Cathedral.
There is however already other property dedicated to the use of the Church of England in the diocese, which will doubtless be added to in the future, and it is most desirable that all such property should be duly vested in a corporate body, both for its safe keeping and to facilitate any necessary dealing with it. This Ordinance proposes to confer the necessary powers upon the only suitable body corporate already in existence, viz., the Church Body, that is to say, the Trustees of Saint John's Cathedral Church in Hongkong.
Attorney General.
Enclosure 3.
COPY.
Sir,
C.O.
42133
JBcce
St. Paul's College,
317
Hongkong, 9th September, 1904.
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 22nd instant 7442/1904/0.5.0. with reference to the proposed Church Property Vesting Ordinance.
It is not proposed to vest any existing property outside of the Colony under the new Ordinance. My reason for wishing to have property in China included in the terms of the Ordinance was this. I lately found that the British Churches in Foochow and Canton were not vested in any Corporate Body, nor indeed were they secured by any Trust Deeds. After considerable trouble they have now been, or are in process of being secured; but there has been some difficulty in forming a proper body of Trustees. In order to avoid such difficulties in the future it seemed to me to be desirable that the Cathedral Church Body should be empowered, as other Corporations are, to hold property on the mainland as trustees.
There is also the possibility that as time goes on, and Church work advances, gifts of property on the mainland or elsewhere may be made for the purpose of endowment of Church work either in the Colony or on the mainland. For instance the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge would help in the building of an English Church in Amoy only on condition that "the Church was secured as the property of the Church of England for ever". Before our "disestablishment" the Bishop of Victoria was a Corporation, and property vested in him would have satisfied that condition; but now there is no such Corporation.