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tions and later to revise the conditions of service for the University Staff.
Mr. C. Mc.I. Messer retired from Government service last
year and his place on the Finance Committee has been taken the Hon. Mr. E. Taylor who succeeded him as Colonial
Treasurer.
The University Council.-Hon. Mr. T. N. Chau has become a member of the Council of the University and H.E. the Chancellor has also been pleased to appoint Sir Shou-son. Chow as an additional member of the Council.
The University Court. The following new members were appointed to the Court of the University during 1931---Professor L. J. Davis (ex-officio), the Hon. Mr. E. Taylor (exfficio), Mr. G. S. Archbutt (ex-officio-acting).
GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS.
During the last long vacation advantage was taken of the improved financial position. to carry out a complete renovation of the University's main buildings. Another improvement effect- ed was the substitution of the underground, for the overhead, system of lighting on the estate. Certain improvements were carried out in the lecture rooms of the English Department and in those the Departments of Physiology and Anatomy. reading room for engineering students has been provided in the Ho Tung Workshop.
A
Several of the staff residences and University buildings were rewired and it can now be said with some confidence that the fabric of the University is in good condition.
Water supply arrangements have been overhauled and fire-fighting appliances installed in the University hostels.
The completion of the Tang Chi Ngong School of Chinese has relieved the congestion in the main building. The Depart- ments of Chinese, Education, History and Geography are now accommodated in this building. The need for space for the expansion of the main University Library is a pressing one, as is also that for the provision of further laboratory accommodation. in the Medical Schools.
Increased laboratory and lecture room accommodation is badly wanted both for Chemistry and Physics.
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The need for the expansion of the Ho Tung Workshop to provide for a satisfactory Prime Movers Laboratory is an urgent one. The erection just above the Bonham Road of the fine building which is being put up for the Fung Ping Shan Chinese Library makes the present Prime Movers and Hydraulics Labora- tory, which is still housed in a derelict pumping station, look more disreputable than ever. The library is now nearing completion. THE UNIVERSITIES CHINA COMMITTEE.
The
Last year the Universities China Committee in London re- ceived from the Boxer Indemnity a grant of £200,000. next step was the incorporation of the Committee as a recognised society. The Committee then met and decided to send out a delega- tion consisting of Sir Reginald Johnston, K.C.M.G., C.B.E. (Professor of Chinese, School of Oriental Studies, University of London, and an honorary LL.D., of this University), Professor W. G. S. Adams, Gladstone Professor of Political Theory and Institutions, Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Professor P. M. Roxby, Professor of Geography, University of Liverpool. Sir Reginald Johnston and Professor Adams both visited the University. The latter lived in the University for several days.
OTHER VISITORS.
General Sir Arthur Currie, G.C.M.G., K.B.E., Principal, McGill University, Montreal, visited the University on the 18th March, 1931. Dr. Foo Ping Sheung, the University's first Chinese honorary doctor of laws, came to the University in 1931 and delivered a lecture before the Engineering Society on the Develop- ment of China.
THE LIBRARY.
The University contrived to raise the grant for 1931 for the purchase of books and periodicals for its library by $3,000-the grant for the year being $7,000. The number of volumes, Gov- ernment publications, etc., received into the Library up to the 31st December, 1931, was 27,947- This total does not include the Morrison collection of over 2,000 volumes.
The Librarian stresses the urgent need for increased accom- modation and improved equipment.
THE UNION AND STUDENTS ACTIVITIES,
The Union with its various literary, athletic, and social organisations, continues to flourish.
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