 |
| Ban Hoe Seng Rice Shop started in 1908 at corner lot at Market Street |
The Chew
brothers Boon Seong and Boon Juan opened a rice shoe in Ipoh. They called it
Ban Hoe Seng Rice Shop.
The brothers
had a sundry business in Kampong Kepayang yet they started a rice shop in Ipoh
in 1908. Ipoh in that year was
experiencing an issue with vagrants.
.........'The
Kinta Sanitary Board had discovered the first deaths from starvation in the
Capital of Tin Land, the Hub of Malaya.
Ipoh did not
have vagrants until the recession of 1895-97 when a severe slump in tin prices
threw 18,000 mining coolies in Kinta out of work.
The
authorities were more concerned with lawlessness among the unemployed than the
hapless vagrants who were merely a nuisance to be tolerated until better times
when they could work again in the mines.
However the
subsequent recessions that Ipoh faced came in short cycles of 4-6 years and the
vagrancy problem never really went away. There was always an underclass of poor
subjects comprising Chinese and Tamils men who at best lived from hand to
mouth.
The shelters
under the bridges of Ipoh became a haven for the homeless. The Sanitary board
sent out carts in the early mornings to round up those still asleep under the
bridge and supposedly those sick were candidates for the decrepit wards of
hospital.
In 1908 they
discovered their first deaths by starvation. It was not surprising as the only
food these poor people had was from scavenging the dustbins....' Taken from the
book ‘Ipoh. When Tin Was King’.
According to
Ignatius Chew Eng Lin his uncle Chew Choon Siew told him that the rice
wholesale shop was located at a corner lot at a crossroad along Market Street.
Opposite the shop was a bar/liquor shop.
It was under
these circumstances the Chew brothers started Ban Hoe Seng Rice Shop
End
Next: Chew
Boon Seong dies and Chew Boon Hong comes to Kampong Kepayang
No comments:
Post a Comment