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128 Promontory from the south-eastern extremities, whilst Honglxong is separated from Kowloon Peninsula by a channel of one nautical mile in width.

For many centuries Hongkong formed a part of the Tungkoon District, but when the eastern half of the latter was constituted a separate District, called Sanon, the territory now included in the British Colony of Hongkong came under the jurisdiction of the Sanon Magistrate who resides in a walled town on the Canton River called Namtau (or Sanon), and who has under his direction a Sub-Magistrate residing at Kowloon city, a small fortified town, situated close to the British frontier, in the north-eastern corner of Kowloon Peninsula. The land-register, however, which forms the Domesday Book for the few arable and vegetable fields possessed by the Colony remained all along at Tungkoon. Thence used to issue from time to time the tax-gatherers to dun the villagers for the payment of the grain tax and to worry them into taking out licences for ground newly brought under cultivation.

The fishing grounds also, all along the coast of Hongkong and Kowloon, were parcelled out, under special licences for which the Sanon Magistrate's underlings used to collect annual fees. The waters of Hongkong, with the beautiful, roomy and almost land-locked harbour, enclosed on the North by the Peninsula of Kowloon and its eastern Promontory, and in the South by the Island of Hongkong with its several bays, were under the special supervision of the Marine Constabulary Station of Taipang, a walled town in the north-eastern portion of Mirs Bay, some 30 miles to the North-east of Kowloon city. But when the Colony became British, the head-quarters of the Colonel in command of the Marine Constabulary stations of Taipang and Kowloon were removed to the citadel of Kowloon city.

The above-mentioned administrative and executive arrangements date back, in their present form, no farther than the commencement of the present Tatsing (Manchu) Dynasty and notably to the reign of the enlightened Emperor Kanghi (A.D.