Leen
generally rehold
throughout the
Colony-
4572
233
I have the honor to be
My
Lord
Your Lordship's most obedient
22
humble servant
nady
Governor.
PRESENTATION OF A MISSIONARY ADDRESS TO THE GOVERNOR. Yesterday morning the Protestant Missionaries of Hongkong presented an address to His Excellency the Governor at Government House. There were present the Rev. A. B. Hutchinsou, R. Lechler, C. Piton, Dr. Eitel, E. Klitzke, and J. C. Edge. The address, which was handsomely encased in crimson morocco, was read by Rev. J. C. Edge. It was as follows:- To His Excellency Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy, K.C.M.G., C.B., Governor, &c., &c.
"May it please Your Excellency,
"We the undersigned Missionaries resident in the island of Hongkong, understanding that your Excellency is soon about to assume the Governorship of another, and in some respects more important Colony, desire to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks for the great benefits which have resulted to us in our peculiar sphere of work during the period of your Excellency's administration.
"We refer not now so much to the experience which we have all enjoyed of your Excellency's kind and generous support in our various Missions, of which we shall ever treasure grateful memories, as to those wise and farseeing measures which have directly affected us all and which promise to have an ever increasing and most beneficial effect in promoting the Christianising of the masses of our heathen fellow-residents in this Colony. For the Marriage Ordinance of 1875 we feel deeply indebted to your Excellency, as it tends to mark in an emphatic manner the equality of Christians in the eye of the executive, irrespective of differences of race or nationality, whilst at the same time it draws a distinct line of demarcation between those who profess Christianity and those who do not, by making its requirements binding upon the former only. We regard this Ordinance as helping towards that elevation of sentiment with regard to the sanctity of the marriage tie which belongs so peculiarly to Christendom, the absence of which is so deplorable a feature in heathen society and constitutes a great hindrance to evangelistic work.
"But that enactment which calls forth our deepest feelings of gratitude is one to which we believe your Excellency will ever be able to look back with feelings of profoundest satisfaction, one with which we believe your Excellency's name will ever be associated in this Colony as the originator of one of the wisest, most efficient and philanthropic plans which has ever received the approval of the Legislative Council. We refer to the Grant in Aid Scheme for Elementary Schools, a scheme which we have learnt to esteem as peculiarly your Excellency's own and which has already stood satisfactorily the test of three years' experience. By the provisions of that scheme we are no longer dependent upon the eleemosynary aid of the Government, but are enabled to receive definite assistance for definite aid rendered to the state in endeavouring to grapple with the dense ignorance of the continually increasing masses around us,
so far as we are concerned the problem has been solved, and that most satisfactorily, of the state affording pecuniary help on the one hand and our various denominations receiving the same on the other without the state thereby committing itself to any particular form of Christianity or our individual freedom to impart religious teaching according to our several convictions being impaired or interfered with.
"We are likewise enabled by this scheme to refer unhesitatingly to the reports of the Government Inspector of Schools as containing the evidence of an impartial and unbiased witness to the soundness of the instruction given in our various schools, which is no slight advantage when so many are ready to cast doubt upon the utility of mission enterprise in any direction whatever. These reports show that whilst endeavouring to teach those truths which alone can make wise unto salvation, we despise not that learning which is an indispensable accompaniment of all true effort to raise man in the scale of intelligence.
"Habits of carefulness, accuracy, and thoroughness are developed by the preparation during the year for undergoing a definite and well arranged examination at its close, and these have told most beneficially upon the religious as well as upon the secular element in our schools, and will be of greatest service, we doubt not, to the scholars in their after life. These are some of the benefits, for alluding to which at such length we trust your Excellency will pardon us, resulting from a scheme which from the first had to encounter the deep seated opposition of Chinese conservatism and distrust on the part of the native teachers, but which now numbers them amongst its warmest supporters. Besides these legislative enactments which so nearly concern us, it remains for us to thank your Excellency also for the wise forethought with which, in spite of all possibility of failure, you determined upon the experiment of providing the commencement of an educational literature in the Chinese language, approximating to that of the west; an experiment which has already by its success enabled us in some measure to substitute in our schools for the heathen classic the graduated series of school books which have been composed by the Committee appointed by your Excellency and have been also published by the Government at your suggestion and advice.
"That these measures have been already attended with great advantage and benefit to the cause of religious education is indisputable, and we feel that it would not be right on our part to let your Excellency depart from these shores, without tendering our warmest thanks to you for them. We trust that amid other scenes you may find similar opportunities of permanently benefiting by wise and beneficent measures those over whom in the good providence of God you may be called upon to rule. With many prayers that the divine blessing may ever attend you in the midst of the weighty responsibilities of your high office, we bid your Excellency a grateful farewell.
A. B. HUTCHINSON, Secretary Chinese Missionary Society and Manager Baxter Vernacular Girls' Schools.
R. LECHLER, Basel Mission
J. G. LORENZ, Basel Mission
C. PITON, Basel Mission
E. J. EITEL, London Missionary Society
H. KLITZKE, Berlin Ladies' Association
J. C. EDGE, London Missionary Society
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