CONTINUATION
CHURCHES 23 - 24.
A property known as "Rosehill" was acquired in 1900, which enabled the convent school and orphanage to be considerably enlarged on its present site in Caine Road.
With such a fine record behind it, it was but natural that the golden jubilee should have been made the occasion for ceremonial congratulations.
The beginning of the work done by the Italian Convent in Hongkong, commencing with the founding of St. Francis Chapel and Home at Wanchai in 1860, was mentioned in yesterday's article, as well as the subsequent expansion of the Canossian activities. We have seen that its major work (of school and orphanage) was transferred to Caine Road (the present site) the premises being extended in 1900.
On April 12, 1910, the date of the Convent's golden Jubilee in the Colony, a special commemoration was held. The S. C. M. Post the following day reported:
All.
The celebration of the golden jubilee of the Italian Convent took place yesterday afternoon in a marquee erected upon the spacious playground of the school. The available space was filled to repletion, and there must have been over seven hundred guests present. Sir Frederick Lugard, accompanied by his A.D.C.'s Captains Mitchell Taylor and Simson, arrived punctually at 4.30 p.m.
Among those present were the Right Rev. Bishop Fozzoni, and the Bishop of Tokyo and Tonkin, Lady May, Commendatore Mrs. and Miss Lyon, Dommendatore Leiria, Mrs. Leiria, Signor Volpicelli, Dr. and Mrs. Atkinson, Commander Basil Taylor, Mr. Parebois, Father Watson, Mr. G. Irving, and Commander Almeida of the Vasco Da Gama. Mr. Leo d'Almada e Castro undertook the onerous duties of usher.
The programme was very interesting but somewhat long. At the conclusion of the address by Miss d'Almada e Castro, His Excellency Sir Frederick Lugard intimated that he had an announcement to make. He said Sir Hormusjee Mody had expressed his desire to found seven scholarships in favour of St. Joseph's School, the Ellis Kadoorie School, Diocesan Girls' School, the Italian Convent, St. Mary's School, the French Convent, and St. Francis School, and to those he had since added an eighth, the Victoria Boys' School at the east end of the city. The Scholarships were $30 a year for two consecutive years. For this purpose he had invested $1,000 in total, $125 per year for each of the schools. The donor had proposed to call the scholarships after his (the speaker's) name. He himself would have preferred it to be in the name of the donor, but the latter had persisted that they be named the "Lugard" scholarships. (Applause).