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STATUE OF SIR ARTHUR KENNEDY-2
Yesterday's article gave the first part of the report on the unveiling of Sir Arthur Kennedy's statue in the Botanic Gardens, on November 10, 1887. After Mr. T. Jackson had made a speech on behalf of the committee, handing over the memorial to the Government, the Governor (Sir William Des Voeux) replied. The Hongkong Telegraph states:
The Governor replied in "words sweetly placed and modestly directed."...His Excellency said.-"Mr. Jackson, ladies and gentlemen, I have had a real pleasure in according to the wishes of the Community that I should come here to-day for the purpose of unveiling the statue of Sir Arthur Kennedy and thus joining the people of this Colony - whose interests I hope ever to make my interests in a public expression of feeling which I regard as in a high degree creditable to them as a community. And when I say that the feeling which has its ultimate expression in the ceremony of to-day is creditable I say so deliberately. For the feeling of gratitude is rare enough under any circumstances, but it is rarer still when it is without a large element of selfish hope and is rarest of all when divorced from all baser motives as being shown towards and from whom and whose belongings all expectation of favour is for ever passed away. But while fully appreciating and sympathising with this honourable feeling, as I did not know Sir Arthur Kennedy in life, while sympathising with this feeling I cannot share it and for this reason, that when I look around about me and see the faces of many of those who had the advantage of knowing Sir Arthur Kennedy and loving him, and some of whom will no doubt look upon this monument with the feeling which has been so well expressed in the words:
O! for the touch of a vanish'd hand
And the sound of a voice that is still!
I cannot but for a moment feel that another might better have discharged the function which you have been kind enough to assign to me to-day.
"But on the other hand there is no doubt a certain fitness that on the day of the celebration of Her Majesty's jubilee, honour should be done to a late representative of Her Majesty by one who, however unworthily, fills the same office. And there is, moreover, another and more important consideration, that inasmuch as the subscription which has procured the statue has been contributed, as I am informed, voluntarily, by persons of all classes, creeds and races, represented in the Colony, from that fact alone it is evident that Sir Arthur Kennedy's virtue and character are sufficiently known here not to need any enumeration or description from me. It will possibly therefore be sufficient for me to say, that he gained the general, aye, I may say with truth, the universal respect and affection in which his name is held here, not merely by the uprightness, faithfulness and rare impartiality displayed in the discharge of the duties of his high office, but by his habit of continually giving way to the impulses of an eminently good and kindly heart, and moreover by an example of private and domestic life which, while desirable everywhere in high places, but not always unhappily seen there, is especially desirable in this Colony as a counterpoise to the enervating and consequently demoralising influences of our tropical climate and surroundings.
"It is owing to this respect of Sir Arthur Kennedy's character which no doubt largely contributed to the name by which Mr. Jackson has called him, and which he appears to have earned here the name of "Good Sir Arthur;" it is owing to this that I regard as having a peculiar appropriateness the selection of this day for doing honour to his memory, it being not the least part of the greatness of our beloved Queen whose jubilee we are to-day
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