they would be doing so if they voted on Mr. Francis's resolution to appoint a committee. Mr. Fraser-Smith burst in to contradict him: “I beg pardon, you are not. You are getting substantive resolution of quite different character." Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 253 of the column to bear no other inscription than the simple and expressive one of 'Muddle'. The following extract from a letter which might have ended up in the receptacle below the column reflects the ridiculous level to which the affair had descended. Appearing in the Daily Press, it pummeled the pretensions of a previously published letter filled with "p's" by a person posing as “Public.” "The pleasurable Peak-palace - Public's inappropriately and pretendedly predicted pauper-pack pandemonium preconceived by our preciously punctilious pulse-patting physician as a perquisite for the poor-pocketed, passes no particular peril from the pappy and peculiar publicity pictured and Pressed in it by that poppy-pated, pompous and pucka poltroon, Public, in his pyrotechnic but puzzling but platitudinous and ponderous passage." The editor appends to this word play the note: "This is really too much! We positively decline to find space for any more of this alliterative rubbish.” Fortunately for the sanity of Hongkong it was spared another public meeting. The suggestion of a plebiscite was successfully carried out. The eventual result was the statue of the Queen now to be seen in Victoria Park at Causeway Bay. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 7 1966. One of the few changes that have taken place over the centuries in methods of scaffolding was that, until the 1970s, bamboo poles were lashed together with “slivers” from the sheath of bamboo, each about one metre long. Since the 1970s, plastic binding has been employed. V Hong Kong Going and Gone, Western Victoria, Hong Kong Branch Royal Asiatic Society (1980); and Tom Briggs and Colin Crisswell, Hong Kong: The Vanishing City (1977); and Tom Briggs and Colin Crisswell, Hong Kong, The Vanishing City, vol. II (1978); and Hong Kong, Then and Now, South China Morning Post (1982). 10 Solomon Bard, In Search of the Past: A Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong (1988). Saul Lockhart, "How Long Can Hong Kong's Heritage Last? What Goes Up... Must Come Down", The Asia Magazine (26 April 1981), pp. 3 to 8. 12 "Landmarks safe from demolition”, South China Morning Post (9 June 1990). **Stanley's historical landmark** South China Morning Post (1 October 1983). 13 14 Alice Greenway, "Post Office wins reprieve”, South China Morning Post (11 October 1986). 15 "Landmarks safe from demolition" loc. cit. 16 Michael Chugani, "Hope fades for Murray House rebuilding plan" South China Morning Post (1 July 1985). Paul Gillingham, At the Peak, Hong Kong Between the Wars (1983), pp. 162 to 166. Malcolm Purvis, Tall Storeys, Palmer and Turner Architects & Engineers: The First 100 Years (1985), passim. 19 Lockhart, op. cit., p. 5. 20 Harold Ingrams, Hong Kong (1952), p. 42. 21 Helen Sam, "The Architect and his dream", Property Review Hong Kong Standard (25 September 1986), p. 3. 22 Alan Birch, "The Problems of Progress", Hong Kong Standard Anniversary Magazine (1 March 1978), p. 1. 23 Vaudine England, "The Awnings: Remnants of an empire”, Asia Magazine (28 July 1975), pp. 14 to 16. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 transferred their activities elsewhere: the evil reputation of Bias Bay nearby is well known. But British influence made itself felt in other ways, too. The "foreign devils" not only brought security; they built houses, roads and dockyards, so that a very large number of Chinese found Hongkong preferable to their native districts and came there to live. By 1938 the population was over two millions, including twenty-four thousand foreigners. It is true, of the Chinese no less than one million were only transient inhabitants, refugees from the Japanese wrath which was spreading over China. To these wretched thousands, Hongkong, for a time, was a sanctuary: as later in another part of the world, was England to the French, Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian refugees, who were to escape from German occupied territory. Behind Victoria, the cramped commercial hub of the island, a funicular Peak Tramway rises steeply to serve the numerous mansions, erected at varying levels, for taipans, who hope vainly to avoid the moist clinging heat of the long Hongkong summer. Some of the mansions look out over Victoria at the twin city of Kowloon on the mainland across the harbour: others, on the reverse slope, look out to sea, to Lantao island, still barren, to Lamma, in the foreground, and to Cheung Chau in the middle distance. Hongkong was crowded. The hotels were full and so when we arrived, some weeks after leaving Nanking, my wife and I took rooms at the small hotel which an enterprising English couple had opened on Cheung Chau island. A special ferry from Victoria did the trip several times a day in about half an hour. There was quite a large fishing village, the rendezvous for many of the junks that frequent these waters. We lived on fish and strolled amongst the stunted pines and the empty bungalows of the summer visitors waiting until we could find more convenient accommodation. It was a pleasant change from the vicissitudes of Nanking. Eventually we were able to get rooms in the Repulse Bay Hotel, famous as a honeymoon resort. It is on the side of Hongkong facing the open sea, near what is perhaps the best known bathing beach. A winding road over the hill through the Wong Nei Chong gap leads to Victoria, and in Deepwater Bay round the point there is a small nine-hole golf course. I remember one day we took the bus up to the Gap and got out ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 112 to walk along the paths which follow the mountain slope, when it began to rain heavily. Spying close-by a house, with an attractive green-tiled roof, we approached proposing to ask permission to 'phone for a taxi. I rang the bell and put my request to the Chinese boy who opened the door. He showed me in, leaving the door ajar, so that my wife, who remained outside, should not feel shut out; and led me to the 'phone in the hall. He was about to dial for me, when a voice in the distance asked, curtly as I thought, who I wanted. We were by then pretty well soaked and I suppose we did look rather like tramps. It was the lady of the mansion. I explained our predicament. She motioned to the instrument, then moved to the far end of the room, without inviting in my wife, whom she saw waiting outside. The boy got busy on the 'phone and eventually connected me, when the voice was heard instructing him to "close that door". He was most embarrassed and apologetically shut it on my wife. The taxi firm having promised to send for us, I rejoined her outside in the rain, where we remained for ten minutes until the car arrived. I would not have the reader think that such behaviour was typical of British manners in Hongkong. It was not, but it was characteristic of a small clique, which is found in most British colonies, courting a reflected lustre on the fringe of the official hierarchy. I think possibly its geography explains to some extent the notorious snobbery of Hongkong. Living, say, in Victoria, an invitation to dinner on the Peak was of doubtful attraction. It meant starting off in a taxi to the higher level, where there would only too probably be a heavy mist, and perhaps rain as well. You would have to leave your taxi to walk up several hundred steps to the house, built on the steep hillside, arriving with wet feet and, if wearing a raincoat, probably also drenched in sweat. On another occasion the invitation might be to dine in Kowloon. That would involve going down to the jetty, crossing the harbour in the ferry, picking up a taxi on the other side, and so reaching your host's house without too much difficulty; but, unless you left in time to catch the last return ferry at midnight dinner in the Far East ― you would have to seldom starts before nine, or half past nine search for a walla-walla boat, a small type of taxi motor-launch; there ! ! Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 113 the walla-walla men are would be an argument about the fare surely descended from the original Hongkong pirates and, that settled, a slow journey across the harbour, followed by a walk home. Such conditions are discouraging to social intercourse. They tend to break the community up into cliques; into the circle who live on the Peak, the crowd down in Victoria, and the mob over in Kowloon. How deep-seated was the snobbery amongst the few could be seen at a later date, when the remnants of the British community were interned by the Japanese. Many of the women still thought themselves too superior to keep company with their sisters in misfortune, and continued to carry their noses in the air, while living under the most dismal conditions, crowded cheek by jowl seven and eight to a small room. To avoid overheating during the Hongkong summer called for a special technique. The idea was never to move rapidly in any direction; a slow steady advance got you there. If the advance took you past the stately building erected by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, so much the better. It was air-conditioned. You could look in on your friends, who had the good fortune to rent offices there, and while passing the time of day your body refreshed itself in the cool dry atmosphere. Owing to the discomfort of movement and the geographic complexities, on leaving office at noon most people did not return home to lunch. They either went to the Club, where the cuisine, it is unreliably claimed, compared with that of the Shanghai Club, or to the Hongkong or Gloucester Hotels. These rival but contiguous establishments were a local institution. What Shepherd's Hotel was in Cairo fifty years ago, the Hongkong Hotel was in the late 1930s; a place where wanderers met. You seldom entered the hotel lobby without running into someone you had not seen for years. It might be an official of Imperial Airways who had just flown in from India, via Rangoon and Bangkok, or an American news reporter leaving by Pan-American clipper for Manila. Both hotels provided excellent fare. Some favoured the one, some the other. At the Gloucester the dining room was eight floors up on the roof, with a view over the harbour; in the Hongkong Hotel it was at ground level with a view of the "Grips", the arena where the cosmopolitan crowd foxtrotted to the music of a Filipino orchestra. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 148 that accompany this essay. Other illustrations include a photograph of the college found in the Fryer Papers and photographs of the college as it looks at present. Finally, a photograph of Fryer with a group of students was used as centerpiece for a holiday greeting card by Fryer in 1927-28, 66 years after his impressions of Hong Kong were formed, and eight months before his death at age 88: it is also included. NOTES Published in Vol. 29 (1989) pp. 252-301 of this Journal as "Diary of Voyage to China: From March 10, 1861 to August 6, 1861", Richard G. Irwin, "John Fryer's Legacy of Chinese Writings" (mimeo.) n.d. There is no evidence for this in Fryer's extant writings, but it is known that Dr. Irwin had contact with Fryer's eldest son, retired Professor Charles Edmund Fryer, of McGill University, in the early 1950s. Presumably this and other information on Fryer's life that cannot be verified at present was transmitted during that contact. 1 See note 10 in Fryer's "First Impressions" + See Plates 2-5. " FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HONGKONG AND THE CHINESE PEOPLE' St. Paul's College. August 7th! My dear Parents, relations, and friends. Being now comfortably settled down in my new abode, I am going to give you a closer insight into the place, and of my new style of living. Knowing how inquisitive mothers, etc., generally are I mean to go into every little particular, just to gratify all curiosity, and this yarn being passed around will save having to insert it in every letter. And now to begin with Hong Kong itself. Hong Kong is a small rocky island, about half a mile from the mainland of China. It is about 26 miles round. The centre is nothing but hills of hard granite, covered with scanty vegetation. Yet there are numerous ravines and valleys which are fertile, and well watered. Among these "Happy Valley" ranks as the most eminent. It is indeed a lovely place. Behind the town the hills rise to the height of nearly 2000 feet. On the top of the Peak of Victoria stands a small lake which from its romantic position is an object of interest. The summit is obtained by ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 246 later, made up part of the Lombard Insurance Company. Hong Kong Hotel Company The Company started in 1866, and the Hong Kong Hotel opened in 1867 on the site of the defunct Dent and Company's offices on the then waterfront at Queen's Road Central. In 1893, in addition to the 'Hong Kong', other leading hotels included 'Windsor' and 'Victoria', in Central, and 'Mount Austin' and 'Peak' hotels, both on the Peak. The Professions As well as traders, a few British professionals set up practices in Hong Kong in the last century. Victor Hobart Deacon, for example, arrived in the Colony in 1880 to join a firm of lawyers that was already 30 years old. In the 1840s, the nearest lawyer was said to be in Calcutta. At about the same time there were a number of people who described themselves as architects, but they were probably only draughtsmen. One such man was named Langer, who arrived in 1842 to supervise the erection of buildings for Jardine's. He was stricken with fever after only working for two months. The civilian architects produced nothing of the calibre of the military architects who designed such structures as Murray House and Headquarters House. Wilson and Salway, architects and engineers, were established in 1872; and Leigh and Orange, although not the first, was among the early practices to be set up. This latter firm dates back to 1874, under the name of Sharp and Danby who were engineers, and in 1894 it became Leigh and Orange. The founding fathers were ex-Public Works Department employees. The Ohel Leah synagogue in Robinson Road, completed in 1902, is one of their buildings, as were the old Queen's Building and the old Prince's Building, both completed in Central in 1904. Other structures, since demolished, were the entire premises of the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, at Hung Hom, and the wharves and premises of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf ================================================================================ 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-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 252 '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. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 254 sons, John, Lancelot and Wilkinson, were running the firm from Canton and Macau, in the 1820s, it was very successful, and, later, it was Jardine's main rival. The company continued to do well for a number of years but it failed in 1867 at the time of an economic recession. Some believe that Swire's, with their ruthless trading tactics, helped to destroy Dent's although it is not known how much truth there is in this. Another firm that failed about the same time was the Agra and Masterman Bank. There are many other once successful organisations that fell by the wayside. Names like Burd; Holliday and Wise; Humphreys; Lyall and Still; Murrow; and Turner; are no longer with us. Bard, in his 1988 report, lists 37 enterprises with English sounding names (some could have been American) of which, although listed in directories between 1845 and 1900, little is known. BOOKS AND JOURNALS SOURCES Unless stated otherwise the following books, journals, brochures, leaflets, magazines, reports, newspapers, supplements, periodicals and letters were published or drafted in Hong Kong, Adventures and Perils, The First Hundred and Fifty Years of Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd Bard, Solomon, In Search of the Past: A Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong (1988) Boulnois, L., The Silk Road (London, 1966) Braga, J.M., Hong Kong Business Symposium (1957) Briggs, Tom and Colin Crisswell, Hong Kong: the Vanishing City (1977) Briggs, Tom and Colin Crisswell, Hong Kong: the Vanishing City, Vol. II (1978) Burgoyne, J., Far Eastern Commercial and Industrial Activities (1924) Cameron, Nigel, Power (1982) Cameron, Nigel, The Milky Way: The History of Dairy Farm (1986) Chambers, Gillian, Super Traders, The Story of Trade Development in Hong Kong (1989) Coates, Austin, A Mountain of Light (1977) Coates, Austin, Quick Tidings of Hong Kong (1990) Coates, Austin, Whampoa: Ships on the Shore (1980) Collis, Maurice, Wayfoong (London, 1965) Crisswell, Colin N., The Taipans, Hong Kong's Merchant Princes (1981). Endacott, G.B., A History of Hong Kong (1958) Gillingham, Paul. At the Peak, Hong Kong between the Wars (1983) Graham, John, The Lowe Bingham Story (1920-1977) Historical and Statistical Abstracts of Hong Kong 1841-1940 Hong Kong Going and Gone, Western Victoria (Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch) (1980) Hong Kong (Government year books, various) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 197 A NOTE ON HONG KONG'S WILDLIFE DAN WATERS In the mid-1960s, an Indian bird-watching friend counted 48 different species at King's Park, in the heart of Kowloon. In early 1955, when I first lived in Conduit Road, the western end resembled a delightful country lane and there you could occasionally hear barking deer call from Victoria Peak. Since late 1980 I have been going up and around the Peak regularly, four or five times a week. At first, I felt there was little wildlife left, but, more recently, largely because it is mainly nocturnal, my conclusions, agreeing with a second school of thought, are that there is far more than most people appreciate. On 26 April, 1989, I saw a dead masked palm civet in Barker Road. This was followed, on 11 November, 1990, by a dead ferret badger on Plantation Road, and, on 17 November, 1991, another on Severn Road. All had blood on their snouts and had probably been struck by vehicles. The last two were seen at daybreak. There are also 'good' years for snake sightings, and, in the autumn of 1991, I spotted a young cobra crossing Po Shan Road, near dwellings. The first snake I saw in 1992 was a cobra sunning itself, in mid March, on a hilly path off Hatton Road. Less frequently, one sees the odd fresh-water crab even as high up as Lugard Road, and blue-tailed skinks seem to appear in batches. Although not on the Peak, on the Royal Asiatic Society outing, on 4 March, 1989, high up near a plantation on Tai Mo Shan, RAS member Rosemary Lee and the son of Dr Elizabeth Sinn spotted what was believed to have been a crab-eating mongoose run across a track, off Route TWISK, in front of our coach. Patricia Marshall, in Wild Mammals of Hong Kong (1967), says, about the mongoose, 'Probably no longer exists in the Colony.' Nevertheless, according to a game warden at Mai Po Marshes, one was spotted by bird watchers at Tsim Bei Tsui at Christmas 1987. I have also been told of barking deer and porcupine being seen ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 94 on her medical work, the maternity area indeed grew during her incumbency. In 1909, there were 235 hospital and 1381 domiciliary births, babies delivered by the Chinese midwives trained by Dr. Sibree. 57 As well, she had established networks in the medical and Chinese community. She referred in 1906 to a holiday on the Peak, during which she assisted the acting PCMO, Dr. Clark, with work at the Victoria Hospital.58 Her fluency in Cantonese and regular visits to the 'small footed ladies' and poor Chinese women were supported by the Chinese subscribers, including Dr. Ts'o, with whom she appears to have had a friendly relationship. As well, she was acting, at the request of Mr. Brewin, the Registrar-General, as medical officer to the Po Leung Kuk, a Chinese institution for the care and protection of Chinese girls and women, originally those who had been brought forcibly to Hong Kong for prostitution.59 Her main tasks in relation to government were first, her role in training government midwives in the program set up at the AMMH in 1905, and secondly, in acting as supervisor of the government midwives. At the time of her resignation, then, Dr. Alice Sibree had a number of personal connections within Hong Kong, and a credibility with the government which was useful to the mission hospital. Her foreshadowed resignation served to bring into focus the underlying issues between the subscribers, the District Committee and the medical mission over control of the maternity service. Immediately the Chinese subscribers through Mr. Brewin requested a replacement under tightened conditions:60 The lady doctor was to: 1. be 'on the regular staff' of the hospital and not in an 'exceptional position' as formerly 2. undertake language training, 3. make visits to Chinese women in their homes. 4. act as Visiting Surgeon to the Po Leung Kuk and if necessary take charge of female patients under Western treatment at the Tung Wah Hospital, An additional condition was the representation of Chinese subscribers on the management committee of the Hospital, specifically, by appointing the Chairman of the Finance Committee (Dr. Ho Kai) and one Chinese person, in order to have an equal voice with other members in the administration and the medical part of the work. 62 62 T ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 212 In 1914, the opium concession had been taken over by the Hong Kong Government and a policy for the discontinuance of the trade was pursued. But its use was not fully prohibited until after World War II, It must be stressed that much of the information recorded in this short paper was by word of mouth. Over time facts can, of course, become distorted. Hong Kong was affected directly but little by the First World War. 'But there were great celebrations, a two-day public holiday, a victory parade and a fireworks display (which cost HK$2,000) when it was over,' Mr. Lee told me. 'We lived on the first floor of a three-storey building in Pottinger Street. There was a printing workshop on the ground floor.' According to Mr. Lee, his home was not far from the old Victoria Theatre, which stood in Pottinger Street. This was sometimes attended by Sir Francis May, the then Governor of Hong Kong (1912 to 1919). There were more street traders in those days, shouting out and advertising their wares. To give a further idea of what Hong Kong was like in 1920, during World War One, the number of sedan chairs peaked at 1,215; whereas the number of rickshaws did not peak until 1924, with 3,411. In 1920, private cars numbered 351, up from 24 in 1914. I have always complimented Mr. Lee on his English. He, in turn, gives credit to his Chinese primary school teacher in Hong Kong. 'He was strict. But I learned my English grammar from him. Americans do not teach grammar,' he insists. ‘I used to delight in taking a sentence to pieces and analysing it. We also studied the 'Four (Chinese) Books.' Because his father, as a businessman in the fields of jewellery and cosmetics, spent 10 years in Australia as a young man, there was only one other child, Mr. Lee's elder sister. Mr. Lee's father was one of the two founders of the Sincere Department Store in Hong Kong. Father died at the age of 36, and filial Mr. Lee gives great credit to his mother, ‘a remarkably capable woman. She brought us up. I owe her a lot,' he told me. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 69 the views expressed right at the start of this paper by Dr Ernest J. Eitel, sometimes titled Hong Kong's first historian and for some time a Hong Kong civil servant, were by no means unusual. Today, far more empathy is shown towards Chinese culture in general by Westerners. For instance, many Caucasian firms believe aquariums enrich the fung shu of an office. It is not just Chinese who can relax, Westerners will tell you, when they lie back and watch fish swimming. It gives everyone a special feeling and lowers their blood pressure by a few degrees. Of course, certain rules have to be followed. The number of fish kept is often six or nine. Three multiplied by three equals nine (a lucky number); and a homonym of three, in Cantonese, sounds similar to the character meaning 'lively'. Because of colour symbolism, one fish may be black (a Black Molly), another reddish (a goldfish), and the rest any other colour. Because the fish are supposed to act as a shield against bad fung shui, sometimes a fish dies. But better a dead fish than a dead customer. Higher up the hill above Central District, at the Albany in Albany Road, residents were concerned about the 70-storey, new, People's Republic Bank of China Building 'giving off vibes'. They feared the sharp edges of its structure with their negative forces would menace the abode of some of Hong Kong's rich and famous. In the West, the new Bank of China building would perhaps be described as 'ominous', 'overshadowing' or 'overpowering'. Many Chinese, however, liken the sharp edges of the Bank of China to a knife pointed at, or arrows cast at, Government House and Central Government Offices, namely, the heart of the British Colonial Administration. These 'weapons', together with the flyovers close to Government House, tie the decision-making hands of the British Governor and threaten the prosperity of Hong Kong. The fung shui 'dragon vein', with the dragon's head turned to face its ancestors, serpents down from Victoria Peak, close to the Albany, concealed by a carpet of vegetation. It passes close to the Albany apartments. The dragon thrusts and turns as the topography changes. The earth surges with natural energy. Chinese dragons are more serpent-like and sinuous than those in the West. And, as the vein gathers strength, it proceeds vigorously on to the 'dragon sites' such as the home of the Governor and down to the Hong Kong Bank. It then dips into the harbour, the 'dragon's lair'. Although now the slope up the Peak is largely obscured by high-rise buildings, on some hills and 70 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 71 Most Chinese will, however, tell you that a dragon has sinews and veins which can be severed. Blood can be spilled. Thus, when the earth's flesh was pierced, blood, in the form of bright red, ochre-coloured earth, appeared during excavations for the construction of Hong Kong's underground railway in the 1970s. This could mean the time had come for workers to down tools. The evil that might follow had to be averted ritually. Taoist priests would then beat ceremonial gongs and offer prayers to pacify spirits of the earth where the dragon's peace was being destroyed. Exorcism in modern day Hong Kong is by no means uncommon (Raceday rites, 1987). Neither is exorcism uncommon in Christian churches. It is mentioned in the Bible. One can compare certain Buddhist, Taoist or folk-religion ceremonies, which purify and bestow blessings, with walking through fields in Europe in springtime while conducting a Christian Rogation Service to ensure a good harvest. Interestingly, some Chinese came to the conclusion during the last century, that foreigners know far more about fung shui than they are prepared to admit. Otherwise, why would they have picked such a fine site (as it was then) for the Governor's residence? Why would they plant vegetation over the slopes of Victoria Peak in which dwells the resident dragon? Returning to the cutting edges of the Bank of China: a fung shui master is supposed to adhere to strict ethical standards and not do anything which could be construed as the 'black art'. He should not 'attack' a neighbour. However, in the New Territories, for example, a case where a successful family's fortune has suddenly waned has sometimes been traced to the desecration of an ancestor's grave. As a result, revenge against perpetrators was, in the past, not uncommon. A buried 'person' needs to 'breathe', and, whether he or she can do this properly or not, affects his or her descendants. Some believed Chiang Kai-Shek's rise to power depended on his mother's fine grave. This, the Communists are said to have dug up. The People's Republic's 'Red Guards' went to considerable lengths during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to destroy the 'Four Olds' (old customs, old habits, old culture, old thoughts). These included fung shui. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 78 star or a god shrine decorated with 'prayer flags' (). All these have the power to protect the occupants. Also, just inside the front door of the flat, the electric light, symbolising the sun, is always switched on. Dark rooms oppress. Brightness stimulates chi and transforms yin to yang. A chandelier can distribute chi around a room. Conversely, a room cluttered with objects will obstruct the flow of chi. The flat in this case study faces Victoria Peak, which towers over Tai Ping Shan (Hill of Great Peace) District. The flat also faces (approximately) 'compass south'. Fung shui south, namely 'Red-bird Aspect' (a Chinese constellation in the southern sky), is not always true south. An old Chinese proverb states: Even with 1,000 taels of gold, it is not easy to buy a house facing south. It is believed by many that houses, temples, graves, and the Emperor on his throne should all face sunny south (Tatlow, 1993: 9). The south is pure, auspicious, and warm. In short, it is yang. With the south-westerly monsoon (actually, it mostly blows from the south-east, the direction that most typhoons come from) blowing in the summer, and the north-easterly monsoon in the winter, no one quarrels with this assumption. A flat facing south is thus warmer in winter and cooler in summer. This helps promote harmony among family members. Some Chinese believe people living on the south side of a building have better chi than those living on the north side. The latter are said to be less intelligent, less successful, and lack the vitality of their neighbours who live facing 'sunny south'. For a person who was born during the cold of winter, it is even more important for him or her to live in a building facing the warm spirits of the south (Tatlow, 1993: 9). But, having said all that, it must be pointed out that in the Sha Tin district, in Hong Kong's New Territories, out of 60 villages or hamlets, only two or three face due south. Facing south is more important in the north, where bitterly cold winds blow, than in the sub-tropics, where other factors, such as the back-up of a mountain or copse, may have to be considered. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g There is a resident dragon living within Victoria Peak, as in all remarkable mountains, and it is believed to have spiritual influence over the people living below it. Energy is harnessed from cosmic forces and this affects mere mortals who inhabit the earth. Most people, the fung shui master who accompanied the author explained, need a strong 'back-up'. Such persons are likely to prefer working for the Government rather than engaging in the rough-and-tumble of private enterprise. Although it can be described as geomantic imagery, psychologically, in some ways, it is like sitting in an office chair with a high substantial back, as compared to a low-backed chair formed with slender slats. Likewise, living in a flat close to the Peak with its good topography, whose green slope is covered with a mattress of vegetation, helps provide much needed moral support. But vital elements can be dispersed, and, with too much wind blowing and too much water flowing, cosmic breath can be excessively dissipated. Too little or 'neutral' fung shui can bring about stagnation. It is something like salt. Add too much and the food is inedible. Sprinkle too little and the meal is tasteless. After a heavy rain the 'eyes of Victoria Peak' (springs) open up and water courses (the arteries) flow. Slopes come alive. Water, the emblem of wealth and influence, cascades among rocks and down gullies worn over centuries. If this flow ceases, people living under the influence of the Peak will lose their fortunes. (The flat in this study also has the added advantage that it is close to water in the swimming pool). All these features provide a sound back-up in addition to being a scene on which 'one can feast one's eyes'. Here in the twilight the world can seem like a dream; the trees and bushes surge as if at anchor on the 'tide', the heave of the slope running from the Peak down to Realty Gardens comes alive. Early in the 20th century, however, the Chinese were not at all pleased when Lugard Road and Harlech Road were constructed encircling the mountain at Victoria Gap level. People likened the effect to putting a halter around the neck of the 'Hill of Great Peace'. Nevertheless, there has not been a severe hill fire on the Peak, where erosion is limited by stands of verdant trees, bushes and undergrowth, for half a century. Figuratively, above the flat in this study the heavily overgrown, evergreen slope has 'vegetation as its hair and mist as its complexion'. The Peak is the home of a fair amount of wildlife. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 61 Sayer's Map of Hong Kong 1841-1855, the place was marked with the words Sai Yang Pun. Even in Sheet 19 of the 1957 edition 1 to 25,000 official maps, the place was named Sai Ying Poon. Then, was the place named by the Chinese in the early twenty years of the nineteenth century or by the Chinese in the early years of the British occupation? I cannot provide the exact answer to this question but I prefer the first hypothesis i.e. Chang Po Tsai the pirate did establish a fortification in Sai Ying Pun around 1806. The reasons to support this argument are again not difficult to find. First, according to the Chinese folklore, at the beginning of the present century (1800 - 1810), the present Victoria Peak formed the look-out and fortified headquarters of a pirate named Chang Pao. Moreover, the name Chang Pao Tsai is frequently mentioned by the indigenous population of Hong Kong. Even the early Chinese of the island were frequently being looked upon as pirates and robbers. Secondly, there are many historic relics left behind by the pirates. Apart from the famous Chang Pao Tsai treasure caves in Cheung Chau and Lamma Island, there is the Chang Pao Tsai relic path (or the old road of Chang Pao Tsai) which is about half way up Mount Gough and starts between May Road and Kotewall Road. Chang Po Tsai was claimed to have erected forts there and old inhabitants of Hong Kong can still point out the sites of the forts. It is also said that Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road was first built by Chang Pao Tsai. It is not easy to tell why Chang the pirate had to build fortifications on Hong Kong Island and why the pirates chose the place Sai Ying Pun. I have worked out three probabilities. Firstly, the pirates chose it because the place was located in the northern part of the island. The pirates used the island as a sort of naval base. They had to build fortresses to accommodate themselves. According to Miss K. Y. Woo, during the early years of Chia-ching period, Chang and his followers occupied the area around Chek Chu (Lo, 1963, P. 108). They were afraid that the Ching army would attack them from the Kowloon side. So they had to build two fortifications on the northern side of the Island. So some pirates could station there and try to hold back any attacks by the Ching army. A more detailed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 62 picture of the situation was given by L. Yu. He stated: “At the time they built their fortress with the backs against the hills and the fronts facing the sea. The two fortifications acted as two watchtowers. It made the Ching army difficult to attack or even try to get near to the island. On the slopes above Sai Ying Pun, at the midlevels, there was a fort and it helped to reinforce the defence." (Lai, 1948, P.13) Secondly, it is because Sai Ying Pun was situated at the foothill of the highest peak of the island. The peak (i.e. Victoria Peak 1917 ft. which was called O Tau Shan or Ngan Tau Shan at that period) formed the look-out of the pirates in those days. They wanted to keep an eye on the harbour which was a very important water route in that part of the South China coast. Whenever a vessel appeared, the watchmen would signal the pirates who were stationed at the foothills at Sai Ying Pun. The pirate fleet would then sail off to plunder and loot the vessels. Thirdly, the pirates chose the place because Sai Ying Pun possesses some peculiar physical characteristics. Before the waterfront was reclaimed in the late nineteenth century, Sai Ying Pun was the only area in the northwestern sector of the Island, which controlled the western inlet to the harbour, with a fairly long coastal slope. The slopes were made up of colluvial fan. In other words, the soil in the area was derived from the decomposition of granite or other primitive rock. It was not, however, formed of detritus of rock washed down from above, but solid rock altered in situ. In the area west of Sai Ying Pun, Shek Tong Tsui, the granites outcropped nearly to the sea front. It was possibly the reason why as early as 1771 the Hakka people came to the area and quarried the granite and carried them to Shek Pai Wan. Therefore we can see that Sai Ying Pun was the only area in the northwestern sector that was suitable to set up a fortification. I think this is also the reason why the British commanders chose the same area to set up a barrack in 1841. So Sai Ying Pun during the early years of Chiaching period was probably occupied by scores of pirates. They guarded themselves against the attack of the Ching armies and waited patiently for the signals that came from the peak and were always ready to sail off to plunder any trading vessels that happened to sail past the Hong Kong ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 72 Of course, in some cases the emigration was over a short distance, to the nearest market town. It is likely, as noted above, that the absent males of the Yuen Long plain villages were working in the Yuen Long markets, and possible that some at least of the Lam Tsuen males were in the Tai Po Market. Some Lamma villagers were probably working in Aberdeen, and from all over the New Territories there were villagers working in the city - so many that their return to the villages for the Ching Ming Festival in 1921 could bias the census in that year, as noted above. But much of the emigration, as the Basel missionaries, the temple donation tablets at Shan Tsui and Tsuen Wan, and oral evidence, all make clear, was to overseas. The implications of villages with surplus males are less easy to identify (see Appendix II and Table 32; these identify villages with more than 56% recorded males in their populations: villages with fewer than 35 total population are excluded, except where the surplus of males is extreme). In many cases, just as the villages with low male female ratios identify villages with significant temporary male emigration, so villages with high male: female ratios identify places with temporary male immigration. One group already discussed which stands out is the market towns, almost all of which have high male: female ratios. Nearly 82% of the recorded population of Yuen Long market was male, and almost 80% of that of Tai Po new market (Tai Wo Shi). Even Shek Wu Hui, Ha Tsuen and Tuen Mun San Hui had over two-thirds of their tiny populations male (Table 28). These figures need to be put into perspective. In 1911, within the City of Victoria (i.e., omitting the Peak and the Hong Kong Island villages) there were 151,303 males out of a total Chinese population of 217,668. Males represented, therefore, 69.5% of the total Chinese population.1 Thus, the male domination of the larger New Territories market towns was significantly more substantial in 1911 than that of the city, and even the smaller New Territories markets had at least as high a level of male domination. The only exceptions to this are Cheung Chau, and Tai O, in Southern District. While these towns have more males than females, the imbalance is less than in the Northern District towns or the city: however, it seems likely that small rural populations are included with those towns, and that this causes distortion in these cases. Most of the New Territories towns also, as noted above, had suburban villages which shared the male domination of the town itself. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 86 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. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 88 The roads (some sections being only bridle paths) that followed included one from Shau Kei Wan to Sai Wan in 1845 and subsequently onto Stanley, another from Victoria to Aberdeen in 1846, one from Aberdeen to Stanley in 1848 and, at about the same time, another to Pok Fu Lam. These early roads and tracks were shown on the first contoured topographic survey (scale 4 inches to a mile, say 1:16,000, with 100ft contours) of Hong Kong Island which was carried out by Lieutenant Collinson of the Royal Engineers. The map was first published in 1845 and the quality was such that it remained in use, with periodic revisions, for some 50 years. As might have been expected, the early roads were poorly constructed and often damaged in the summer rains with the wooden bridges being frequently washed away. Gradually the lesson was learnt and roads were surfaced and bridges constructed with masonry. Even so, as late as 1890, an editorial reported "The recent rains once again worked up Queen's Road into a quagmire. Some months ago the road was re-metalled on a principle which it was believed would be sufficiently strong to withstand the wear and tear of jinricksha wheels, but it is now as bad as ever......... Until jinrickshas were introduced Queen's Road was always fairly clean, even in the wettest weather." ** While the built-up areas were slowly expanding the road system was developing and, by 1908, Hong Kong could boast a network of 153 kilometres of roadways on the Island with cut hillside slopes typically being 75° and filling contained by masonry retaining walls. At this time a writer commented "vehicular traffic is confined chiefly to handcarts, rickshaws and chairs suspended from poles borne on the shoulders of coolies, there being but a few pair-pony gharries and a Victoria or two used by the Chinese". Around the turn of the century when Lugard and Harlech Roads were constructed encircling the Peak, local inhabitants were displeased - they thought it "likened the effect of putting a halter around the neck of the Hill of Great Peace". Fortunately no adverse consequences became apparent! The diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 was marked by a proposal to build a road around the Island; the scheme was opposed by the military and, after lengthy delays, the section below Mount Davis along the 45m contour (Victoria Road) was commenced. The advent of the motor car stimulated upgrading the existing ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 89 carriage roads and by the end of 1915 Pok Fu Lam, Aberdeen and Deep Water Bay were all accessible by car, to be followed by Repulse Bay in 1917, Shek O in 1923 and finally, in 1924, direct vehicle access to the Peak itself. After this date road construction on the Island was usually limited to road improvement, for instance to Kellett Road in 1928 and in the following year to Barker Road. The timing of the development of much of the road network can be readily deduced from the names of streets named after Governors, military leaders and other prominent residents, for example on the Island Pottinger Street, Bonham Strand, and Kennedy, Hennessy, Chater, Sassoon and Stubbs Roads, and in Kowloon - Robinson (later renamed Nathan), Mody, Cameron and Ho Tung Roads, Kadoorie Avenue and Braga Circuit. In Kowloon by 1887 a fairly comprehensive road system was in place south of Austin Road. The first 850 metres of the 30m-wide Robinson (Nathan) Road from Middle Road, some 1.1 kilometres of MacDonnell Road (later Canton Road), and Des Voeux Road (later Chatham Road) were all started. Many of the intersecting roads, for example Granville and Kimberley Roads, were already built. To the north of Austin Road the road network was concentrated in the southern Yau Ma Tei district with the 15m-wide 1.6km-long Station Road (later Shanghai Street) reaching Mong Kok Tsui. A small independent road system was already constructed in the Hung Hom area near the docks, for example Bulkeley Street and Gillies Avenue. By the turn of the century there were some 35 kilometres of roads in Kowloon which included the first two original direct links into the newly-leased New Territories, that is those to Kowloon City and the Tong Mi area. In particular the road network in the new development at Yau Ma Tei was well under way and the Hung Hom road system had been enlarged and connected to the extension of Des Voeux (Chatham) Road. In order to relieve pressure on Victoria's densely built-up areas with their unhealthy conditions and at the same time to provide an easy access to facilitate opening up of the New Territories, the Harbour Master in 1901 proposed the construction of a cross-harbour bridge between Pottinger Street on the Island and Robinson (Nathan) Road, there being no engineering difficulty or "any practical obstruction or even inconvenience to shipping", the deck being 12 metres above high ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 405 dery of Shakyamuni preaching on Vulture Peak, with attendants. This is notable for the skill of the stitchwork, which flows with the contours of faces and draperies to add depth and texture. Some colours, such as the blues, are stunningly deep and fresh, but the reds and greens have faded with time. This item dates from the 7 or 8th century. A Japanese conservator mounted the paintings on silk in the 1910s at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Many were in an extremely fragile state and they survive today largely as a result of extremely fragile condition. Unfortunately some of the backing material is quite dark. One of the brighter paintings is of Kwanyin on a lotus base surrounded by swirling green draperies that bring the work to life. An inscription on the back of this exquisite piece, from 910, has aided scholars. A scroll painting also depicts Kwanyin waving a banner on a staff, with the figure of a deceased lady in the background. The scroll is believed to have been offered so that the lady might ascend to the halls of paradise, with Boddhisattvas leading the way. Posters of this work were used to publicise a past exhibition. The collection includes some of these banners - surprisingly modest pieces a metre or so long. One of these notably depicts a Boddhisattva holding a glass bowl of Middle Eastern design, clear evidence that the object, or at least knowledge of its form, was carried on the Silk Route. We also saw a vibrant section of a scroll painting of a fierce guardian, originally larger than life size. Sadly only a fragment remains of what would have been a fabulous piece. In a different medium altogether, another item is a window painting on paper backed with cloth. This depicts stylised lotuses on the outside and images of the Buddha on the inside. To realise that these items, when Aurel Stein discovered them, were rolled, stacked up and abandoned in a cave in northern China only makes one grateful that this much has survived. Further reading: The International Dunhuang Project website (http://idp.bl.uk) includes a vast amount of material. It says that an international conference, Dunhuang 2000, is to be held in Beijing to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x ONE OF HONG KONG'S MANY HILLSIDE TEMPLES: "THE TEMPLE OVERLOOKING THE SEA' DAN WATERS 275 There are a number of hillside temples, both on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon. But very little appears to have been written about them or about the communities that worship in them and frequent their environs. This short paper looks at a small, ramshackle temple complex, including 'The Temple Overlooking the Sea', which used to cling to the hillside. Painted somewhat garishly bright red, green and yellow, it stood downhill, on the western side of where the remains of the old British Pinewood Battery are still situated. The latter, at 307 metres above sea level, was the highest of all Hong Kong's coastal defence batteries. To get to the temple you went up the winding, partly asphalted and partly concreted, Hatton Road, which starts at the western end of Conduit Road, where it joins Po Shan and Kotewall Roads. Hatton Road is steep and leads up to the Gap between Victoria Peak and the still, relatively unspoiled, High West. About half way up Hatton Road, on the way to the Peak, there is a branch off to the right, and, a further 35 metres or so along with a pavilion atop Dragon and Tiger Hill on your right, you turn left on to a concrete-paved jeep track. Proceeding downhill for approximately 300 metres you can still see the hillside scars and sorry remains of the old Temple complex. They are situated along what is sometimes called Cheung Po-tsai's Path, named after Hong Kong's most notorious pirate who was especially active in the first decade of the 19th century. Whether he actually used the path is debatable. It circles the western end of Hong Kong Island above Mid-Levels. Notices were posted up in the summer of 1999, in the area around the 'Temple Overlooking the Sea', saying that the complex was to be demolished. It was an illegal structure. The old Chinese folk who were very attached to the Temple were naturally upset and, although there were no strong protests, a few of them did attend meetings organised by government departments. Although the Temple folk sometimes ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 377 inscription. The ivory canister is accompanied by a book to which one refers to read one's fortune. In Cantonese, this method of fortune telling is called Cow Tsim 3. A copy of the Hong Kong Telegraph Pictorial Supplement dated 2nd June, 1934. It includes a group photograph of staff and pupils of the Peak School among who is Douglas Franklin's sister - Sylvia. Other photographs in the supplement include the construction of the Shing Mun dam, the latest fashion and high society of the day 4. Photograph taken some time before Mr Frederick Franklin's wedding in 1925. Mrs Franklin had been a nursing sister employed at the Government Civil Hospital in Western District. She originated from Scotland 5. The old Peak Church, taken in 1925, where Frederick Franklin and his bride were married 6. Saint John's Cathedral Choir, on the steps of the Cenotaph in Statue Square, taken at the Armistice Service in 1938. The statue of Queen Victoria, under the canopy, is in the background. The Cenotaph is a smaller version of the one in Whitehall, London 7. Christmas Fancy Dress Party at the Peak Hotel, 1924. The hotel was demolished after World War Two 8. Snapshot of Mr Franklin senior with Sir Robert Ho Tung, one of Hong Kong's most famous sons. Robert Ho Tung died in 1956. Although Eurasian he normally wore Chinese clothes 9. Snapshot taken in 1924 of Frederick Franklin and the lady who later became his wife, together with a friend in front of a matshed at Repulse Bay. The three are in "whites" and, apart from pith helmets, the two men are dressed very much as we dressed in the 1950s and '60s. Mr Franklin was wearing shorts and knee-length socks and his male companion was wearing a Saigon linen wet-wash suit 10. Another snapshot taken in 1924; again, all three are wearing similar attire. Father sits on the running board of the car, which is definitely 1920s vintage ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 378 11. and 12. Two World War Two shots of British soldiers although regiments and locations are not known. 13. and 14. Photocopies of the old British Central School at 136 Nathan Road, Kowloon, now the Antiquities and Monuments Office. This is where Douglas Franklin studied from 1936 to 1937. He then went to King George the Fifth School until he was evacuated to Australia in 1940. 15. A 1960s map of Victoria Peak District (photocopy). 16. Two newspaper cuttings dated 17 May 1955 giving accounts of the funeral and life of Mr Franklin senior. 17. A Hong Kong one-dollar bank note with the head of King George VI (1936-1952) on it. Further information is written on the backs of photographs and snapshots. All the above have been placed by HKBRAS, on Permanent Loan, with the Hong Kong Museum of History, where they are available for display and research purposes. May I repeat that HKBRAS is extremely grateful to Douglas Franklin, a true Hong Konger having been born here, for his generous donation. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 332 Sir Robert had a wonderful funeral procession with 16 bands. In those days popular tunes at Chinese funerals were; Abide with me, Polly Wolly Doodle all the Day, and Yes, we have no Bananas! They were good, rousing tunes and most Chinese did not understand the words anyway. Bamboo ramps were a common sight in the 1950s to bring coffins and corpses down to street level. Ramps disappeared with traffic congestion and with the introduction of high-rise buildings, about 1960. Major Chinese festivals occur in the calendar when there are marked changes of seasons. People are then likely to feel "under the weather." When the body is at a low ebb a sick person is more likely to die. In 1956, it was said that Sir Robert had “passed over" Ching Ming and should be able to carry on at least to Dragon Boat Festival. However, it was not to be. In March 1955 I had managed to obtain a government quarter at 56 Conduit Road. At the time it resembled a quiet country lane, gay with flowers, where you could occasionally hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. A few people were still carried up to Mid-Levels by sedan chairs which, until the end of the fifties, were parked at the bottom of Wyndham Street. I engaged a Chinese amah to whom I paid $130 a month. She spoke Pidgin English and talked of "going topside” when she meant going upstairs. Indeed some of us old Hong Kong hands still use pidgin expressions. I, for example, still talk of a makee-learn, for someone learning a job, and I say small chow when I mean canapés which are provided at receptions. A Chinese colleague complained that, at $130, I was overpaying my amah. He gave his $70 a month. He also said that his amah had no time off. If she had anything important to do she would request a few hours off work. Several people had gold teeth in those days and the saying was that one should have enough gold in one's mouth to pay for one's funeral. The present-day, gold-coloured building, at Admiralty, is nicknamed the "Amah's Tooth." When I first lived in Conduit Road there were a number of quite palatial mansions standing in their own grounds, often with tennis courts, in the Mid-levels. One example was the house on the site, at No.41, on which I live today. The old building was demolished in the mid-1960s. From 1951 to '61 it was occupied by the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC). The film, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, based on Han ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 A NOTE ON THE JAPANESE GUN EMPLACEMENT AT TATHONG POINT, TUNG LUNG CHAU ROBERT HORSNELL 399 At Tathong Point, also known as Nam Tong Mei, a small rocky peninsular at the extreme southern tip of Tung Lung Island, there still exists the remains of a little known war-time Japanese gun emplacement. Its purpose was probably to protect the south-eastern approaches to Victoria Harbour. This gun emplacement is not mentioned in the book Ruins of War by Tim Ko and Jason Wordie and is not listed in the Gazetteer of the Batteries of the Fixed Defences of Hong Kong in Denis Rollo's book The Guns and Gunners of Hong Kong, although Rollo does mention an observation post for the Devil's Peak Battery at the southern end of Tung Lung Island built in 1935/36. From information in an old Public Works Department file it appears that the gun emplacement was built by the Japanese during the Occupation (1941-1945). In 1965, the gun emplacement was converted by the Public Works Department's Architectural Office into an engine room for the Marine Department's Tathong Point Lighthouse Station to house the electric marine light, foghorn engines, light standby engine and switchboard. The staff quarters adjacent to the engine room were built later in 1973/74 to replace the old lighthouse keeper's quarters built in 1949 lower down near the jetty and landing stage. The old vacated quarters were used as stores for some time then later demolished. The remains of the concrete platforms on which these old buildings were built can still be seen amongst the rocks. From the original P.W.D. drawings for the conversion works, it is possible to learn something about the construction of the gun emplacement. It was built of concrete with a floor area of about 40 square metres. The walls are about one metre thick but the roof is much thicker especially over the rear part which contained the expense magazines. The chamber which housed the gun consists of a rectangular room with a semi-circular bow front in which the wide angle embrasure for the gun was formed. The armament is not known but from the size of the gun embrasure it was probably a large coastal defence gun. Page 465 Page 466 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 455 could sometimes hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. At the time one could still hire a sedan chair and four coolies to carry one up to Conduit Road. There were half a dozen or so parked regularly in Wyndham Street, in Central, up until the late 1950s. The fare was 30 cents for each 15 minutes with a 30 cents surcharge. The working life of a chair coolie was said to be eight years. As with many houses in Conduit Road at the time, 41 Conduit Road had a superb view and, long before the days of cross-harbour tunnels, one of the pastimes of children was counting the number of ferries they could spot. Between the two World Wars an eccentric Englishman who lived in Robinson Road, not far away, did not own a clock. He used a telescope to tell the time from the clock tower then standing in Pedder Street. In the "good old days," more than one British Governor used the activities in the harbour as a barometer of the strength of the economy. We are talking of times, up until the mid 1930s, when a cannon was fired from Blackhead Point, in Tsim Sha Tsui, to let residents know when a typhoon was approaching or, alternatively, the mail ship had arrived. Occasionally, inhabitants were not sure to which of the two events the firing referred! When the FCC vacated the premises the final days had come for the old mansion at 41 Conduit Road. In 1960, it was bought by Cheng Hing Realty and, in 1966, rebought by Court Properties. As with so much of Hong Kong it was a case of 'Hungry for the new forget the old.' The old building was demolished and the site remained empty for some time. The sale price was reputed to have been $13 million. The site was then redeveloped. In the summer of 1970, there were 1,200 applications to purchase the 400 flats at Realty Gardens. My wife and I were successful in the ballot and we took possession of our newly completed flat in Venice Court, for which we paid, in mid 1972, the princely sum of $114,000. Prices were still low after the property slump brought on largely by the drawn-out 1967 riots. My flat has been a splendid investment. We let it for the first four years, unfurnished, at $2,000 a month. We moved in ourselves on 1 March 1976. Although I can see a narrow strip of the harbour and Stonecutters Island (an island no longer) from my bedroom window, my flat at Realty Gardens in fact faces south. It is thus shielded from the cold north-easterly monsoon in the winter and receives the benefits of the cool ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 456 south-westerly monsoon in the summer. As the Cantonese saying has it, ‘Even with a 1,000 taels of gold it is not easy to buy a flat facing south.' On the steep hillside with its lush vegetation, opposite and well above Realty Gardens, exists even now what is sometimes still called Cheung Po-Tsai's Path. Shown on maps, starting more or less opposite and a little higher up than May Road, although heavily overgrown and not negotiable in parts because of landslips and other obstructions, the footpath goes around and finishes up on the southern slopes of the Peak. Cheung was Hong Kong's most notorious and fearsome pirate who was at the zenith of his powers during the first decade of the 19th century. He was reputed to command as many as 600 junks, 40,000 fighting men - including a few British ex-Royal Navy gunners and "own" the prettiest girls. No firm evidence, however, appears to exist that he himself ever walked along that path. From the fung shui aspect Victoria Peak with its spurs, and Seymour Cliffs to our southeast, symbolise strong backing. The "cosmic breath" of fung shui rides on the wind and is dispersed and checked by watercourses. Realty Gardens' location brings blessings, which are just, and inevitable rewards deserved by the skilful and the diligent. Watercourses stream down the mountain keeping fortunes flowing into our flat and protecting our well-being. Some fung shui specialists maintain that the spiritual energy on the Peak is the best in the whole of Hong Kong. At the far western end of Conduit Road, close to the junction with Kotewall and Po Shan Roads, a steep, narrow road branches off. This is Hatton Road. It leads to the Peak. About half way up it passes the remains of Pinewood Battery, which has been turned into a picnic spot. This artillery emplacement was constructed by the British, starting in 1903. The whole area around Hatton Road is relatively unspoiled and provides a wonderful recreational area for Conduit Road residents to stretch their legs and to appreciate nature. Many of the elderly Chinese who walk up there daily for exercise call it "Long Life Road." Sadly however, while talking of heritage, with the villa at No. 55 (completed in 1919) having been demolished in the summer of 2000, there is only one pre-World War Two building still standing in Conduit ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 457 Road. That is the supermarket and estate agency at No. 44. Now, many of the buildings flanking Conduit Road top 30 or 40 storeys blocking their neighbour's view. Certainly today barking deer can no longer be heard calling from Victoria Peak. But, proving the location is still peaceful, Realty Gardens does have its own flock of pigeons and it is not infrequently visited by a destructive, gregarious group of sulphur-crested cockatoos. Nevertheless the pattern of nature does change. In the 1970s crested-mynah birds were common in the grounds at Realty Gardens. Nowadays, you seldom see them. Snakes are not uncommon. But much of the wild life on the slopes of the Peak itself is nocturnal and limited. However I did see dead ferret badgers and masked-palm civets, in the 1990s, which had been run over by vehicles. Although rare on the Peak, one can occasionally even see fresh-water crabs and blue-tailed skinks. The latter is Hong Kong's most attractive lizard. Although customs have changed one can still sometimes see and hear street criers in Conduit Road. They vary from the itinerant, tiny, wizened old sharpener of knives and scissors to the trader who buys odds and ends of scrap metal. There is also the old man who sells lengths of bamboo. These are used for hanging out the washing to dry when it is euphemistically called "flags of all nations." In the mid-1950s, I remember there was a peddler with a pet monkey. Certainly if the present old, worn, steps, which are original, which Han Suyin and her boy friend once trod in the film shot at Realty Gardens, together with the original balustrades and the heavy, battered, gravity retaining walls which still exist today, could talk, they would have wonderful tales to tell. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance given by Mrs. Betty Chiu, long-time resident of Realty Gardens, in the writing of this paper. The author is also grateful to Mr. David Roads, Honorary 'The picture in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, of 41 Conduit Road, is a watercolour on paper titled, Fairview, Conduit Road 1926', by Alfred Lane, reference AH72.1. It was donated to the Museum of Art by Mr. Kwok On. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 regarding a clandestine relationship that he had many years before with a Chinese lady and which produced three children. Roderick O'Brien addresses a totally different subject. In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, after the defeat of Lon Nol's Khmer Republic forces, and entered Phnom Penh. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge remained in power for nearly four years, pursuing policies which resulted in the death of nearly two million people through execution, starvation, and disease. The question of a tribunal to bring those responsible to justice has been on the drawing board for several years but has yet to materialise. Roderick has lived and worked in Cambodia and provides a factual, objective and unemotional account of the tragedy of Cambodia and what may lie ahead. The exploits of H.M.S. Hermes on the China Station in the 1930s occupy Jonathan Parkinson. Hermes was the Royal Navy's first purpose-built aircraft carrier and was, by all accounts, a happy ship. She was ultimately sunk by the Japanese off Batticaloa in 1942; a sad end to a distinguished career spanning nearly 20 years. Where would our Journal be without the redoubtable Keith Stevens? Keith has produced another splendid article for this volume. It recounts the Russo-Japanese War fought largely on Chinese soil - and with scant regard for the Chinese people who suffered greatly - almost exactly 100 years ago. The Notes and Queries section is an important miscellany of this and that. Each little and not so little piece represents an investment in time and effort by the individual concerned. Included is another piece on the Chinese Labour Corps in Europe during World War I (See The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921, Vol. 40, JHKBRAS, pp. 33-111, and various Notes and Queries in Vols. 41 and 42); some interesting photos which I will leave readers to mull over themselves; a further moving piece (which was almost an article) on Samuel Cornell Plant by his nephew Michael Gillam no less (see The Life and Times of Captain Samuel Cornell Plant, Vol. 41, JHKBRAS, pp. 407-416); a note on the Belilios Star (Hong Kong's official life-saving medal); and a piece on what became of the Tyndareus Stone which used to adorn the sitting out area beneath High West (Victoria Peak) before it was plundered - I see no other word for it - by the British Army in 1993. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 207 THE MIDDLESEX (“TYNDAREUS”) STONE DAN WATERS For those of you who can picture Hong Kong's Victoria Peak, on the small, flat, grassy, sitting-out area in the saddle between High West and Victoria Peak, there used to lie a Boulder. This sitting out area complete with pavilion is close to where Lugard Road joins Harlech Road. The Boulder used to lie just above where Hatton Road joins Harlech Road. A ring of small stones roughly three metres in diameter, partially overgrown with grass, still marks the position. The Boulder is in its natural state except for one side which was flattened to take the original plaque. As far as can be measured the Stone is 110cms x 130cms x 71cms and it is estimated to weigh a little less than one tonne. Then suddenly one afternoon I spotted it was missing. While trying to find out what had happened to it, over the next week or so two letters appeared in the South China Morning Post. Both writers expressed concern. One letter, dated 8 April 1994, from the late Martin Booth the well-known author who spent time in Hong Kong as a child - but in later years lived in England - was headed, 'An outrage.' He said the Stone also celebrated, by association, those men of the Middlesex Regiment who so valiantly defended Hong Kong in 1941 against the Japanese. Booth went on to say that the monument was also of interest because it was erected by Lieutenant Colonel John Ward "whose prompt action, military efficiency and strong sense of humanity saved many during the disastrous Happy Valley Race Course fire. This took place in February 1918 and has been well documented. Booth states the death toll in the fire was 570. 'That [the "Middlesex Boulder"] has disappeared is an outrage to local history and an insult to those it commemorates. A patch of newly seeded grass is all that remains.' The two letters were followed by another from R I Goodwin, Director of Public Relations HQ British Forces Hong Kong, dated 18 April 1994. He stated he wished to reassure Mr Booth that the Middlesex Stone was in good hands and that it was en route back to the Regiment's safe keeping in the United Kingdom. Goodwin then went on to mix up the whole issue. He took the figure of 570 lives lost in the Hong Kong Racecourse Fire in 1918 (as quoted by Booth) and quotes this as the number of lives lost when the troopship Tyndareus was mined off South ================================================================================