LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, No. 2.
THURSDAY, 31ST JANUARY, 1901.
PRESENT:
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR
(Sir HENRY ARTHUR BLAKE, G.C.M.G.).
His Excellency Major-General WILLIAM JULIUS GASCOIGNE, C.M.G., General Officer Commanding. The Honourable the Colonial Secretary, (JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART, C.M.G.).
the Attorney General, (WILLIAM MEIGH GOODMAN, Q.C.).
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the Colonial Treasurer, (ALEXANDER MACDONALD THOMSON).
the Director of Public Works, (ROBERT DALY ORMSBY).
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the Captain Superintendent of Police, (FRANCIS HENRY MAY, C.M.G.).
BASIL TAYLOR, (Acting Harbour Master),
CATCHICK PAUL CHATER, C.M.G.
HO KAI, M.B., C.M.
JAMES JOHNSTONE KESWICK.
WEI YUK.
JOHN THURBURN.
RODERICK MACKENZIE GRAY.
The Council met pursuant to adjournment.
The Minutes of the last Meeting, held on the 24th January, 1901, were read and confirmed. Dr. Ho KAI and Messrs. J. THURBURN, R. M. GRAY and WEI YUK, took the oath of allegiance to His Majesty King EDWARD VII.
His Excellency the Governor addressed the Council as follows:-
Before we proceed to business, I desire to propose for the acceptance of this Council a Resolution expressing our heartfelt loyalty and devotion to His Majesty King Edward VII. Two days ago, joined by many of the principal inhabitants of this colony, we proclaimed His Majesty as our rightful Sovereign Lord. We did so according to the form prescribed by the ancient custom of England and in the nearest available centre of the population, and we did so solemnly, and with hearts full, believing that a worthy King, instinct in every fibre with the best feelings of an Englishman, had been called by the grace of God to reign over us, but feeling that we proclaimed and acclaimed His Majesty in the presence of the yet unburied remains of His Majesty's incomparable Queen Mother, of Her whose name we have all lisped in our earliest childhood and who throughout our lives has been to us the embodi- ment of everything that was great and good and noble and queenly. His Majesty's life has long been public property. We all know him and we love him as a man for personal qua- lities which will brighten kingly virtues. He has never in his past life been found wanting in his public duties, and only those whose good fortune has placed them in close connection with His Majesty can realize how anxiously as Prince of Wales he devoted himself to the furtherance of all good works in the public interest. I enjoyed the high honour of His Majesty's notice, and I feel how true is the instinct of the British people that the crown of our best-beloved and venerated Queen has descended upon a successor who will be a great and worthy Sovereign Lord over this vast Empire. I beg to propose to you the following Resolution :-
We, the members of the Legislative Council of Hongkong, beg with profound respect to express to Your Majesty, on the occasion of your accession to the Throne of Your Majesty's ancestors, our sentiments of devotion and loyalty to Your Majesty. We pray that God's blessing may rest upon the successor of the revered and noble Queen whose memory is so lovingly enshrined in the hearts of her people, and we pray that to Your Majesty there may be granted a happy and glorious reign over a united and prosperous people."
The Honourable C. P. CHAPTER addressed the Council as follows:-
Your Excellency, it is with very great pleasure that I rise to second the Resolution just proposed, which will, I am sure, be carried with acclamation in this Council and be fervently endorsed by all His Majesty's loyal subjects in this colony. For I venture to say that, though one of the most distant dependencies of the great Empire over which King Edward VII. has been suddenly called to rule, there is no more loyal community than this, of which I am proud to be one of the representatives. In no British colony is the late Queen more. sincerely mourned, and in no part of his vast dominions will His Majesty the King find readier sympathy in the regal duties which he is so eminently fitted to discharge, but which