Peak District Reservation Ordinance 1904

Peak District Reservation Ordinance 1904
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
  • An ordinance for the reservation of a Residential Area in the Peak-District.
Enacted byLegislative Council
Assented to29 April 1904 (1904-04-29)
Signed byFrancis Henry May, Acting Governor
Signed29 April 1904 (1904-04-29)
Commenced15 July 1904 (1904-07-15)
Repealed5 December 1930 (1930-12-05)
Legislative history
Introduced bySir H. S. Berkeley, Attorney-General
First reading28 March 1904
Second reading19 April 1904
Third reading26 April 1904
Repealed by
Law Revision Ordinance 1930
Status: Repealed
Peak District Reservation Ordinance 1904
Traditional Chinese山頂區保留條例
Transcriptions
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationSāan déng kēui bóu làuh tìuh laih
JyutpingSaan1 deng2 keoi1 bou2 lau4 tiu4 lai6

The Peak District Reservation Ordinance 1904, originally enacted as the Hill District Reservation Ordinance, is commonly called the Peak Reservation Ordinance and was a zoning law that reserved most of the Victoria Peak as a place of residence to non-Chinese people except with the consent of the Governor-in-Council. The law was in force from 1904 to 1930 where the deadly Third Pandemic of Bubonic plague took place in China, causing 100,000 deaths, and enormous number of Chinese influxed into Hong Kong, causing the 1894 Hong Kong plague. Contemporary historians’ views toward the Ordinance vary, with some attributing the Ordinance to health segregation, whereas others attribute it to social status segregation. The debate on the second reading of the Bill is recorded in the Hong Kong Hansard, which shows that the two Chinese members, Ho Kai and Wei Yuk, did not oppose the Bill but a minority of the "leading Chinese" in the community were against it.