Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
53
the failure of subscribers to return the books on leaving the country-so that there is a large space occupied by books that are of little value to the Society, or to the public. I would recommend that the Library be inspected, and that those books which are not worth binding anew should be disposed of, and the proceeds be devoted to rebinding those that are worth keeping. In this way, the library will be freed from a good deal of trash, and the really valuable part of it, which is by no means small, could be more easily accommodated in the apartment designed for it, and better fitted for the use of subscribers.
The reports of the Society for 1844, 1845 and 1846 do not specifically mention the Library, but it is interesting to note that at a meeting of the subscribers in January 1846 it was unanimously resolved, "That a bust of the late Hon. J. R. Morrison (who had also died, at the early age of 29 in 1843) be immediately commissioned from England, to be placed in the public rooms of the institution of the Morrison Education Society; that a copy of Chinnery's painting of his father (the late Rev. Dr. Morrison) engaged in the translation of the Bible into Chinese, be obtained for the same purpose; that the sum of $1,000 be appropriated to meet the cost, and the expense of placing these memorials in China.
By 1849 the Society was running into financial difficulties, the premises had to be closed and the Library was packed up. By 1855 it was open to the public again when, according to an advertisement appearing in the Hong Kong Register on 30 October, 1855, "The Library of the Morrison Education Society, now deposited in a room in the Court House, is open every day from 1 to 4 o'clock p.m. to Members of the Society for the giving out and exchange of Books. Parties, not members of the Society, may obtain the advantages of the Library, on payment of an Annual Subscription of $5. By order of the Trustees, James Legge, Secretary.”
At the annual meeting of the Society in 1858 the question of the permanent disposal of the Library was scheduled for discussion. In this same year they had accepted on trust a collection of 400 books belonging to the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which had been founded in Hong Kong in 1847 by Sir John Davis, later revived by Sir John Bowring, but which was now defunct. A report of the founding of the Asiatic Society appears in the Hong Kong Register for 1847 with a list of 44 titles of books, prints, etc., which had been presented.
There had been a growing demand for a proper public library and in May, 1863, the Morrison Education Society issued a circular urging the foundation of such a library in a City Hall and offering its own books and those of the Royal Asiatic Society