15
and a further sum of $30,000 towards endowment. Plans of the necessary buildings were prepared and, as the Director of Public Works estimated that the buildings proposed would not cost less than $290,000, Mr. Mody undertook to provide them in accordance with the plans which he had approved, no matter what the cost might be, stipulating however that he should use on the buildings the $30,000 originally given for endowment, if it should be required. It is intended that the proposed Hongkong University shall have at the outset two faculties, viz., Medicine and Engineering, and that the existing College of Medicine, the Technical Institute, and the local branch of the Sanitary Institute shall be incorporated in it. It is hoped that an Arts Course may be added. A Committee has been formed, with myself as Chairman, to promote the undertaking.
On the 6th May, a telegram was received from Your Lordship to the effect that His Majesty's Government had decided "that steps must be taken to close opium dens in Hongkong, as they recognise it is essential in dealing with the opium question in Hongkong we must act up to the standard set by the Chinese Government". As the result of this telegram the opium question was debated in the Legislative Council on several occasions during the year, and careful investigations were made by the Government. It had not, however, been decided by the end of the year what steps should be taken in the matter, as the result of the International Opium Commission to be held in Shanghai was awaited.
In the month of June there were very serious floods in the valleys of the West and North Rivers, causing distress and famine in many districts of the Kuangtung and Kuangsi provinces and on the 2nd of July the Legislative Council unanimously adopted a resolution conveying the deep sympathy of the Colony to the Governor General of the provinces concerned, and authorizing the payment of a sum of $30,000 from the General Revenue as a donation for the relief of the sufferers. A cheque for that amount was handed to the Governor General by H. B. M.'s Acting Consul General at Canton on the 15th July, and transmitted by His Excellency to the Charitable Guilds to whom the distribution of organized relief was entrusted. In addition to this donation, there was collected by the Tung Wa Hospital the sums of $91,528 locally and $371,069 from abroad: while a Chinese bazaar held in the Colony in aid of the Flood Relief Fund realized $81,690. The bazaar was interesting as being the first of the kind organized and managed entirely by the Chinese community: Chinese ladies took charge of the stalls and both Chinese and European firms sent large quantities of goods, free of charge, to the bazaar committee for sale.
A sum of $1,000 was subscribed by the Colonists of Saigon for the relief of the distress caused by the severe typhoon of the 18th September, 1906, and it had originally been the intention of Sir M. Nathan to appropriate this sum for the erection of a memorial to the French Sailors of the French Destroyer Fronde who lost their lives in this harbour during that typhoon. As, however, the Committee of the Typhoon Relief Fund unanimously decided that it was not within their power to make any grant from the funds for this purpose nor to appropriate thereto the sum of $1,000 received from Saigon, that money having gone into the general fund, a special subscription of $2,550 was raised to defray the cost of erecting an obelisk in Goscoigne Road, Kowloon, as a memorial to the French sailors in question. The ceremony of unveiling the memorial took place on the 14th of June and Mile. Morel, daughter of the Lieut.-Governor of Tongking, unveiled the obelisk.
The proposal to construct a new Typhoon Refuge at Mongkoktsui, which had originally been made in 1904, and which, since the Typhoon of the 18th September, 1906, had been before the Typhoon Relief Committee, was favourably reported on by the Public Works Committee of the Legislative Council, who further recommended that pending its construction the accommodation in the Causeway Bay shelter should be increased by deepening the area therein which dries at low water. It was estimated that the latter work would cost $70,000 and that a breakwater at Mongkoktsui to enclose 166 acres of sheltered water would cost $1,540,000. The matter was discussed in Legislative Council on the 6th August, and, with a view to financing the works, a resolution was passed by the Council on that day increasing the dues (a) for all river steamers entering the waters of the Colony to 5/6ths of a cent per ton register: and (b) for all other ships entering the waters of the Colony (excepting British and Foreign Ships of War) to 2 cents per ton register. It is hoped by this means to defray half the cost of the Mongkoktsui Breakwater, the other half being paid out of the Reserve Funds of the Colony and in the colonial estimates for 1909 passed by the Legislature on the 15th October a sum of $200,000 is provided for the Mongkoktsui typhoon shelter and a sum of $20,000 for deepening the shallow area of Causeway Bay to one foot below Ordnance Datum.
In the meantime, on the night of the 27th to 28th July, the Colony was struck by another disastrous typhoon in which 26 privately owned buildings collapsed with a loss of
15
and a further sum of $30,000 towards endowment. Plans of the necessary buildings were prepared and, as the Director of Public Works estimated that the buildings proposed would not cost less than $290,000, Mr. Mody undertook to provide them in accordance with the the plans which he had approved, no matter what the cost might be, stipulating however that he should use on the buildings the $30,000 originally given for endowment, if it should be required. It is intended that the proposed Hongkong University shall have at the outset two faculties, viz., Medicine and Engineering, and that the existing College of Medicine, the Technical Institute, and the local branch of the Sanitary Institute shall be incorporated in it. It is hoped that an Arts Course may be added. A Committee has been formed, with myself as Chairman, to promote the undertaking.
On the 6th May, a telegram was received from Your Lordship to the effect that His Majesty's Government had decided "that steps must be taken to close opium dens in Hongkong, as they recognise it is essential in dealing with the opium question in Hongkong we must act up to the standard set by the Chinese Government". As the result of this telegram the opium question was debated in the Legislative Council on several occasions during the year, and careful investigations were made by the Government. It had not, how- ever, been decided by the end of the year what steps should be taken in the matter, as the result of the International Opium Commission to be held in Shanghai was awaited.
In the month of June there were very serious floods in the valleys of the West and North Rivers, causing distress and famine in many districts of the Kuangtung and Kuangsi provinces and on the 2nd of July the Legislative Council unanimously adopted a resolution conveying the deep sympathy of the Colony to the Governor General of the provinces concerned, and authorizing the payment of a sum of $30,000 from the General Revenue as a donation for the relief of the sufferers. A cheque for that amount was handed to the Governor General by H. B. M.'s Acting Consul General at Canton on the 15th July, and trans- mitted by His Excellency to the Charitable Guilds to whom the distribution of organized relief was entrusted. In addition to this donation, there was collected by the Tung Wa Hospital the sums of $91,528 locally and $371,069 from abroad: while a Chinese bazaar held in the Colony in aid of the Flood Relief Fund realized $81,690. The bazaar was interesting as being the first of the kind organized and managed entirely by the Chinese community: Chinese ladies took charge of the stalls and both Chinese and European firms sent large quantities of goods, free of charge, to the bazaar committee for sale.
A sum of $1,000 was subscribed by the Colonists of Saigon for the relief of the distress caused by the severe typhoon of the 18th September, 1906, and it had originally been the intention of Sir M. Nathan to appropriate this sum for the erection of a memorial to the French Sailors of the French Destroyer Fronde who lost their lives in this harbour dur- ing that typhoon. As, however, the Committee of the Typhoon Relief Fund unanimously decided that it was not within their power to make any grant from the funds for this purpose nor to appropriate thereto the sum of $1,000 received from Saigon, that money having gone into the general fund, a special subscription of $2,550 was raised to defray the cost of erecting an obelisk in Goscoigne Road, Kowloon, as a memorial to the French sailors in question. The ceremony of unveiling the memorial took place on the 14th of June and Mile. Morel, daughter of the Lieut.-Governor of Tongking, unveiled the obelisk.
The proposal to construct a new Typhoon Refuge at Mongkoktsui, which had originally been made in 1904, and which, since the Typhoon of the 18th September, 1906, had been before the Typhoon Relief Committee, was favourably reported on by the Public Works Committee of the Legislative Council, who further recominended that pending its construction the accommodation in the Causeway Bay shelter should be increased by deepen- ing the area therein which dries at low water. It was estimated that the latter work would cost $70,000 and that a breakwater at Mongkoktsui to enclose 166 acres of sheltered water would cost $1,540,000. The matter was discussed in Legislative Council on the 6th August, and, with a view to financing the works, a resolution was passed by the Council on that day increasing the dues (a) for all river steamers entering the waters of the Colony to 5/6ths of a cent per ton register: and (b) for all other ships entering the waters of the Colony (excepting British and Foreign Ships of War) to 2 cents per ton register. It is hoped by this means to defray half the cost of the Mongkoktsui Breakwater, the other half being paid out of the Reserve Funds of the Colony and in the colonial estimates for 1909 passed by the Legislature on the 15th October a sum of $200,000 is provided for the Mongkoktsui typhoon shelter and a sum of $20,000 for deepening the shallow area of Causeway Bay to one foot below Ordnance Datum.
In the meantime, on the night of the 27th to 28th July, the Colony was struck by another disastrous typhoon in which 26 privately owned buildings collapsed with a loss of
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