Sessional_Paper_1912 — Page 47

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HONGKONG.

REPORT ON THE NEW TERRITORIES, 1899-1912.

No.

11. 1912

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, August 22nd, 1912.

A.

L.---GENERAL.

1. On June 9th, 1898, a convention was signed at Peking between Great Britain and China, by which the latter leased to the former for 99 years a portion of the province of Sun On adjoining the Colony. The lease of the so-called New Territories, more popularly known as the New Territory or simply The Territory, was to begin on July 1st, 1898, but it was not until April of the following year that they were taken over. Some resistance was experienced from discontented factions in and out of the Territories, but this was soon put down without any loss on our side.

2. The district consists of the peninsula running out towards Hongkong between the Canton estuary on the West and Mirs Bay on the East, together with the islands adjacent. It formerly belonged to the district of San On in the Kwangtung Province, and was administered from Nain Tau.

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3. On the North the boundary follows the North bank of the Sham Chun river and then a line, marked by boundary stones, which crosses a pass to the S. W. of the lofty mountain, Ng Tung Shan, and descends to Mirs Bay at a point half a mile to the West of Sha Tau Kok Market. Then it proceeds Eastwards round the North coast of Mirs Bay to Mirs Point, and thence South to a point in Latitude 22° 9' and Longitude 114° 3', thence due West to Longitudė 113° 52', whence it runs Northwards, skirting the West point of Lantao Island, to the South point of the peninsula running down into Deep Bay: thence round the North shore of Deep Bay to the North Bank of the Sham Chun River. The full definition of the waters of the Colony under the Laws of Hongkong will be found in Appendix A.

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4. The total area of the New Territories is 356 square miles, of which about one quarter consists of islands. The territory is of a bed description, and its outstanding feature is a chain of mountains running along e co which runs down to the South Wes-rom the st line from East to West-one large spur of with the smaller ones surrounding it. On theatre, and forms the larger island of Lantag East side the range breaks into several spurs, the chief being the Kowloon Rage-runni

g North and South from Ma On Shan to Kow- look Peak. North of these bis there runs

Several valleys East an West. On the extreme North West is swampy grond adjoining: Deep Bay and the Sham Chun River on the borders of the Territory, and low barren Fills run along the borders more to the East.

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over.

5. In a country of the kind, the are available for cultivation is small; in fact only square miles out of 35 were claimed b ́

y private owners when the territory was taken The proportion a cultivated to uncultivated areas remains still approximately the same certain portions have since been tal

ken up, chiefly for pineapple-growing, and much land difficult of access has since been abandoned, as it has become cheaper to buy food in Hong or as labour has been diverted by the prospect of higher wages.

6An estimate of the population of the New Territories in 1901 gave the number as

figures given in the census for 1911 are:-

102,254

Land Population,...............

Floating Population,

Total

94,246

9,855

104,101