Address of the Legislative Council in reply to the Speech of His Excellency the Governor.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
We, the members of the Legislative Council of Hongkong, in Council assembled, beg to thank Your Excellency for the Speech with which you have opened this the first Session of the re-constituted Legislature of the Colony.
2. We desire to offer to Your Excellency our cordial congratulations upon the wise and salutary reform in the constitution of the Council which has been granted by Her Majesty's Government, on your recommendation, and with which your name will for ever be associated. We heartily concur in Your Excellency's expectation that the Government cannot fail to profit by the advice and assistance of an increased number of Unofficial Members; and that the entire Legislature will be animated by a common desire to promote the general welfare and progress of the community.
3. We concur in the advisability of assimilating the proceedings of this Legis- lature to the constitutional forms established in the other principal Crown Colonies.
4. Your Excellency's recommendation concerning the appointment of Com- mittees of Finance, Law, and Public Works will receive our immediate attention.
5. We assure Your Excellency that we shall not fail to give our careful consideration to every question and measure which may be brought before us.
6. We learn with much pleasure that the Financial position of the Colony, as shown by the Official Statistics, is satisfactory.
7. We agree with your Excellency in the opinion that, in justice to the present generation of tax-payers in Hongkong, a moderate loan should be raised, on the exhaustion of the existing assets, to defray a portion of the cost of those Sanitary and other Public Works, which are recognised as of permanent importance for the security of the general health and well-being of our population.
8. The Estimates for 1885 will receive our careful attention, when they are laid before us.
9. We shall examine the Legislative Measures proposed with the careful deli- beration which their importance requires.