In response to the scramble for concessions in China by the European countries and Japan, Britain negotiated with the Chinese government for the lease of a portion of the county of Xinan adjoining the British Colony of Hong Kong. The two governments reached an agreement in April 1898, and signed a convention in Beijing on 9 June 1898. According to the convention, the lease of the territories would be in effect from 1 July 1898, and would last for 99 years. The colonial government named the additional land the “New Territories”. The boundary of the Colony was then extended to cover the land and sea between the Shenzhen River to the north and latitude 22°9’ to the south, and between longitude 114°30’ to the east and longitude 113°52’ to the west. As a result, the size of the Colony was enlarged by about 10 times.[1]
The aggrandizement of the Colony led to the expansion of the Harbour Master’s Office. In order to extend control of marine matters to the newly acquired territories, the Harbour Master’s Office established eight harbour stations in different parts of the New Territories between 1899 and 1912. These harbour stations were responsible for issuing licences and permits, and collecting dues and fines. Apart from establishing harbour stations, the Harbour Master’s Office built more steam launches, steam tenders, motorboats, motor launches and rescue tugs to extend its control over, and services to, the New Territories. The Harbour Master’s Office also took over from the Chinese government the lighthouse on Waglan Island in 1901. In 1912 the Office built a lighthouse on Tang Lung Chau in the New Territories, which was commonly known as the Kap Sing Lighthouse.[2]
Notes:
- [1]Steve Tsang, Hong Kong: An Appointment with China (London: I. B. Tauris, 1997), pp. 1-12; G. N. Orme, ‘Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912’, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1912.
- [2]Reports of the Harbour Master, 1899-1929; Reports of the Harbour Master and Director of Air Services, 1930-1939; ‘Civil Establishment’, Hong Kong Blue Book, 1899-1939; Louis Ha and Dan Waters, ‘Hong Kong’s Lighthouses and the Men Who Manned Them’, JHKBRAS, 41 (2001), 281-320 (pp. 289-290); Peter Wesley-Smith, Unequal Treaty 1898-1997: China, Great Britain and Hong Kong’s New Territories (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 20-21.
