8
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH JANUARY, 1886.
BILL ENTITLED THE MUNICIPAL RATES ORDINANCE, 1885.-IN COMMITTEE.-The Council resumed consideration, in Committee, of this Bill.
The Honourable P. RYRIE addressed the Council at length on clause 20, pointing out that Quarry Bay should not be rated the same as Victoria.
The Attorney General replied.
Bill reported with some verbal amendments, and the addition of a clause.
The Attorney General moved the suspension of the Standing Orders.
The Acting Colonial Secretary seconded.
Question-put and passed.
On the motion of the Attorney General, seconded by the Acting Colonial Secret ry, he Bik was read a third time.
Question put--that this Bill do pass.
Bill passed.
His Excellency the Governor then said:
HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN.-I desire to state that it is highly satisfactory to me that I.
uld have
now passed an Ordinance which, for the first time in the history of this Colony, places the entire taxation under the control of this Council..
FAREWELL ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.-His Excellency the Governor was pleased to speak as follows:--
HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,
I desire to announce officially to you that I intend to proceed from this Colony to India, on my way to England, on the 19th of this month. As you are already aware, I had obtained leave of absence on medical certificate at the beginning of this year, but I then felt that it was my duty to remain at my post during the protracted crisis of the Franco-Chinese hostilities, and of the threatened war with Russia. Her Majesty's Government have expressed "their high appreciation of the public spirit which led me to this decision." Now that peace has been restored, the permission to return to England has been renewed. After twenty-six years' continuous service as the Representative of the Queen in five Colonies successively, it will be agreed that I have fully earned a period of rest.
2. One of the most eminent of the Governors of Crown Colonies, in bidding farewell to his Council, remarked: "I think it very useful that the last Address of a Governor should be exhaustive; that it should touch on all subjects of public interest; that it should be a standard of comparison by which the progress of the Colony may be measured at different epochs." Accordingly, in pursuance of the custom established elsewhere, I will take advantage of this opportunity to place on record a brief review of the principal acts of my adininistration here, which has lasted for nearly three These have been very critical and eventful both as regards this Colony, the centre of British power, influence and commerce in the Far East, and also as regards European interests generally in this quarter of the globe, which contains one-fourth of the human race, and which must yet fill a great place in the history of the world.
years
years.
3. Soon after my assumption of this Government in the early part of the year 1883, I satisfied myself, after careful study of the position of your affairs, that there were three subjects of pressing importance to which I should first direct my special attention. These were :--
(a.) The reconstitution of the Legislative Council.
(b.) The commencement of the much-needed Works of Water-supply and Sanitation. (c.) The Defence of the Colony.
4. To the reconstitution of this Council, so as to make it representative of the Colony generally, I attached primary importance; for when an energetic English community like that of Hongkong has acquired an adequate voice and control in the management of its own local and municipal affairs, all necessary and well-considered internal reforms should follow. Accordingly, I procured the assent of the Imperial Government to a large increase in the number of the un-official members, while I gave the privilege of freely nominating their own representatives to the two principal Public Bodies, viz. the Bench of Magistrates and the Chamber of Commerce, which comprise the chief residents of every nationality. Thus the property, intelligence, and education of the Colony are now directly repre- sented in this Council. I observed in a previous address: "it will always be one of the most satisfactory reminiscences of my long public career that I have been able to procure a more adequate representation in this Council of the community at large."
5. Again, when I found that under the former law of this Colony, the power of assessing the Municipal taxation was vested solely in the Governor, I procured the consent of Her Majesty's Government to the removal of this anomaly, which was probably without precedent in any other part of the British Empire. Thus, here as elsewhere, the entire taxation of the Colony will henceforth be under the control of the Colonial Legislature.
6. Moreover, in opening the Session for 1884, I addressed you as follows: "For obvic is reasons, it is in the highest degree important that this Council should adhere to the constitutional forms followed by the Legislatures of the other principal Crown Colonies. The address of the Governor