89
HONGKONG
for a length of between three and four miles, and buildings rose rapidly. But a check was received owing to the unhealthy conditions which were developed by the breaking of the "malarious" soil, and in 1844, soon after the arrival of Sir John Davis, who assumed the government in June, the advisability of abandoning the island altogether as a colony was seriously discussed. Mr. Montgomery Martin, H.M.'s Treasurer, drew up a long re- port, in which he earnestly recommended the abandonment of a place which, he believed, would never be habitable for Europeans, instancing the case of the 98th Regiment, which lost 257 men by death in twenty-one months, and of the Royal Artillery, which in two years lost 51 out of a strength of 135, and gave it as his opinion that it was a delusion to hope that Hongkong could ever become a commercial emporium like Singapore. Sir John Davis, in a despatch dated April, 1845, strongly combatted Mr. Martin's pessimistic conclusions and expressed a firm belief that time alone was required for the development of the colony and for the correction of some of the evils which hindered its carly progress. Sir John (who died in November, 1890, in his ninety-sixth year) lived to see his predictions most amply verified, and in after years must have reflected with satisfaction on the fact that his views had prevailed in Downing Sreet. On the 26th May, 1846, the Hongkong Club house, situated in Queen's Road Central., at its junction with Wyndham Street, was opened with a ball, and was occupied by the Club for over fifty years, being vacated in July, 1897, when the Club moved into new and more commodious premises on the New Praya. Sir John Davis resigned in January, 1848, and left the colony on the 30th March of that year, Major-General Stavely administering the Government until the arrival, a few weeks later, of Sir George (then Mr.) Bonham. During Sir George Bonham's administration, which lasted, with two inter- vals, until April, 1854, the Colony continued to progress, but the garrison and residents still suffered severely from malaria. On the 13th April, 1854, Sir John Bowring took the oaths as Governor, and held the reins until May, 1859. Sir John Bowring was the last Governor who united that office with that of Minister Plenipotentiary and Superintendent of British Trade in China. During his administration various public works were carried out, and the Bowrington Canal was constructed. On October 1st, 1857, The Hong- kong Daily Press made its appearance, being the first daily paper published in the Far East. In September, 1859, Sir Hercules Robinson arrived and assumed the administration. In 1860 the peninsula of Kowloon was placed under British control, and soon afterwards became a great camp, the English and French troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force being for some time quartered there. The principal work effected during the government of Sir Hercules Robinson was the construction of the original Praya wall, in con- nection with which an extensive reclamation of land from the sea was made. Prior to that time the marine lot-holders had the entire control of the sea frontage of their lots, and no public road, properly speaking, existed along the water frontage. In 1362 a Clock Tower (demolished as a hindrance to traffic in 1913) was completed, and the Hongkong Mint was erected, but owing to the loss attending the working of this institution it was closed early in 1864, the plant being sold to Japan and re-erected at Osaka. In March, 1865, Sir Hercules Robinson left the Colony, and Mr. Mercer, Colonial Secretary, became Acting Governor until the arrival, in March, 1866, of Sir Richard Graves MadDonnell. In November, 1867, a great fire occurred, which swept the whole district between the Queen's Road and the Praya, from the Cross Roads to the Harbour Master's Office. During Sir Richard MacDonnell's vigorous administration the revenue of the Colony, which had fallen much below the expenditure, was augmented by the imposition of the stamp duties and other measures. One of His Excellency's last official acts was to preside at the opening, in February, 1872, of the Tung Wah (Chinese) Hospital. In April, 1872, Sir Arthur Kennedy arrived and assumed the reins of Govern- ment, which he held with such tact and dexterity that he acquired the title of "Good Sir Arthur," and a bronze statue of him was erected in the Public