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Initial Growth

HISTORY

The new colony did not go well at first. It attracted unruly elements, while fever and typhoons threatened life and property. Crime was rife. The Chinese influx was unexpected because it was not anticipated they would choose to live under a foreign flag. The popula- tion rose from 32,983 (31,463 Chinese) in 1851, to 878,947 (859,425 Chinese) in 1931.

The Chinese asked only to be left alone and thrived under a liberal British colonial rule. Hong Kong became a centre of Chinese emigration and trade with Chinese communities abroad. Ocean-going shipping using the port increased from 2,889 ships in 1860, to 23,881 in 1939. The dominance of the China trade forced Hong Kong to conform to Chinese usage and to adopt the silver dollar as the currency unit in 1862. In 1935, when China went off silver, Hong Kong had to follow suit with an equivalent 'managed' dollar.

Hong Kong's administration followed the normal Crown colony pattern, with a governor nominated by Whitehall and nominated Executive and Legislative Councils with official majorities. The first unofficial members of the Legislative Council were nominated in 1850, and the first Chinese in 1880; the first unofficial members of the Executive Council appeared in 1896, and the first Chinese in 1926. Two electoral bodies - the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Unofficial Justices of the Peace allowed, from 1885 onwards, to nominate a member of the Legislative Council.

The British residents pressed strongly for self-government on a number of occasions, but the home government consistently refused to allow the Chinese majority to be subject to the control of a small European minority.

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A Sanitary Board was set up in 1883, became partly elected in 1887, and developed into an Urban Council in 1936. The intention, at first, was to govern the Chinese through Chinese magistrates seconded from the mainland. But this system of two parallel admin- istrations was only half-heartedly applied and broke down mainly because of the weight of crime. It was completely abandoned in 1865 in favour of the principle of equality of all races before the law. In that year, the Governor's instructions were significantly amended to forbid him to assent to any ordinance 'whereby persons of African or Asiatic birth may be subjected to any disabilities or restrictions to which persons of European birth or descent are not also subjected'. Government policy was laissez-faire, treating Hong Kong as a market place where all were free to come and go and where government held the scales impartially.

Public and utility services developed the Hong Kong and China Gas Company in 1861, the Peak Tram in 1885, the Hong Kong Electric Company in 1889, China Light and Power in 1903, the electric Tramways in 1904 and the government-owned Kowloon- Canton Railway, completed in 1910. There were successive reclamations dating from 1851 - notably one completed in 1904 in Central District, which produced Chater Road, Connaught Road and Des Voeux Road, and another in Wan Chai between 1921-9.

A system of public education began in 1847 with grants to the Chinese vernacular schools. Later, the voluntary schools mainly run by missionaries - were included in a grant scheme in 1873. The College of Medicine for the Chinese, founded in 1887, developed into the University of Hong Kong in 1911 and offered arts, engineering and medical faculties.

After the Chinese Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Manchu Dynasty, there was a long period of unrest in China and large numbers of refugees found shelter in the colony. The agitation continued after Chinese participation in World War I brought in its train strong nationalist and anti-foreign sentiment - inspired both by disappointment over failure at the Versailles peace conference to regain the German concessions in