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-factory manner, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies granted me a small bonus in consequence.
As to my acting appointment from April,1900,
to September, 1901, His Excellency Sir Henry Blake is fully cog- nisant of the way in which the Department was managed.
It is hardly necessary for me to point out the great value of local experience in regard to the various mat- ters which cone under consideration in this Department.
The conditions in Hongkong are so very dif- ferent from those which prevail in many other places that local experience is rendered especially valuable.
The importance of the Department is increas- ing yearly and it is necessary that the Superintendent should be a man capable of taking in hand such practical works as the laying out of the "King's Park" and the establishment of an Economic. 3arden.
Tree-planting will also require serious consideration in the New Territory. On many of the hills nothing but firewood (Pinus Massoniana which has been so largely planted in Hongkong) can be grown; others however give greater promise..
Botanical and Herbarium work which has been accumulating for some years will take a considerable time to bring up to date.
Ever since I have been in the Colony I have taken an active interest in its Flora, and at the present time I am compiling a Descriptive Supplement to the "Flora Hongkongensis", Bentham describes 1,035. species of Flowering Plants and Ferns, but now over 300 (including Hance's list) have to be added. As many of these additional species have been described originally in Latin, it will take me some time to finish the translations and look up the list of synonyms, as I can only give my attention to this work after office hours, I should like to bring out ultimate- ly a revised edition of the "Flora", and to include in it all the plants known from the New Territory.
For a number of years I have been Honorary Lecturer on Botany at the College of Medicine for Chinese.
Perhaps I may be pardoned for pointing out that my salary for the first nine years was very small, and there was nothing but the possibility of promotion on the retirement of the Superintendent to encourage me to stay on.`
I therefore hope that the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies will favourably consider my application and that he will be pleased to appoint me to succeed
Mr.