Lockhart Report 1898 – NT – agriculture, indigo, hemp, cotton (Causeway Bay cotton mill)
HF:
Indigo was grown at several places in the NT including Tai Mo Shan and Ma On Shan up until the end of WW1 when it was replaced by commercial dyes.
James Hayes wrote a RASHKB 1968 article about the weaving of locally grown hemp thread into cloth during the annual visits of mostly male Hakka weavers. This was then used to make clothes, quilts, mosquito nets and other items of use in the New Territories in the 19th century. The practice appears to have ended in the early years of the 20th when it became cheaper to buy cloth.
Sesamum is a genus of approximately 20 species in the flowering plant family Pedaliaceae. The plants are annual or perennial herbs with edible seeds. The best-known member of the genus is sesame, Sesamum indicum (syn. Sesamum orientale), the source of sesame seeds. The species are primarily African, with some species occurring in India, Sri Lanka, and China.
I presume the cotton mill mentioned above was the Hongkong Cotton-Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Company Ltd in Causeway Bay which opened in 1898.
We have articles about indigo, hemp and the cotton mill linked below.
The Home Page image is of a urtica hemp plant.
Source: The Lockhart Report 1898
This article was first posted on 2nd May 2015.
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