August 24, 1903.]
the village elders, who were the natural leaders of the people, being appointed district elders with judicial power to deal with petty cases in their several districts.
5. At the same time Mr. Lockhart was given a general controlling power over these distriot courts with co-ord nate jurisdiction. I was under the impression that these powers would have been appreciated by the elders and that the Courts would have been resorted to: but as a * matter of fact the elders displayed no anxiety to take the duties upon themselves, and from the beginning the community showed perfect confidence in Mr. Lockhart, and subsequently in Mr. Hallifax, who is now acting as Police Magistrate in the New Territory, but whose practical work is more often that of an Arbitrator, whose decision is accepted without, demar
6. Taipohu. a small market town at the head of Tolo harbour in Mirs Bay, was selected as the most suitable position for headquarters, situated as it is in almost the centre of the Territory, and this position has now been con- nected with Kowloon Peninsula by an excellent, road, with easy gradients, 18 miles in length, upon the construction of which $225,133 have been expended. This road opriates the necessity of communicating with Taipohu by sea, a sometimes rough and dangerous passage I am considering the possibility of arrauging for the further extension of roads in the New Territory by local co-operation and without expense to the general revenue.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
about thirty dollars. As soon as his claim was confirmed he sold it to a local company for fifty thousand dollars, as the bay, a portion of which is included in the claim, is suitable for the co:struction of a dock. I hope that the labours of the Land Court may be concluded by the end of this year, when Mr. Gompertz will revert to his substantive appointment of Assistant Colonial Secretary.
8 The Revenue collected from the Territory during the year was $45,334.03; I question whether the revenue to be derived from Crown Rent at the rate fixed at present will exceed $60,000, so far as the New Territory is concern. .ed, outside the portion be ween the Kowloon range of bills and the Harbour; but for this por tion I look forward to a steady development as soon as the claims to the land have been settled. As will be soen in reference to Appendix No. 4 p. 19 of the report forwarded with my despatch No. 61 of 19th February, 1900, the right to alter the amount of Crown Reut there laid down for the thres classes of cultivable land was reserve, but, having regard to the density of the population and their condition, I question whether any general increase will be found advisable. The area of the New Territory is about 370 square miles, of which the cultivated area is about 45,000 acres or 61 square miles. The estimated population is 100,000. Therefore, although the population shows but 270 persons per square mile of the total area, the population per square mile of cultivated area is 1,639, and while to the produce of the land must be added the result of the fishing, in which a considerable number of the inhabitants are engaged for a portion of the year, it is evident that, having regard to the density of the population, there can be but little taxeble margin in the absence of other than agicultural industries. Although up to the present the hills have not beer utilised for pastoral purposes, I am not without hope that by the introduction of more succulent grasses the 200 square miles of now barren hills may be made to support cattle sufficient to supply the demands of Hongkong, now depend ent upon the import of cattle from the North and West River-sources that recent action of the Governor of Kwangsi in prohibiting export has shown to be somewhat precarious. The Botanical Department is at present examining into this question. For the improve. ment of agriculture, sugar-canes have been imported from the Straits Settlements and Honolulu, and over eleven thousand plants distributed among the Chinese, and improved sugar-mills have been introduced, while a wealth- and enterprising Chinese gentlemau has esy tablished an experimental farm, in the conduct of which the Botanical Department is giving bim assistance and advice.
143
known as being the headquarters of organised River. As, however, they can muster over one gangs that commit the piracies of the West thousand fighting men, the Canton Viceroy does not dare to interfere with them. Such habits and customs cannot be controlled at once without a much larger Police force than we have at present, but the Police have, by a judicious system of patrolling, materially reduced the number of these offences, and a fair proportion of the perpetrators have been made amenable and are undergoing punishment, while the people, who were at first disinclined to appeal to the Police, now show a readiness to come forward and pive assistance in the work of detection,
7. Having established Police Staticns, and arranged for the patrol of the territorial waters by Police lannobes to check armed robberies ashore and afloat, the question of Crown Rents and Taxes had next to be con- sidered. The district is a poor one, and almost
d entirely dependent upon agriculture and fish- ing, and, north of the range of Kowloon Hills, the main source of revenue must for the pre- sent be the Crown Rent upou land. This necessitated a survey, and demarcation of the holdings, for which purpose a staff of Sur- veyors and Demarcators were obtained from India. At the same time a Land Court was established to deal will all claims and grant leases to those who could prove title by deeds, or, in the absence of adverse claim, by cecapa- tion. To understand the difficulties of the demarcators it must be remembered that much of the cultivation is on hilly ground, the small rice-plots, which must be perfectly flat to admit of periodical flooding when the rice is sown. being terraced in patches, some of which are but a few square yards in area. Up to the 31st March the total number of such farms demarcated was 223,975, while the total number of holdings for which claims have been presented to the Land Court was 219,517. In this Land 9. The Expenditure was for the year 1901, Court I determined that Solicitors and Barristers $326,668.73, of which $163,741.11 was chargeable should not have a right to appear without the to the Laud Court and Public Works Extra- special permission of the Court, as the claims ordinary charges that will soon cease. It were for small amounts and I felt that may, therefore, be roughly taken that the substantial justice would be done at the smallest normal expenditure of the Territory will be cost to the claimants. In the performance of about $162,000. With the certain development this duty, Mr. Gompertz, Assistant Colonial of New Kowloon and the probable improvement Secretary, who has from the beginning been a of the pastoral capabilities of the hills, I am of Member of the Land Court, has done excellent opinion that within seven or eight years the work. His report, given in Appendix No. 2 Revenue and Expenditure of the New Territory forwarded with the report on the Territory for will quadrate, and later on the Territory will 1900, shows some of the difficulties that pre-materially assist in the General Revenue, sented themselves in the settlement of these claims, and the attached map of a portion of the map of claims for the land and village of Samshui Po, in the Kowloon Peninsula, now before the Land Court, will further show how these claims overlap in apparently inextricable confusion. Here the assistance of Counsel has been permitted as the claims represent very large sung, the value of land so th" of the Kowloon range having enormously increased since the taking over of the Territory. An exemplifica tion of this is given in the case of a portion of the shore of Devil's Peak Peninsula, west of Lyeeman Pass.
The claimant obtained about eleven years ago a right to about 127 acres for the purpose of establishing fishing-ponds. The consideration was five dollars per annum. Having paid one or two years' rent he was five years in arrear when the first whisper was known that the land would probably be coded to Great Britain, upon which rumour he paid the arrears, and in due course laid his claim before the Land Court, which confirmed his grant. The total amount paid by him was
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11. The education in the New Territory has up to the present been left in the hands of the village teachers; but a school is about to be established in the large village of Unlong in which English will be taught by a competent Chinese Master.
12. On the whole I consider the development of the New Territory satisfactory. There have been some difficulties experienced by the Public Works Dapartment in carrying out their operations, but they have been surmounted without friction with the inhabitants, and without extravagance. The Taipo Road has opened up a 'beautiful country round the shores of Mirs Bay, free from the fog that make residence on the Peak so trying in the spring and early summer, and eight to ten degrees cooler than Hongkong It is probable that in years to some country houses will be built in this district, and other develop. ments take place, that will conduce to the comfort and well-being of the Colony,
10. So far no systematic geological ex- amination has been made either of the mainland or of the large island of Lantao, but as 8 silver-mice has been worked сп the latter, it is possible that when the state of the revenue justifies the employment of a Geologist, minerals may be found in payable quantities, in which event the congestion of the agricultural population would be relieved and new conditions established that would increase prosperity. At present our most serious difficulties are armed robberies on shore and afloat, which, though steadily diminishing, are still of too frequent occurrence. They are the most common offences in the Southern provinces, and, so far as I can learn, the Provincial authorities do not attempt to deal with such cases until some village is reported as being specially notorious as harbouring robbers, when, if the authorities do not consider them too strong, a force is sent out and as many as possible arrested er the village destroyed. But at this moment there are on the Canton Delta two towns well |
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION
IN FORMOSA.
An exhibition of amateur photography was held in Taihoku, Formoss, for four days commencing on the 18th July. It was given under the auspices of the Formosa Society of Photography and Science, of which Mr. James W. Davidson, U.S. Consul, is president. The exhibition was open to societies throughout the Far East, and Shanghai, Foochow, Tokyo, and Manila societies, in addition to individual workers in Yokohama, Amoy, etc., sont exhibits, The work of the judges was completed on the 2nd instant, and the awards were as follows:- First prize, Mr. A. L. Hanley, of Yokohama, for landscape on black carbon. Second prize Mr. Wilbur T. Gracey, of Foochow, for portrait on platinum. Third prize, Mr. R. Hoki, of Taihoku, for night-scene on Velox. Messrs. G. W. Pearson and G. Siemssen, of Foochow, Messrs. C. E. Darwent, M. Chaument, D. Monnie, and R. C. Howlett, of Shanghai, all obtained honourable mention. Over 600 prints were hung.
A second series of prizes were given for work done exclusively by members of the Formosa Society, and the result was as follows,--First prize, Mr. Y. Yokoo, for landscape on cloth; second prize, Mr. James W. Davidson, for sunset-scene on Velox; third prize, Mr. M. Isoda, for river-scene on Velox.
The prizes are splendid examples of Japanese inlaid work in gold, silver, and enamel. They were provided from a fund generously presented to the society by His Excellency Baron Kodama, the Governor-General of Formosa. The judges were Mr. N. Nagan, Chief of Formosan Public Works, Dr. Okade, a well-known Japanese authority on photography, and the Rev. Mr. Fraser, an enthusiastic amateur in Formosa. The Formosan Society has been in existence four years, and its members are almost exclusively Japanese, The exhibition, which will be held yearly, will doubtless do much in stimulating amateurs throughout the East to take up artistic photography,›
The N.-C. Daily News publishes this telegram dated Tokyo, 11th August :-The Corean Gov ernment has granted the Russian Lumber Co. a twenty-years' lease of 350 acres of land a Yong-Ampho, with the right to purchase at reasonable prices all the timber rafts floated down by Corean subjects, thereby conferring a practical monopoly of lumber in the Yalu valley. Thus Russia, while opposing the opening of Wiju, herself secures free access to the Yalu valley, and the command of the estuary. river,
the
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