ENG-1961 — Page 400

340

HISTORY

Northern side of the island facing the harbour was named 'Queen's Road'.

Hong Kong was declared a free port and by the Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue in October 1843, the Chinese were allowed free access to the island for purposes of trade. Indeed British policy of welcoming all-comers to the Colony and of not seeking any exclusive commercial privileges accorded with the Colony's economic interests.

The early years of the infant Colony were marked by a series of misfortunes. In 1841 it was struck by two typhoons, and the Chinese market area was burnt down twice. Virulent fever, probably malaria, decimated the Europeans, and at one point troops were withdrawn to the safety of ships in the harbour, and building in Happy Valley had to be abandoned. An early estimate put the local Chinese population at some 4,000 with a further 2,000 living afloat; the first report on population in June 1845 gave the total population as 23,817 of whom 595 were Europeans and 362 Indians.

At first, the Colony did not fulfil the sanguine hopes that had been formed and instead of becoming a great emporium as had been predicted trade developed between Britain and the new Treaty Ports direct, particularly Shanghai, which was commercially more advantageously situated than Hong Kong. In 1847 a Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry into the China trade went so far as to express doubts if Hong Kong would ever develop into an important commercial centre and recommended economies in its administration.

Shortly after its foundation a great wave of Chinese emigration took place, mainly to near south-east Asia and beyond, and to countries bordering the Pacific, travelling chiefly on British and American ships. In 1849, when gold was discovered in California, there was a rush of Chinese to Kam Shan (Golden Mountains) which has remained the vernacular name for San Francisco, and in 1851 there was a similar rush to Australia and San Kam Shan (New Golden Mountains) has remained the Chinese name for Sydney. In addition there was emigration and labour under contract to the sugar plantations of Central and Southern America. To check the many abuses in connexion with this migration the British Government passed the Chinese Passengers Act of 1852, prescribing