HISTORY
English Bar, setting a precedent which has since been followed by many others, who have come to participate actively in the life and activities of the community.
The cultural needs of the community found expression in a variety of ways, but as early as 1847 the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded, dedicated to the study of cultural contacts between the East and the West. An important feature of the colonization was the Gardens and Afforestation Department which procured seeds and plants from Australia and England, that resulted in “a general increase in the vegetative surroundings of the town, and that the increased attention given to the cultivation of trees along the public roads and around European dwellings on the hillsides had already done much to displace the pristine barrenness of the site on which the city was built, by patches of beautiful shrubbery." In course of time several vegetables and flowers found their way into China through their introduction in Hong Kong.
The opening of Haiphong and Hanoi to trade with Hong Kong enlarged the scope of the Colony's com- mercial importance, as did the establishment by Chinese capital of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company (1874). This was followed by the linking of Hong Kong by cable to Canton, Macau, Shanghai, Foochow and other places. Further provision was made in Hong Kong, at the Praya East, for the expanding city, followed by extensive reclamations at Causeway Bay. Some interest in Kowloon was shown, the Portuguese community being among the first to take part in this enterprise. The building of houses
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