ENG-1962 — Page 35

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In 1883 the first Government astronomer, Dr Doberck, was appointed and the observatory building was completed the follow- ing year. Storm warning signals were displayed for the benefit of shipping using the port and in 1884 a typhoon warning gun was installed at Tsim Sha Tsui police station. In 1902 a time ball tower was built on Blackhead Hill and this red brick building still stands as a Marine Department signal station.

The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company was incorporated in 1886 and acquired the P&O's property at West Point, Jardines' Kowloon property and the Kowloon Pier and Godown Company. At that time, as now, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company-provided a large per- centage of the lighters and tugs needed by ships discharging or loading cargo at anchor in the harbour.

The first report of a reclamation scheme undertaken in Kowloon was in 1867, when an area north of the present Star Ferry- piers was developed to provide about 500 feet of sea wall. In 1885 a boat basin of rather less than half an acre was constructed on a site between the reclamation and the present Holt's Wharf for the water police, whose headquarters had been built the previous year on the site of the Tsim Sha Tsui police station. A land com- mission recommended in 1886 that the Government and not private individuals should carry out all future reclamations in the harbour area, and in the same year 22 acres were reclaimed at Kennedy Town providing -3,690 feet of praya wall. Three years later a further reclamation was completed in front of the west praya.

Between 1867 and 1886 Hong Kong was subject to a Chinese customs blockade which undoubtedly interfered considerably with the junk trade. The Chinese customs authorities, in order to make the blockade effective, established nine marine and land customs stations around the island and searched every junk arriving in or leaving British waters. The reason for the blockade was the Chinese contention that they were losing revenue from the junks carrying opium. They also alleged that Chinese merchants in Hong Kong were circumventing the Treaty Ports Agreement. The merchants counter-claimed that as Hong Kong was a free port the Chinese should suppress any illicit trade at their own boundaries, and all