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Ho Kai, whose generous Christian spirit has led him to provide the building for such a useful work, and to the medical gentlemen who are prepared to devote their energies and care to it gratuitously, much praise is certainly due, but the community must not forget and let us hope the Government also will not forget—that it has a part to fulfil, for the future maintenance of the hospital will chiefly depend on rich subscriptions that may be raised. One donation has been already received from the Hon. E. R. Belilios, who has endowed the hospital with $5000 as a fund for the supply of medicine, while the sum of $8000 was collected by Dr Chalmers and others from various benevolent friends, European and Chinese, toward the cost of the site, which was bought for $22,000.
The new undertaking will not be in any way a rival to the Civil Hospital or the Tung Wa Hospital. It has a different role altogether to fulfil. The Civil Hospital is only open free to the Civil servants and to police cases, the charge for the public being $3 for Europeans and $1 for Chinese per week for medical attendance, board and lodging. The Tung Wa hospital, which was munificently endowed with the sum of $130,000 by the Government, does no work in the way of training students, and in it the old quackery modes of treatment are still observed, which must greatly militate against its doing much good. The field therefore lies open for an extensive work in the Alice Memorial Hospital. There, it is to be hoped in course of time, students will be reared who will carry the benefits of the medical skill and knowledge into the heart of China, and Hongkong thus become a centre of much wider influence than at present. When the scheme of teaching has been started, the English Doctors in Hongkong, it is expected, will give lectures on the different branches of medical science. Hong-kong has particular facilities in carrying on this work, as no other port in the Far East has such a number of skilled English Doctors ready and willing for such labour. At all times five Doctors may be counted on to give lectures to the students, and as occasion requires help may be offered by the naval and army Doctors at this station. It besides is the natural complement of the higher education granted by the Government Central School. Of what good is it to educate Chinese boys to a high standard when there is no means of completing that education so as to open up a useful profession to them? At present the better educated boys are mostly absorbed as clerks in the Chinese Government employ where, if there reports are to be believed, they are far from well trusted, and are remunerated in a miserable manner altogether incompatible with the care and trouble spent in their education. It is to be hoped that the institution of which the foundation stone was laid to-day will be the means of giving an outlet to their knowledge and abilities which will bring more profit to them and far more lasting good to the empire of China.
THE BUILDING.
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The Alice Memorial Hospital will occupy the corner of Hollywood Road and Aberdeen Street. To the former it will have a frontage 45 feet long and 30 high, with two storeys; to the latter, a frontage 100 feet 3 inches long and 45 feet high, with three storeys. This difference is caused by the descent of Aberdeen Street, which gives the building a basement floor entering from that street. On this basement floor are the male and female waiting rooms for out-door patients—who enter by separate doors—and the dispensary, while there are also a room for the coolies, store closets, and a small mortuary 19 feet by 6 ft. The out-door patients are thus completely separated from the in-door patients; for whom the entrance is by Hollywood Road.
On the first floor and the floor above are the wards for the in-door patients. On the first floor are two large wards, one 33 feet by 23 feet, the other 36 ft. 10 in. by 22 ft. 8 in. There is also on this floor an operating room 24 feet by 28 ft. 6 inches, a bath room, and a surgeon’s room. On the floor above, there are three wards of the same size as the two wards below, a large kitchen for the use of the patients on one side, and lavatories and attendants' room on the other. The passage to the rooms on the first floor is by a covered way which passes along a verandah, the second floor being gained by a covered staircase. There is at the back a yard 18 feet by 38 ft. 10 in., which has been retained for light and ventilation to the building. Judging from the design, the building, though of a plain exterior, will be very substantial. The only bit of ornamentation is an architrave round the window. Its appearance, however, will suit the character of the work to be done inside, and the structure will form an imposing and enhancing addition to the architecture of the neighbourhood.
The hospital will be built of brick and stone. The basement will be entirely of stone, and the upper part mainly of brick with stone facings. The floors will be of teak wood, and the walls will be brick, pointed and colour washed. The wards should be roomy and airy. On the ground floor they will be 16 feet high, and on the upper floor they are open to the roof, having a height 14 foot to the tie-beam, and 22 feet to the apex of the roof. The building is situated on Inland lot No. 62A and occupies an area of 4500 square feet and it will have in front of it on Hollywood Road a new Chinese church which is being built under the auspices of the London Mission Society for the Christian Chinese in the Colony. It will be the wish of all who have the welfare of the natives at heart that the much needed Hospital and medical school may be soon in operation, and that true success may be the outcome of the labours of the gentlemen who have strive to provide this boon. The architects are Messrs Bird and Palmer.
THE CEREMONY.
The ceremony of laying the foundation stone took place at five o'clock this evening, in the presence of a fairly large and influential gathering of the European and Chinese friends and supporters of the institution. The stone was laid in the North West corner of the building, at the junction of Hollywood Road and Aberdeen Street, and the adjoining space covered in by a mat-shed, the supports of which were prettily wreathed with flowers, and baskets of flowers were also suspended from the roof. Seats were provided for the ladies, of whom there were between twenty and thirty present. Among those who were present, besides His Excellency the Acting Governor (Hon. W. H. Marsh) and Mrs Marsh, were—Hon. F. Stewart, Acting Colonial Secretary; Hon. J. Russell, Acting Chief Justice; Hon. A. Lister, Colonial Treasurer; Hon. E. J. Ackroyd, Acting Attorney General; Hon. Wong Shing; Commodore Morant; Colonel G. C. Murray, Assistant Commissary General of Ordnance; Captain Porter, H. E.'s Aide-de-camp; Dr P. C. Ayres, Colonial Surgeon; Dr C. J. Wharry, Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital; Dr P. Man-Bon, Dr Young, Dr Hartigan, Dr Ho Kai, Dr G. P. Jordan; Dr Poate; Mr J. H. Stewart Lockhart; Mr H. MacCallum, Mr J. Thurburn; Mr D. R. Crawford, Mr G. H. Bateson Wright; Mr N. J. Ede; Rev. J. C. Edge; Rev. Mr Reusch, Rev. Mr Bender, Rev. Mr Hartmann; Messrs Wei Ayuk, Ching Se Kai, Kwan Hoi Chun, Leung Yat Nan, Lee Sz Hin, Woo Lin Yuen, Ko Hong Tik, Wong Ng Ching, Wei Lin.
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