The Transformation of a Bare Rock.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 479, 11 June 1890, Page 3

The Transformation of a Bare Rock.

There must be some still living who. saw the island of Hong Kong before the British occupation. If one of them, having been absent during the whole interval, were now to return, even the extremely salient and beautiful features of the natural landscape would scarcely enable him to identify with the Hong Kong of to day what he would remember as a bare rock, with a fisherman’s hut here and there as the only sign of habitation and a greabsea-basinonly very rarely disturbed by a passing keel. lor now he would see a city of closely-built houses stretching for some four miles along the island shore, and rising, tier over tier, up the slopes of the mountain, thoso on the upper levels interspersed with abundant foliage : while on the opposite peninsula of Kowloon,which was (until very recently) an uninhabited waste of undulating red rock, ho would now see, in bhodistance, prevalent verdure, in bho foreground and along the whole-seaboard numerous houses, together with docks, great warehouses, and other evidences of alargeand thrivingpopulation. Again,the silent and deserted basin has become a harbour so covered with shipping that, even if he has been round the whole world, he could never before have seen so much in a single coup d’ccil. At anchor or moving are some 40 or 50 ocean steamers, including ships of war, large European and American sailing vessels, and hundreds of sea-going junks ; while in the space intervening and around are many thousand boatsflor the most part human habitations with steam-launches rushing in all directions. Going ashore, our visitor, says Sir William des Vcxux, would see long lines of quays and wharves, large warehouses teeming with merchandise, shops stocked with alf the luxuries as, well as the needs of two civilisations; in the European quarter a fine town hall, stately banks, and other large buildings of stone; in the Chinese quarter houses, constructed after a pattern peculiar to China, of almost equally solid materials, but packed so closely together and thronged so densely as to be in this respect probablv withoutparallel in the world ; and finally he would see streets stretching for miles abounding with carriages (drawn, for the most part, nob by animals, bub by men), and teeming with a busy population, in the centre of the town chiefly European, but towards the west and east almost exclusively Chinese. Ascending higher up, he would find churches, public buildings, andmanyhouses, allof exclusively European design (extending now about one-third of the distance up the mountian), for the most part detached or semi-detached, some of handsome appearance and nearly all fronted with stone arched verandahs, which at a distance give somewhat of a palatial flavour even to the smallest; he would see, moreover, beautifully laid oub gardens, public and private, and solidly constructed roads, some of them bordered with bamboos and other delicately fronded trees, and fringed with the luxuriant undergrowth of semitropical vegetation ; while meeting here but comparatively few passengers he would scarcely realise the neighbourhood of a large population, except from what has been aptly termed ‘ the indescribable hum of congregated humanity arising from the town and harbour beneath. Ascending still further to the summit of the ridge, he, in the course of .a two-mile walk, would observe that nob only Victoria Beak, but Mount Gough, Mount Kellett, and the heights above the Magazine Gap, with the many intervening knolls and ravines at a high elevation, are for the most part intersected by roads, and studded with houses similar to those last described, built in one or two places, so close together as to present almost an urban aspect; and looking down whence he came, he, while no doubt recognising the graild mountain-amphitheatre of his early recollection, would at. the same time notice that its arena, occupied by city and shipping, has changed as though by bho wand of an enchanter. Hong Kong has, indeed, changed its aspect: and when it is remembered that all this has been effected in Her Majesty’s reign, and indeed during the space of less than 50 years, on ground in immediate contact with the most populous empire in the world, by a comparatively infinitesimal number of an entirely ■ alien race separated from their homes by nearly the whole earth, and, unlike their couutrymen in Australia and Canada, living in an enervating and trying climate ; and when it is further remembered that the Chinese, whose labour and enterprise under British auspices have largely assisted in this development, have been under no compulsion, but have gone there as free men, attracted by liberal institutions; equitable treatment, and the justice of our rule ; when all this is taken into account, it may be doubted whether, the evidences of material and moral achievement, presented as it were in a focus, make anywhere a more forcible appeal to the eye and imagination, and whether any other spot on the earth is thus more likely to excite, or much more fully justifies, prida i the name of Englishman,