卜力

繁體中文

卜力（Henry Arthur Blake，1840–1918）生於愛爾蘭利默里克，別名「卜公」，來港前先後出任巴哈馬總督（1884–1887）、紐芬蘭總督（1887–1888）及牙買加總督（1889–1898），1898年11月25日出任第十二任香港總督，任內主張盡量以和平方式處理新界問題。他上任後派總警司梅含理接收新界及建立警署，落實《展拓香港界址專條》；1899年4月英方在大埔舉行升旗儀式時遭鄉民武裝抵抗，史稱「新界六日戰爭」，英軍其後攻入錦田吉慶圍並拆走圍門鐵門，同年底政府陸續在新界推行土地登記、田土與稅收制度。1900年庚子事變期間大批內地居民南來，6月香港瘟疫嚴重，港府查出疫源與太平山街一帶老鼠有關，一度以每隻兩仙嘅酬金鼓勵捕鼠，其後改用老鼠箱；同年何啟等華人精英亦遊說他支持華南成立共和國嘅構想。他任內鋪設電車軌道（1904年通車）、主持最高法院奠基禮（1912年啟用），天星小輪、先施百貨及《南華早報》亦先後創立。1903年11月他任滿轉任錫蘭總督（1903–1907），1909年出版《港督話神州》。中環卜公碼頭、上環卜公花園及洋紫荊（Bauhinia × blakeana）均以他命名。

English

Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1840–1918), nicknamed 'Po Kung', was born in Limerick, Ireland. Before Hong Kong he governed the Bahamas (1884–1887), Newfoundland (1887–1888) and Jamaica (1889–1898), and became the colony's twelfth Governor on 25 November 1898, favouring as peaceful an approach as possible to the New Territories question. He sent Chief Superintendent Francis May to take over the New Territories and build police stations under the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory; in April 1899 the British flag-raising at Tai Po met armed resistance — the 'Six-Day War' — after which troops stormed Kat Hing Wai at Kam Tin and removed its iron gates, and by the end of the year land registration, land and revenue systems were being extended across the new territory. During the Boxer crisis of 1900 refugees poured in and, in June, plague was traced to rats around Tai Ping Shan Street; the government briefly paid two cents a rat before switching to rat boxes, and that year Chinese leaders such as Ho Kai lobbied Blake over a South China republic. His term saw the laying of tram tracks (opened 1904) and the foundation stone of the Supreme Court (completed 1912), while the Star Ferry, Sincere department store and the South China Morning Post were all founded. In November 1903 he left to govern Ceylon (1903–1907) and in 1909 published 'China'. Blake Pier in Central, Blake Garden in Sheung Wan and the Hong Kong orchid tree Bauhinia × blakeana are named after him.