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CE MORT
Enclosure No.2 to Despatch No.233 of the 24th April 1902. 25th March, 1908.
THE NEW TUNG WA HOSPITAL.
OPENING CEREMONY.
The new Tang Wa Hospital in Po Yan Street was opened yesterday by H.E. the Governor, Sir H. A. Blake, G.C.M G., and in preparation for the ceremony the old and new buildings were lavishly and tastefully decorated with flowers, potted plants, and busting, Besides the Vice-regal party, which included His Excellency, Lady Blake, Miss Blake, and Sir John Keaue, Bart. (Private Secretary to the Governor), there were present the Hou. F. H. May and Mrs. May. Lady Goodman, Commodore and Mrs. Robinson, Bishop Hoare, Mr. E. R. Belilios, Hon. Dr. Ho Kai, C.M.G., Rev. C. H. Hickling, Dr. Thomson, Dr. Atkinson, Dr. Gibsoh, Dr. Fearse, Dr. Noble, Hon. C. W. Dickson, and Messrs. A. H. Rennie, E. M., Hazeland, J. H. Craig, R. K. Leigh, A. S. Hooper, J. R. Michael, C McI. Messer, J. Lemm. G. C. Anderson, F. Browne, A. Gibson, G. A. Woodcock, and a great Lumber of representative Chinese, including Messrs. Fung Wa Chun, Lau Chu Pak, Ho Tung, and Ho Fook.
The proceedings began with the reading of his address to His Excellency by the Chairman of the Hospital, Mr. Tung, previous to which Lady Blake and Miss Blake were each presented with a Landsome bouquet by Mr. Fung Wa Chun and Mr. Ho Tung.
Addressing His Excellency, Mr. LAU CHU PAK said-Spring now gives life to all things: the trees are putting out new shoots: a thousand tints of colour are vieing with each other in beauty. Thus not only is the garden adorned with fresh loveliness, but the gardener also is encouraged to renewed effort. To-day, in this seasonable mouth of spring, our new hospital stands completed opposite to the old one. It is as if an old tree bad put out a new branch, whose beauty is before our eyes. As we look at it our hearts are full of joy. Your Excellency, in coming here to-day to open this extension to our hospital, displays such interest in it that all Hongkong may kuow that we are met together not merely to admire a flower, but in the expectation of luxuriant fruit which will mature from the blossom. Let us then unite gladly in future efforts. The foundation-stone of this extension At was laid on the 25th November, 1899. that time the Government granted us the site and your Excellency honoured us by
the laying
fonndation- stone. Since then three years have elapsed; winds and clouds have gathered and parted. We could scarcely hope that your Excellency, who had laid the foundation-stone, would also perform the opening ceremony. But nevertheless sowing and reaping have been done by the same hand. Now, when a man completes the work which he himself began, his affection for it is intensified, We venture to hope therefore that your
is animated Excellency
by the same During the years that your sentiment.
Excellency's star has shone over Hougkong; } all bumane and charitable works, such as this hospital, have been steadily carried to completion under your Excellency's care. The whole Colony therefore prays for blessings upon your Excellency, It is my duty now to give you some detaile concerning the extension to our hospital. We have to thankfully acknowledge subscriptions from the Chinese in Hongkong and elsewhere to the amount of $66,360.03, and from Europeans to the amount of $20,016. The total sum subscribed was $1.6,376.03. The cost of building was $62,448 and the cost of the iron work was $1,743.76. The architect's fee amounted to $1,964. The new bospital contains one mater- nity ward, one surgery ward, two first-class wards and four general wards, all of them are bright, well-ventilated, and the convenience of patients has been carefully studied, as you can see without words of mine, and it will be possible to do away with the Ko Fong waid sin the old hospital. So the Tung Wa Hospital has now a fresh attraction, and being more capacious than previously, it will prove a great and permanent benefit to Chinese in sickness. We trust that future benefactors will make further improvements, so that the high standard of the hospital may be maintained. Then your Excellency's kindness and interest in the hospital will not have been in vain.
Iu declaring the building open,
HIS EXCELLENCY said—Mr. Tung, ladies and gentlemen, I bave come here with great pleasu re to-day, and it is a gratification to me to see the completion, on which I congratulate you, of this valuable addition of the Tung Wa Hospital, and having iuspected it more than once during the building, I am in a position to congratulate you upou its excellent wards, and especially upon its maternity wards and its operating room. I need bardly, therefore, assure you of the pleasure with which I attend to-day to formally open this extension of the Tang Wa Hospital, and to start it upon its benificent work. I have listened to the statement made by the Chairma with great interest, and it is pleasing to find that
cost so large a proportion of the has been subscribed by Europeans, for it shows that in charitable works as in busines s the races of the East and the West are working together with that co-operation and good-will that have, within the life of a man, raised this Colony from a fishermen's village, with a few huts, to the position of the second port in the world, in whose harbour the rich argosies of the earth find shelter and security, and within whose borders are found that personal liberty and equality before the law without which there can be no real prosperity or pro-
gress.
I am glad to find that in the building of this extension, in the first place the, Tung Wa Committee should do away with the Ko Foug wards. The Committee have long acknowledged and seen with regret that these wards were unsuitable and were badly ventilated. and it is pleasant to feel that the poor wo meu