CO129-223 - Governor Sir Bowen Acting Governor Marsh & Others - 1885 [11-12] — Page 146

Enclosure S.

ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR SIR G. F. BOWEN, G.C.M.G. TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG, DECEMBER 9TH, 1885, WITH THE

ADDRESS OF THE COUNCIL IN REPLY:

(1.)

1409

ALUY 26 JÁN 86)

RECR

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,

this

I desire to announce officially to you that I intend to proceed from this Colony to India, on my way to England, on the 19th of this month. As you are already aware, I had obtained leave of absence on medical certificate at the beginning of year, but I then felt that it was my duty to remain at my post during the protracted crisis of the Franco-Chinese hostilities, and of the threatened war with Russia. Her Majesty's Government have expressed "their high appreciation of the public spirit which led me to this decision." Now that peace has been restored, the permission to return to England has been renewed. After twenty-six years' continuous service as the Representative of the Queen in five Colonies successively, it will be agreed that I have fully earned a period of rest.

2. One of the most eminent of the Governors of Crown Colonies, in bidding farewell to his Council, remarked: "I think it very useful that the last Address of a Governor should be exhaustive; that it should touch on all subjects of public interest; that it should be a standard of comparison by which the progress of the Colony may he measured at different epochs." Accordingly, in pursuance of the custom established elsewhere, I will take advantage of this opportunity to place on record a brief review of the principal acts of my adininistration here, which has lasted for nearly three years. These years have been very critical and eventful both as regards this Colony, the centre of British power, influence and commerce in the Far East, and also as regards European interests generally in this quarter of the globe, which contains one-fourth of the human race, and which must yet fill a great place in the history of the world.

3. Soon after my assumption of this Government in the early part of the year 1883, I satisfied myself, after careful study of the position of your affairs, that there were three subjects of pressing importance to which I should first direct my special attention.

These were:-

(a.) The reconstitution of the Legislative Council.

(6.) The commencement of the much-needed Works of Water-supply and

Sanitation.

(c.) The Defence of the Colony.

4. To the reconstitution of this Council, so as to make it representative of the Colony generally, I attached primary importance; for when an energetic English community like that of Hongkong has acquired an adequate voice and control in the management of its own local and municipal affairs, all necessary and well- considered internal reforms should follow. Accordingly, I procured the assent of the Imperial Government to a large increase in the number of the un-official members, while I gave the privilege of freely nominating their own representatives to the two principal Public Bodies, viz. the Bench of Magistrates and the Chamber of Com- merce, which comprise the chief residents of every nationality. Thus the property, intelligence, and education of the Colony are now directly represented in this Council. I observed in a previous address: "it will always be one of the most satisfactory reminiscences of my long public career that I have been able to procure a more adequate representation in this Council of the community at large."

of

5. Again, when I found that under the former law of this Colony, the power assessing the Municipal taxation was vested solely in the Governor, I procured the consent of Her Majesty's Government to the removal of this anomaly, which was probably without precedent in any other part of the British Empire. Thus, here as elsewhere, the entire taxation of the Colony will henceforth be under the control of the Colonial Legislature.

6. Moreover, in opening the Session for 1884, I addressed you as follows: "For obvious reasons, it is in the highest degree important that this Council should adhere to the constitutional forms followed by the Legislatures of the other

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