One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
of the deceased in the open air in front of each house, the oblations of the Fokien and [82] Kwangtung temples and the ‘cho-hi’ or plays in the enclosures in front in honour of the ‘Sin’ or deified mortals on their respective birthdays: the New Year festivities and worship extending over fifteen days, the annual procession and offerings to the queen of heaven of the people of the Junks from China and the beating of gongs on board the Chinese junks in the harbour on the arrival and departure of a junk.
We have communicated to our fellow petitioners your Honour’s gracious compliance with the wishes of the Chinese community, and have intimated to them your objection to the firing of crackers, save on occasion of marriages when there is only to be one ‘ko-phau’ on leaving, and one on entering the house. We have also informed them that besides complying with the prayer of the petition, your Honour has been pleased out of consideration for their feelings to discountenance the practice hitherto prevailing amongst the police of seizing persons by the ‘thau-chang’, and that it has now been prohibited. They desire to join us in expressing our gratitude for the kindness and regard which you have evinced on this occasion to the Chinese community, and assuring you that if we had not been under a misapprehension as to the sentiment entertained by your Honour we would have long ago addressed you on the subject,
We have the honour to be, Honourable Sir,
Your most obedient humble servants
(sd.) TAN KIM SENG & OTHERS
The interior of the Settlement had been for some time in a disturbed state, owing to the steady persecution of the Chinese converts to the Roman Catholic faith by the Hoeys, whose headmen found that the conversion of the Chinese in the interior had the effect of placing, everywhere throughout the island, men who did not require the protection and assistance of the Hoeys: while, as it were, acting as a check upon their activities. The result was a general attack in 1851 upon the Christian Chinese in the country districts. The disturbances lasted for over a week, the Indian convicts were sent [83] out in gangs to follow the rioters into the jungles and disperse them, and finally it required the presence of the military to quell them. ‘As it was’, writes Major McNair, ‘over 500 Chinese were killed, and among them many of the well-to-do Christian converts who had become planters.’13 The Chinese Roman Catholics were not altogether free from blame, for they regarded themselves as a distinct brotherhood – the Hong-kahs – and any quarrel occurring between their members and outsiders was at once adopted by the whole body, and riots ensued. The readiness also of the Roman Catholic priests to espouse the grievances of their converts and to look after their Court cases doubtless was another source of irritation to the Hoeys. The Grand Jury, in their presentment in February 1851, again complained against the Chinese secret societies, ‘whose power was dreaded by Chinese of all classes, and which by their recent destruction of numerous bangsals belonging to Christian Chinese and by their outrageous attack upon the police in the vicinity of Bukit Timah had exhibited a most dangerous combination against public security and peace’.
Again, in their presentment of August 1853, the Grand Jury drew attention to the necessity of adopting stringent measures to detain witnesses in very grave cases until the trial of the prisoners, particularly where the Hoeys were concerned, as it was believed that witnesses were frequently tampered with and disposed of by the secret societies, consequently defeating the ends of justice and encouraging crime. Notwithstanding these repeated warnings of the Grand Jury and the strong comments of the local papers, the Government did not appear to realise fully the seriousness of the danger to the population due to the growing activities of the various secret societies and to the great accession to their strength by the arrival of rebels from China who had been routed by the Imperial troops. Then, like a bolt from the blue, occurred in May 1854 the [84] biggest Chinese riots that have ever been known in Singapore.
Among the Malacca lads who ventured to Singapore in 1851 to seek Dame Fortune’s favour was Wan Eng Kiat, then 17 years of age. For a little time he worked as a watchmaker, and then entered the service of Messrs Martin Dyce & Co. At the age of 24, he married Toh Nya Chik, who is still living. Mr Wan Eng Kiat, after his marriage, worked with Messrs Puttfarcken, Rheiner & Co and later with Messrs Puttfarcken & Co as storekeeper, retiring at the age of 68. He was a shrewd and careful investor in house properties, which at his death at the advanced age of 85, on 3rd May 1919,14 were worth half a million dollars.
In November 1851, on the departure of Governor Butterworth for a holiday trip to Australia, the Chinese merchants, among others, presented an address, and the following passage appears in the Governor’s reply thereto:
I take the advantage of this opportunity to notice the obligation the Chinese community, and the public generally, are under to Seah Eu Chin for his management of the Pauper Hospital, which involved great responsibility, pecuniary and otherwise, prior to the establishment of the present very efficient Committee, one of whose members, my friend Tan Kim Seng, is at the head of this deputation. I commend to the special attention and liberal support of the Chinese community, the aforesaid institution, founded by Tan Tock Seng, whose premature death prevented him endowing it, as he had proposed, with funds sufficient for the maintenance of a given number of its inmates.15
Wan Eng Kiat
It is deserving of mention how much before the notice of the general community was the Tan Tock Seng Hospital of those days. Lord Dalhousie16 during his brief stay here in 1850 presented the Hospital with 1,000 rupees, while in 1866 the English and Germans (who mixed together a great deal in social life) respectively staged a parody of an old opera and a farce for [85] its benefit. Mr Buckley tells the story of how at the eleventh hour, with the help of Mr JD Vaughan, a farce, with four characters in it, had to be studied and rehearsed to take the place of another previously arranged farce, and it was pronounced a great success, after just thirty hours’ preparation.
The first St Andrew’s Church, which was completed in 1837 and ceased to be used in 1852 as it was in a dangerous state, will be remembered as the alleged cause of the first two ‘head scares’ among the Chinese, Malays and Indians. The first scare is recorded by Abdullah in his Hikayat. He related how he himself made inquiries into the rumour that the blood of thirty-six men was required for the sanctification of the new church, and how he argued with several persons who really believed the truth of the rumour and how he failed to allay their fears. The matter became worse after respectable and intelligent Chinese had made inquiries and believed that nine heads had already been secured. What was the origin of the rumour or who was responsible for it remains a mystery.
Again, in 1853, the Press reported a most extraordinary delusion prevailing amongst the native population, and especially the Chinese section. Major McNair, referring to this incident, attributed it to the bad characters among the Chinese who resented the employment by the Government of convict labour in public works and tried to get the convicts into trouble.
Placards in Chinese appeared all over the town that the Governor and all the Europeans had left off worshipping in St Andrew’s Church, owing to the number of evil spirits there, and that in order to appease the spirits, the Governor required thirty heads, and had ordered the convicts to waylay people at night and kill them! The Governor, with a view to allaying the panic, issued a notice declaring the reports to be false and offering $500 reward for the discovery of any person propagating such reports. As this notice only called forth other Chinese placards of a very improper nature, some [86] thirty of the leading Chinese merchants, at the request of the Government, signed a long appeal to their countrymen, in which they pointed out the benevolence of the English Government, and its anxiety to protect the lives of all persons under its care, even to the extent of offering rewards for the destruction of the tigers which killed people. This appeal was lithographed and distributed, and in two days the fears of the Chinese population were dispelled. In 1875 a similar ‘head scare’ occurred during the construction of the ‘puddle trench’ for the new Impounding Reservoir. In 1885 it occurred again, the rumour being that heads were required for the new market at Telok Ayer, and natives in the town, especially children, were afraid to go out at night. There were other later scares, e.g. when the Memorial