CAINE. Lt. Col.
96
In a previous article dealing with street names in Hongkong (See 6/11/33) brief reference was made to a man whose name to-day is commemorated only in asphalt and cement. He was Colonel Caine,
He was Colonel Caine, one-time Chief Magistrate and Lieutenant-Governor of Hongkong.
It has been my practice, in writing this daily article, to deal not so much with personalities as events, but Major Caine played such a prominent part in the early administration of the Colony, that a fuller account of his career would not be amiss.
He was born in India, and had begun his career there as a boy in 1804, when Lord Lake was fighting with Holkar and before the Mahratta country, the North-West Provinces, Gujerat and in fact, the greater part of our present possessions in India had fallen under British rule.
In India Colonel Caine served with distinction either on the staff, or immediately under the eyes of several of the most distinguished General officers who have ever held commands. When he first came to Hong Kong in 1841, there were only a line of matsheds along the beach where Queen's Road now is, and a few huts in the place occupied at the time of his departure by the garden of Messrs. Dent and Co., and on the first occupation of the island he lived in a matshed.
As Chief Magistrate, Colonel Caine adopted a very decided military tone, and was respected, if not feared, among the Chinese. Sir Henry Pottinger writing to the Duke of Wellington on his behalf, offered the strongest testimony to his unceasing zeal and laborious exertions, combined with great judgment. Up to the conclusion of the war, the safety and well-being of Her Majesty's subjects, who had located themselves on the island, were mainly owing to his individual efforts and example.
Sir John Davies, in 1846, made him Colonial Secretary in succession to Mr. Bruce and on going to Canton in 1847 left him as Commandant and acting Governor. He held the Colonial Secretaryship till April 1854, when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor, from which time he had almost nothing to do, though undoubtedly Sir John Bowring found his experience and advice on most occasions of considerable value. Of his private life and many other facts in relation to him allegations were made when he was in office and which he in many ways did to Hongkong in the earlier days of his career.
Before leaving, the inevitable complimentary addresses were presented to him by the Chinese and Indians of the place. In alluding to this in its number of April 14, 1860, the Illustrated London News reproduced an engraving of the mirror which Chinese friends presented to Colonel Caine,
for whom "added the journal no doubt he had done many a good turn (sic)," words which, it may be added, did not fail to be wrongly construed locally.