Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
56
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
thereof. 30th day of June 1914". One of the conditions was that the Library should be unconditionally returned to the City Hall upon demand of the Committee but this right was revoked in 1925 when they "definitely and permanently renounced their right to demand the return... of the... Library" and it became University property. The books may now be consulted by any interested member of the public upon application to the Librarian of the University. Another move is still planned for it to the new air-conditioned University Library where it should continue to provide rewarding browsing for the curious for many years to come.
Perhaps a note on the end of the first City Hall Library should be added. The rest of it remained open until 1932 when an ordinance was passed by the Legislative Council on 23 June to the effect that Government had decided to resume possession of the City Hall site. The ordinance stated that;
The premises together with all buildings now standing thereon revert to the Crown free from any restriction whatever.
The City Hall Committee also has to hand over the furniture, fittings, bookcases, books, show-cases, specimens, exhibits, etc., of the City Hall, including the library and museum to the Director of Public Works who shall dispose of them, or any of them as the Governor in Council may direct.... The Future. It is not the intention of the Government to re-erect a City Hall on this site, part of which will be sold and part developed to accord with a general scheme of town planning; but as part of that scheme it is the intention of the Government to make provision for public amenities of the kind hitherto provided by the Committee of City Hall.'
So did the Government of the day commit itself to providing a public library for the community and at last in 1960 piling for a new City Hall Library is under way.
THE BOOKS
It would be unfair to judge the library which bears Morrison's name as a reflection of his own taste or scholarship. Too many books have been added to it from a variety of sources for that and too many from his original collection have been lost. Morrison's signature can still be found in a number of the books extant; from indications in his Memoirs quite a number of others can be identified, enough to reflect his qualities as a careful and
3 Letter from Deacons (Solicitors) to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, 24 August, 1925,
4 Hong Kong Weekly Press and China Overland Trade Report, 10 June, 1932.
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