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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH SEPTEMBER, 1880.
"I am anxious to help any scheme likely to secure a Museum and Library of the City Hall, managed on liberal terms and such as may fairly entitle the Institution to a grant from the Colony. Hongkong has quite a sufficient tendency already towards the almighty dollar. It would do th "community good to give them a slight list over the other way.
30th September, 1868."
"R. G. MacDonnell.
That minute, made in September, 1868, was referred to Mr. RENNIE, and he, on behalf of the City Hall Committee, wrote a letter, which has been recently, with all the other papers, before the City Hall Committee. I shall now place them before the Council. He gives a long explanation as to what the Committee understood with reference to the admission of the public. Thereupon. Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL writes--
“MR. AUSTIN,―This memorandum omits to answer my principal inquiry, which I shall now put "in plain words. Are the Museum and Library to be managed on liberal terms, and, if so, on what?
"Is any subscription to be necessary to enable any member of the community who behaves himself quietly and is decently dressed, from visiting the Museum and Library and even reading in the latter place, as is the case in Melbourne, where one of the noblest institutions in the world is free to all the world?
“If perfect freedom of access is not to be allowed, as is probable, what are to be the restrictions?
"R. G. MACDONNELL.
3rd October. 1868."
That is dated 3rd October, and here is the answer of the City Hall Committee, that is, the answer of Mr. RENNIE and my friend Mr. RYRIE.
"The whole of the arrangements upon which the City Hall is to be managed have not been defi- nitely fixed, but there never has, I believe, been any thought of having the admission to the Museum and Library otherwise than perfectly gratuitous, and open, as His Excellency states, to all well- dressed and well-behaved persons.
3rd October, 1868."
Honourable W. KESWICK-Is that signed by Mr. RENNIE?
"W. H. RENNIE,
“On behalf of the City Hall Committee.
HIS EXCELLENCY-It is signed by Mr. RENNIE "On behalf of the City Hall Committee."
Honourable W. KESWICK-That is a private memorandum.
"The
HIS EXCELLENCY--So far from being a private memorandum, which my honourable friend says it is, here is the document. It is an official document and is headed "C.S.O.," "Colonial Secretary's Office," with the register number, "No. 2669." It is strictly official in every sense of the word, an official agreement made with the Governor of the Colony-not a private agreement but a public agreement- a public agreement recorded in the archives of the Colony, made between the Governor and the City Hall Committee. Not being a private memorandum, it was referred to by Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL in the Legislative Council, and there he said the Museum was to be an institution open to all the inhabitants of the Colony, and he added he would not have given the grant but for that fact. What was the notice then issued? You will observe, gentlemen, that Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL very properly couples together the Library and Museum. Now here is the notice that exists to this moment respecting the Library, and which for years was acted upon in respect to the Museum :-- "Library is open without payment to all decent and well behaved persons of every nationality." That notice, which refers now to the Library, and which is similar to the notice which referred for so many years to the Museum, was in strict accord, word for word, with the conditions laid down by Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL and accepted by the City Hall Committee. All these facts are materia! facts concealed from the public. They were known to my honourable friend, in whose hands I had placed these documents not many months ago. What advantage is there in concealing facts material, so conclusive, from the public of this Colony? But there was another fact kept back. It is alleged, forsooth, that I, the Governor of the Colony, adopted a totally unprecedented course, a course that no other Governor thought of adopting, in giving instructions last year that the money was to e paid to the trustees, It happens that we have of the three trustees but one remaining in the Colony Now, why did I give these instructions? It was only when my friend Mr. PALGRAVE and one of two other strangers passing through the Colony called my attention to what, in their own word they described as a discreditable notice, or one little creditable to the City Hall Committee, drawing a distinction between one nationality and another. No such distinction had been made as
regards the Library, but only as regards the Museum, and that notice had come into effect when Sir RICHARD