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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH SEPTEMBER, 1880.
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MINUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
MR. AUSTIN-It occurs to me that before the Estimates are finally closed it might be possible for Mr. RENNIE and the gentlemen having the management of the City Hall to show cause for granting a small sum in aid of the Institution, so far as the latter, by its Museum and Library, may be held to offer advantages of a valuable kind to the public.
It is very desirable that a person acquainted with such things should be early appointed as Librarian and Curator of the Museum, which latter, if well fitted up, would soon attract to it a large collection of interesting objects.
The fittings for a Museum are not, however, an easy whilst they are certainly a costly matter. These things will require time, which is passing rapidly.
I am anxious to help any scheme likely to secure a Museum and Library at the City Hall, managed on liberal terms and such as may fairly entitle the Institution to a grant from the Colony. Hongkong has quite a sufficient tendency already towards the almighty dollar. It would do the Community good to give them a slight "list over" the other way.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH SEPTEMBER, 1880. 729
A grant of, say, five thousand dollars, or the promise of it, from the Colonial Government would enable the Committee immediately to commence the preparations of the fittings for the most urgently required parts of the building, and thus have them ready by January or February next, when the building will be otherwise ready for opening.
The other point raised in His Excellency's memo., of the early necessity for the appointment of a Librarian and Curator of the Museum, the Committee fully coincide in, and feel that it will be quite necessary to obtain the services of some such person within the next two or three months, provided only that they can see their way to defraying the requisite salary, which, in order to secure a competent individual, could hardly be less than $1,200 to $1,500 per annum.
Having fully demonstrated that the City Hall is intended as a public Institution, and it being generally recognised, as His Excellency is also willing to do, that such Institutions have claims on the public monies, the Committee trust that a grant in aid of the fittings, and a small annual contribution towards the working expenses, may be placed on the Estimates for 1869, now in course of being laid before the Legislature.
1st October, 1868.
R. G. MACDONNELL.
30th September, 1868.
MINUTE BY COLONIAL SECRETARY.
The Honourable J. G. AUSTIN,
Colonial Secretary.
Referred to Mr. RENNIE.
J. G. AUSTIN.
I have, &c.,
W. H. RENNIE,
On behalf of the City Hall Committee.
3rd October, 1868.
MINUTE BY MR. RENNIE. Returned with answer.
See O.S.O. No. 2669/68.
W. H. RENNIE,
On behalf of the City Hall Committee.
LETTER OF MR. RENNIE, CHAIRMAN OF THE CITY HALL COMMITTEE, TO THE COLONIAL SECRETARY,
HONGKONG, 2nd October, 1868.
Sir,-His Excellency the Governor having been pleased to make enquiries as to the public nature of the Institutions comprised in the City Hall, I have the honour to state on behalf of the City Hall Committee, that the building, which is now nearly completed, has been erected at great cost by means of funds raised by public subscription, and that its sole object is to provide accommodation for various public purposes which have hitherto been neglected.
As His Excellency is doubtless aware, the scheme was originated, in 1861, for the purpose of supplying a want long felt here, of some large room or hall in which the public could come together for discussing questions of general interest. This scheme then became enlarged, and a Library and Museum were agreed to be added; for the former of which some valuable collections of books already existed in the Morrison Library and Asiatic Society's Library. These books were being destroyed for want of proper accommodation, and when re-bound and put in order will form a good nucleus around which, it is hoped, a comprehensive library will, ere long, be grouped.
The Museum is an institution urgently required in every large civilized town, and with the empires of China and Japan, about which so little is yet known, so close to us, we think such an institution here likely to be of great public benefit.
The remainder of the edifice consists of assembly rooms, a room for meetings of the Chamber of Commerce, and a hall for dramatic representations; in fact, the building is just such a one as, if a Municipality had been in existence here, would have been erected for Municipal purposes.
The management of the Institution is intended to be conducted on the most liberal footing. The public benefit was the object with which the money was subscribed, and that is the object it is intended to keep in view.
The very munificent subscriptions by which the undertaking has been forwarded will be exhausted on the completion of the building, and considering the depressed state of trade, and that nearly all those now here are already contributors, we foresee much difficulty in providing for the fittings requisite to permit the Institution at once to enter on the sphere of its usefulness.
MINUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
MR. AUSTIN,-This memorandum omits to answer my principal inquiry, which I shall now put in plain words. Are the Museum and Library to be managed on liberal terms, and, if so, on what? Is any subscription to be necessary to entitle any member of the Community who behaves himself quietly and is decently dressed, to visit the Museum and Library and even to read in the latter place, as is the case in Melbourne, where one of the noblest institutions in the world is free to all the world?
If perfect freedom of access is not to be allowed, as is probable, what are to be the restrictions?
R. G. MACDONNELL.
3rd October, 1868.
REPLY OF THE CITY HALL COMMITTEE,
The whole of the arrangements upon which the City Hall is to be managed have not been definitely fixed, but there never has, I believe, been any thought of having the admission to the Museum and Library otherwise than perfectly gratuitous, and open, as His Excellency states, to all well-dressed and well-behaved persons.
3rd October, 1868.
W. H. RENNIE,
On behalf of the City Hall Committee.
MINUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
MR. AUSTIN,-As this expenditure is regularly provided for in the Estimates of the current year, I see no objection to payment of the money to the Trustees, as requested by Mr. Rennie,
R. G. MACDONNELL.
(6 rur
11th May, 1869.
Dec.