CHURCHES (Continuation)
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Institution, Opened by Lady May, 6th October, 1915,
The premises, it might be explained here, had originally been used as a cotton mill by Jardine Matheson and Co. The firm of "Ewo" had already opened a similar factory in Shanghai, which had proved successful so in August, 1897 the Hongkong concern was floated as a company (see 8-8-34) and began work with bright prospects. Some years later, Jardines decided to close the factory at Causeway Bay, and the machinery was shipped north to the mill at Shanghai. Thus the commodious Hongkong premises became vacant, and the French Mission saw in them a building, in a good situation, which could readily be adapted for the purposes of the convent and hospital. Thus the well-known St. Paul's Hospital of today actually occupies for its comfortable wards the old coolie quarters of the cotton mill, reconstructed to suit the new purpose to which the building was to be put.
When the initial move was made, the Governor's lady was asked to perform the opening ceremony. This duly took place, on the morning of October 6, 1915, and was immediately followed by a bazaar.
Lady May was met by Bishop Pozzoni, and the Mother Superior and the Bishop in the course of his speech of welcome referred to the previous use of the place, in the following words. "The whirl of tens of thousands of spindles within these walls has ceased. From to-day onward a new activity - moral and spiritual - will have been imported into what was once a hive of industrial activity within these fine buildings."
It was not until the following year, however, that the big alterations and additions at Causeway Bay were completed, and the Wanchai premises - with their associations going as far back as seven years after the founding of the Colony - were finally abandoned.
One of the Colony's best-known places of worship is St. Joseph's Church in Garden Road. The present building has a history which actually commences in 1876, when the structure was rebuilt, but the foundations of the Church were laid some years earlier (1871). The disastrous typhoon of 1874 (see 4-12-33) practically destroyed the building when it had been in use for less than two years, and its reconstruction became necessary. Old files give us a record of the opening of the first St. Joseph's Church towards the end of 1872, and I take the following from a contemporary account.
On Saturday November 30, 1872, the Church was opened by a special service at half-past three in the afternoon. A large number of people were present, among whom were noticed the Acting Chief-Justice, Judge Ball, and Mr. Overbeck, Austrian Consul. The service was impressively conducted by Monseigneur Colomber, Bishop of Saigon, and in the course of the very Rev. Fr. Raimondi delivered an eloquent address. He said it was just a year and five days since they had met upon the spot, and the work which they then commenced was now completed.