131. With the co-operation of the Chinese farmers in Hongkong, to which the Superintendent refers in his report, it will, I trust, be possible to plant for the future a million of trees per annum. If we can proceed at that rate, it will only take ten years to fairly plant the Island.
132. I have not confined the planting to the native pine tree, the Pinus sinensis, only. Bamboos are planted in ravines, as well as on the steepest hills and hill tops, and the Banyan tree along the road sides. Some of the latter that have been transplanted this year to the roads leading from each end of the town, have been successfully moved considerable distances, though with trunks from 4 to 7 feet in girth.
133. The success with which this fine shade-giving tree can be transplanted, even when thirty feet high, makes it possible to transform glaring roads into green avenues with a rapidity that would surprise arboriculturists in Europe. The nurseries contain seedlings of indigenous oaks, casuarinas, and other hardy and valuable timber trees.
134. Three years ago, about a thousand cocoa-nut palms were planted on Stone Cutters' Island, at Bowrington, and close to the village of Aberdeen, and some are now being planted along the sea-beach to the east of the town of Victoria. These trees will be ornamental, though, at this latitude, they do not bear ripe nuts.
135. On the important sanitary question of cultivating the Eucalyptus in Hongkong, it appears that only four hundred seedlings of the Eucalyptus Globulosa had been planted in the Colony, and that of these but one hundred survived up to 1879. The necessary steps were then taken for getting four thousand seedlings of another species of Eucalyptus which grows in a climate resembling that of Hongkong, and this number will be increased year by year.
Chinese and Irish Famine Funds.
136. Within the last few years, I had to make two appeals to the community to relieve national distress. In both cases, the well-known munificence of the European merchants of Hongkong was shown, and in each case the benevolence of Her Majesty's Chinese subjects was also manifested. The subscriptions in this small Colony for the Chinese Famine Fund amounted to $120,000. Of this sum, the Europeans contributed $12,000, and the Chinese $108,000. For the Irish Famine Fund, the Chinese also contributed more than half the sum collected, and the largest individual subscribers were Chinese. One Chinese gentleman gave $2,000, another $1,500, and several gave from $100 to $500.
137. The Relief Committee was able to send Her Grace the Duchess of Marlborough £4,359, Mr. Gray, M.P., Lord Mayor of Dublin, £2,000, and Mr. Kennedy, Mayor of Cork, £1,000. Comparing the population of the Colony and the annual revenue with the population and revenue of other Colonies, the proportion contributed by Hongkong is relatively greater than the contributions sent to Ireland from any other Colony. Applying the same test,—population and public revenue, the seven thousand pounds sent from this small island constituted a larger contribution, comparatively speaking, than the sum raised by the Lord Mayor of London, or all the generous contributions from the United States.
Ecclesiastical and Religious.
138. The number of ecclesiastics and of religious institutions in Hongkong seems to be out of all proportion to the size and population of the Colony. At one time last year there were five bishops here, and the number of priests and ministers of the various Christian denominations is extraordinary. At the Te Deum on the Queen's Birthday, I have seen an altar crowded with Italian, French, Spanish, and Chinese priests. This large religious element has done good to the Colony in various ways. St. Paul's College, which is under the control of the Bishop of Victoria, has been of great benefit to the Church of England community, and it was also distinguished at one time for the thoroughly sound education in English it gave to some Chinese youths. At present, it is very useful in providing a good school for the children of the upper and middle classes of European Protestants.
139. The German Foundling Hospital and the Italian and French Convents are benevolent institutions deserving of the highest praise. But the religious life of Hongkong is essentially missionary.
140. In fact, Hongkong is one of the most important centres of missionary work in the world. One ecclesiastic here acts as the business agent of eighteen missionary bishops in China and Japan. Putting aside the undoubted benefits conferred on local education, on local Christian charities, and on the tone of society, by the presence here of those missions, I cannot confirm what has been more than once recorded in the Blue Book reports that have been printed for the information of Parliament, namely, that this Colony is producing a beneficial effect on the Heathen population of the great Empire of China, and "leavening the surrounding mass of ignorance and superstition."
On the contrary, for many years past, Christianity has been declining in China; and, at this moment, the total number of Christians is considerably less than the number that existed in the last century.