would be surprised how many members have actually published a book over the last two or three years or are going to publish in this forthcoming year. We are a society whose members get consulted on a variety of matters from the Urban Council when they set up the Hong Kong Museum of History, to the Hong Kong Government when seeking assistance for the grading of historical buildings for the Government Antiquities Advisory Board, and by the Legislative Council inviting us to make representations on the Council elections and even from abroad by people who want to know for instance about how Chinese junks are constructed; we even have applications from persons who wish to work for the society full-time but unfortunately they wish for remuneration! So although we are inclined to look back, historically, we are a Society whose members consist of people from all walks of life and who take an active forward-looking interest in Hong Kong and events which are likely to affect the future well-being of the Society,
All this may sound too self-congratulatory and in some ways it is: there are of course some problems, but before coming up to them I would like to briefly outline what we have actually done to justify our existence over the last year. First and foremost there is the Journal. The 1989 Journal was published recently and if you do not have your copy please see the Assistant Secretary. I think you will agree with me that it is full of interest and is up to the high scholarly standards we have come to expect. For this we have to thank not only all contributors but particularly our Editor Dr. Patrick Hase. He has toiled long with spectacular results: but even so we are asking him to toil even harder to get out the 1990 Journal and we are hopeful this will be published later this year.
The next area I wish to highlight is the Programme: the Society has a Programme Committee under the able Chairmanship of Mr. Peter Leeds and arranges a variety of talks and visits: for the last year there have been the following talks:
Father Louis Ha
Dr. Graeme Lang
Ms. J. Bresnihan
Mr. Peter Lee & Judy Bonavia
Dr. Patrick Hase
150th Anniversary of the Catholic
Church in Hong Kong
Rise of a Refugee God
(Wong Tai Sin)
Governor John Pope Hennessy
Tibetans and Tus
New Territories Poetry and
Folk Song
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