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Foxtract from the Daily Press of the 20th houlger
"arrest it; and I trust that Your Excellency will be able to noto from your new post in Ceylon the onward march of that improvement here! that you have laboured to promote. (Applause) I must not monopolise the time of the Council. I am sure my unofficial colleagues are auxious to address you, too, and no doubt they will 611 in the gaps which I am only too conscious occur in my own. In conclusion, nothing now remains but to bid you, oficially, farewell, and to assure you that the unvarying tact, patience, and good tamper with which you have presided over the deliberations of this body, and the conscientious care you bave taken in the admin- istration of affairs during the last five years will abide with us in the future. (Applause.)
Hon. Dr. Ho Ka-Your Excellency,-As senior representative of the Chinese at this Council I may be permitted to add a few words to the remarks of the sanior unofficial member, with which, I may say, I fully concur. Your Excellency has presided over us for a period of five years. During that time the deliberations and discussious in this Council have been conducted without personal racoor, as your Excellency said, and with mutual good feeling, and this I venturo to ascribe in a great measure to your consummate tact and courtesy and your fairness and sound judgment. You have just given us, Sir, a concise review of the salient features of your administration, and will
to say, Sir, that
your you permit me past administrative acts have given entire satisfaction to the community which I have the honour to represent, and have, moreover, won the confidence and respect, the admiration and
the of the whole of affection
Chinese community. I am confident, Sir, that they will be fruitful of the best results to the Colony and the New Territory also, which has been newly acquired. Personally I cannot bid you farewell to-day without thanking you for your invariable kindness and consideration to myself and my colleague in this Council, Mr. Wai Yuk, in our capacity as representatives of the Chinese. No one knows better than your Excellency that it is oftentimes an arduous task to represent the multifarious and many interests of this community in the Council, but by your kindness and your great consideration and assistance we have found that task made very easy for us, and sometimes very pleasant, so that I myself cannot allow this occasion to pass without thanking your Excellency most sincerely for your past kindness to us and myself, and in bidding you farewell officially to-day I wish to assure your xcellency of my profound respect and esteem, and I desire also that your Excellency will accept our best wishes for your future happiness and prosperity. (Applause.)
Hon. WEI YUX-Your Excellency,----My hon. friend has so fally expressed my views and any own expressions with regard to your Excellency that he has left me no words to do anything more than to express my entire concurrence with his remarks. I joíu kiw in wishing your Excellency good health, prosperity and happi- ness. (Applause.)
to
Hon. C. W. DICKSON-Your Excellency,-- My hon. colleague at this Council bas given a resumé of what has transpired during the period I have had the honour Serve on this Council, and has spoken of the marked esteem with which we one and all look
your Excellency, and upon tonobod also on the fairness which has charao- terised the attitude of the official members towards the unofficial members in this Council. In these sentences which he has expressed I am very pleased indeed to be able to cordially coneur, and in wishing your Excellency good-hye I join with him in expressing the wish that your Excellency may enjoy health anì prosperity for all time. (Applause.)
Hon. GERSHOM STEWART-Your Excel- lency,Although a new member of this Council, I am an old resident in this Colony, and I have followed always with great interest the deeds of those who have been sent to rule over use. Comparisons are always to be avoided, and I shall content myself with saying that with the wise and liberal lines on which you have carried on the administration of this Colony I have always felt myself most entirely in accord. I think this Colony owes to you a debt of gratitude which, as time goes pp, will grow larger and larger. (Applause)
For the last ten years we have been struggling with that scourge of plague. We have been learning in sorrow and bitterness the truth of the old saying, "that cleanliness is next to god- liness." It has been an immense support, and it bas been of incalculable value to those who had interests in this Colony to feel that those who were placed over 18 have the courage and devotion to labour and combat that dreadful evil. (Applause). I am delighted to be able to say that in the Governor jwe are losing aud the Governor we are going to get we have examples of devotion which have inspired other meu. (Applause). I believo that, besides those things we know, this Colony is indebted to you for much work which perhaps bas not been made public. The opening, for instance, of that port of Waiehow would never have b en effected without you. I think it is possible that that place may in future be of great importance to us. We have been associated ---- some of us-in an epoch-making thing in re- gard to the railway commencement in southern China I believe the question which will agitate our minds here in the immediate future more than any other is whether or not this Colony shall be the open door for the arterial railway from Hankow to Canton. We will have the pleasure of listening to you once more, Sir, and I tras: you will give us your views on that most important point. The keen sympathy and good-heartedness with which you have listened to and assisted in every possible way those in distress have been au encouragement to that, charity by which you say this Colony has dis- tinguished itself. We cannot forget the man- ver in which you took under your care that plague-stricken district in the east of the city nor of the assistance you afforded to the suf ferers by the typhoon of 19-10, when hundreds of Chinese were rescued from a watery grave in the confines of this Colony. I cordially endorse everything that has been said by my colleagues, and ns Governor aud one of the best-hearted members of the human family that it has ever been my good fortune to moet, I wish you fare- well and all happiness. (Applause).
Colonel L. f. BROWN-Your Excellency,- In the farewell address to which we have just listened, yon scarcely touched on the assistance which you bare given to the military forces of this Colony in increasing the armament and personnel which are now under this command. Without your assistance I think it would have been scarcely possible to increase the garrison to the extent it now is. But to worthily up- hold the British Hag in British waters requires a naval base, which requires protection. The armament and personnel now under this com- mand have been gradually increased during your Governorship, and now the arms and the number of men in this Colony are scarcely inferior to those of Gibraltar. You have also kindly given to us the permission to make use of the uninhabited parts of the New Territory for training our meu. I have been lately in- specting them on the slopes of Taimoshau-a perfect training ground; there is no training ground I know in England that is equal to it and the men have learned very valuable lessons there. This constant working on the hillside just as they wou'd be in actual warfare was of the greatest use in making them valuable defenders of the Colony. (Applause.) I was watching them shooting the other day. A small squad of men were ready to shoot for 25 seconde at ten small objects placed on the hillside, and before the 25 seconds were up seven of these were knocked over. Regiments that can shoot in that way need not fear the landing of almost any number of men who are not accustomed to hill-climbing or who had not shot or worked in a country of this port. I have no doubt that if a party from a foreign country arrived in this Colony they would walk into a death-trap. I have also been watching the firing of the new guns lately added to this armament. In range and power they are equal to anything to be seen anywhere, and the batteries of small quick-firing guns are now complete. The firing from them was also rather remarkable. At the small battery at Lyeeman vessels representing destroyers going about 15 miles an hour went through the pass, and shots were put on them at the rate of 20 abots a minute. I do not think any destroyers could enter the pass, at that rate.
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