| 1847 – 1904
It was around the middle of the 19th century that the concept
of illumination of public places was introduced into the daily
life of Macau. One of the initiatives was taken by the Macanese,
Commander Lourenço Marques, who ordered the installation
of lanterns in front of “Leal Senado” and the Government
Palace. In 1847 an edit passed by “Leal Senado”
invited the inhabitants of the city who still did not have lamps
in front of their houses to follow the example of those that
had already adopted this measure, explaining to them the advantages
of public illumination. Finally, a provincial governmental decree
established and regulated the Macau illumination system. This
decree revoked the earlier bizarre municipal order, which compulsorily
required Chinese people to carry a lantern with them when they
traveled in the city at night.
|
 |
| Letter
from Hanz Ziegler addressed to the Government Secretary,
Bandeira de Lima, dated April 1899 |
Telegram
from Leal Senado to the " Société Electrique
d’Extrême-Orient". |
By the end of the 19th century, the use of electricity
for public illumination had already been recognized as a great
innovation and was being adopted in many countries. In October
1889, the first power station in Shanghai began functioning
and in December of the following year, the Hong-Kong Electric
Company commenced the supply of electricity for illumination
in Hong Kong.
Towards the end of the 19th century and into
the 20th century, several attempts were made to obtain an exclusive
monopoly for electricity illumination in Macau. The oldest document
related to this was a letter dated 28th April 1899, signed by
Hanz Ziegle addressed to the then Government Secretary Bandeira
de Lima. Several factors contributed to this not coming to fruition.
One of them was the fact that Bandeira de Lima had left Macau
the following year, apparently to escape judgment on a corruption
case against civil servants, in which he was one of the defendants.
|
