THE HONGKONG Telegraph, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 0, 1988.
A WHISKY
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Music hath charms
Sunday Classical Concert
at Repulse Bay Hotel Under leadership of Geo. Pio-Ulski Programme for Sunday, 9 Oct., 1938.
1 p.m.2.30 p.m..
PROGRAMME
1. The Calls of Bagdad, Ouverture
Melody
Tres Jolle. Waltz
La Belle Ifellene. Selection
24
3.
4.
5.
Trees
6.
Caucasian Sketches
7. Serenade
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19
MAINTENANCE OF YOUR CAR ENGINE'S. EFFICIENCY IS DE. PENDABLE' ON TUE USE OF
NE of the most ener
getic Governors whom this Colony
SUITABLE & RELIABLE SPARK-has had was Sir Richard
ING PLUGS
Fit the Universally accepted
"SPHINX"
SPARKING PLUGS
CO., LTD.
Graves MacDonnell, Kt., C. B. (Civil Division). He was conscientious and so firm and business-like in his administration that he en- deared himself to the Hong-
One Of Hongkong's Most Energetic
Governors
Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell
exempt from punishment of this kind, and one convicted of robe bery by violenco was sentenced In addition to a torm of three years' imprisonment, to receive fifty lashes to be thrice adminis- tered to him in public. Some residents of the Colony folt that it was a serious blow to British prestige to have one of their own race thus flogged, and ac- cordingly petitioned Governor
kong populace. His regime the Gambian Bench, he was fur- FROM the very beginning of ging part of the sentence, but
candidates in the foreign vice, to act as Governor.
– ne qe grande queria zis penerangan MacDonnell to remit the flog- his administration, Governor history does not record whether ser- MacDonnell adopted the wise their wishes were hearkened to
policy of thoroughly considering or not.
AC-SPHINX SPARKING PLUG was a long remembered one ther signalled out from other
in local annals.
Sir Richard Graves Mac- Donnell was
born in Ireland
Dunstable, England.
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The
✡
the various problems put before him, and when he had mastered
im- THE drastic "flogging Ordi- nance" and the establishment
wero
might be expected of such a in exploring the resources of the were extremely numerous, and on their operations on land, and
awarded 11 Stubbs Rd. his college
Hongkong Telegraph.
were
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6. 1938.
BY
T. PAUL
GREGORY
WATER
PERSONALITIES
OF OLD HONGKONG
about the year 1810, and was THE four years in the guber. their details, saw to it that the educated at Trinity College in
natorial chair of the West proposed reforms Dublin..
Illa scholastic carcer African Colony were marked by medintely executed. The ques- was in itself characteristic of sincere efforts on his part to im- tion which greatly agitated the of a so-called "High Court for SONY PATENTED FEATURES the boundless energy of the prove conditions and to promote Colony at the time was that of the Suppression of Piracy" soon trade. His indefatigable atten- finding means of curbing the put a stop to serious crime; for man; for he never did anything tion to his post was illustrated "crime wave," which then had a large percentage of the male- were alleged to be by halves, but thoroughly mas- by the fact that during his so- assumed almost unprecedented factors tered each subject in turn. As journ he was netively engaged proportions. Robbers and thieves pirates, who attempted to carry methodical individual, he was country, and actually under- counted amongst their numbers employed their craft as means a "get-a-way" to scholarship and took a number of expeditions to individuals of unusual daring of making
The local police some safe lair along the coast. the interior, going from Bat- and resource. days
hurst (the capital) to Senegum- seemed totally unable to deal Naturally, Governor MacDonnell series of successes; for he was bia, a distance of nearly a thou- with the menace effectively and constantly winning honours by annd miles. He was instru- some of the "jobs" pulled off by — mental in mapping the course of these gangsters of the 'sixties the Gambia river, and his work are reminiscent of the style of was definitely a contribution to Jesse James and other "bad the geographical knowledge of men" of America's Wild West. For instance, in January 1865, that extensive maritime region.
thieves tunnelled into the pre- His African exploration won mises of the Bank of India, and was eulogised by the community him a C.B. (Civil Division) in made a clean "get-a-way" with for his efforts at crime suppres-. 1852, and was niso a factor in loot estimated at about $100,000 sion, and although the Secro- securing his next appointment, in gold and bank-notes. It was tory of State for the Colonies, that of Governor of St. Lucin. such escapades as these which the Duke of Buckingham and His term of office in this West made the Colony unsafe for the Chandos complained in June. before Legislative Council on reason of his attainments in the Indian Island was short; for he law-abiding citizen, and the 1868 about the apparent ruth- Thursday next week for its classics and the aciences. He was transferred to St. Vincent Governor determined to end lessness of his remedies, he car-- third and final reading. It is was graduated with f B.A. the same year. Here he con- once and for all the Illusion ried on unflinchingly in face of probably too late to suggest that degree in 1835, and went no for tinued until the year 1855, when which was present in the minds criticism. The public supported the Council should insert a a further period of study, ob- be was nominated to act in like of so many of the riff-raff from his efforts in every
capacity in South Australia. the interior, that Hongkong was heartily concurred in his state- clause which will entirely taining his M.A, three years
His stay in the Antipodes was a sort of land of Cocaigne for ment that he was "of the opinion divorce the control of water later. At this time, too, he was
his appointment to govern the easy living by crime,
with its ever-recruited criminal ment and remove its finances sequently in 1840, he was ad- Colony of Nova Scotia. The
classes and changing population, from the Budget.
mitted to practice by Lincoln's success which he enjoyed as a It must be remembered at this
publicity of execution Inn. For a time he was a bar- colonial
administrator
time that owing to the unsettled
most desirable thing, and the The experience of the Hong-rister in London, when he de- largely responsible for his sub- Conditions
on the mainland kong consumer with direct
cided to turn his talents to better sequent post, that of Governor brought about by the collapse of one element likely to act as a
terror to evil-doers." rebellion, Government control of public account by serving the Crown, and Commander-in-Chief of the the Tai-ping
The active policy pursued by utilities has not been fortunate, His first appointment in 1843 Colony of Hongkong, in succes- sands of ex-rebels and pirates and in this respect Government was that of Chief Justice of the sion to Sir Hercules Robinson. flocked here in search of "easy Governor MacDonnell soon re- does not differ from private West African Colony of Gambia, Although his commission of pickings" and their presence ac- duced crime to a minimum, and control of utilities in
this which office be held until 1847. Governor was dated October 14, counted for what was one of the although his methods have been was the 1865, he did not arrive here to most formidable waves of law. criticised by later administra- Colony. The managements of In the meantime, he
been tors, notably Governor Sir John recipient in 1844 of an Honorary assume the duties of his office lessness which had ever public utilities under private
in any
Crown Pope Hennessy, they were cer- control have at least the excuse
LL.D. from his alma mater, until March 11, of the following experienced
Colony.
tainly effective in remedying an His arrival esteem in ycar. emphasising that they must consider their which his manifold talents were heralded owing to the lack of
appalling condition. Drastic remedies had
Shortly.
The voluminous and соп- troversial Water Bill will come
way, and
from the Public Works Depart-called to the Irish Bar, and suh. terminated in March 1862, with those who wanted to make an that in a place like Hongkong
ounce of flesh. Government,
the
WRS
was un-
thou-
was a
to be after his efforts in coping with The the crime wave, were crowned
1
shareholders and, except in such held. Consequently, it was communication at the time, so proposed and adopted. ¡case as dividends are limited by practically inevitable that upon that when his ship came into the most effective was the much- with success, he turned his at- Ordinance, exact almost the last the expiration of his term on harbour, the Acting Chief Jus- condemned" Flogging Ordinance" tention to the evil of Hcenced
tice, Mr. Henry James Ball was which put terror into the hearts
gambling, and instituted which has not the same excuse, than is necessary to cover main.not informed, of the fact, and so of all malefactors, Whippings thorough enquiry into the acti- was not present in time to ad- were carried out in the full view vities of the Police Force. Like does likewise and in this Colony tenance. But in periods of minister the customary cath in of the public, and were, in the the two utilities controlled by financial depression when, as it the Council Chambers. When the more humanitarian opinion of
Sir William Robinson some Government, Post Office and did three years ago, Government news of the Governor's arrival the present day, truly horrifying MacDonnell would stand for 10 twenty years later, Governor Kowloon Canton Railway, have feverishly casts around for new was conveyed to him, he rushed affairs. Prisoners were usually
compromise in what he thought become, under astute manage-sources of revenue, water is to attend to the judicial part of given anything from twenty-
was an evil condition and de- ment with an eye to profits, the going to be the obvious choice. the inauguration ceremony only five to fifty lashes on the bared
clared that if there appeared to Colony's greatest sources of The temptation to add an addi-to learn that the oath of office back with the regulation "cat-o'-
be a nine-tails." Europeans were not must be summarily abolished. "racket" anywhere that tional fruction of a cent to the had already been administered! cost of metered supply will prove
Therefore, he ordered the clos-
revenue.
The fact that Government
ernment's handling of postal facilities and of the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Fund (in which profits are filched from Civil Servants to boost the
PAYING
irresistible and once that is done SIDE GLANCES ... By George Clarking-down of the licenced gam- control of utilities is excusable there never will be reversion to only on the ground that it brings the old scale of charges. Gov- them closer to the peoples' pockets seems to have been lost sight of in Hongkong and, for from returning profits to the public in the shape of reduced postage, radio fees, transporta tion costs, etc., Government takes no pains to hide the fact that more and more reliance is. to be placed on the Post Office and Kowloon Canton Railway as sources of considerable revenue.
Colony's revenue) have proved
that.
There is every reason why the revenue from water should not be included in the Budget. Mary Government undertakings in the past have been notoriously The danger of bureaucratic expensive and mie-managed, and, Government control of water in colossal undertakings such as under the new system to be the Water Authority must em- introduced with the passage bark upon in the not distant through Legislative Council of future, Hongkong needs its the Water Bill becomes apparent. business talpans at the helm. During periods of financial An independent Water Board buoyancy, such as the Colony is of elected and appointed mem- experiencing at present, Govern- bors, and not Government, ment will have no need to tam- should control the supply and per with the cost of water, which cost of this greatest of all presumably, will be no more necessities.
Chayseed Pudurt Brunavis, Sai
"Use, some salesmanship on our overstocked inventory, Truffle
push some of those $1,000 W)"
bling houses in the Colony, on the ground that their presence tended to exert a demoralising influence on the community at large. Their suppression, how ever, was not as salutary as the Governor hoped; for they in- mediately appeared as private. "clubs" and for years it was alleged that Possession Point Taipingshan pullulated with a formidable mushroom growth of illicit gambling. es- tablishments that were as much of an evil as the erstwhila licenced houses,
Brid
The suppression of the public gambling quarters was among the last official acts of Governor". MacDonnell, and on April 11, 1872, he left Hongkong. The arduousness of his labours to amellorate local Was A great hla strength. A
conditions strain on grateful
Colony, however, perpetuates- his name and work in Mac- Donnell Road, and his death in! England in the 'eighties was greatly regretted.