0
PRESENTATION TO MR. NORTON KYSHE
Two interesting presentations took place in the Registrar's room at the Supreme Court at noon yesterday. The Registrar, Mr. J. W. Norton Kyshe, leaves for England to-day in the Ceylon on leave, and it says much for the faithful manner in which he has discharged his duties and his unfailing urbanity towards all who have come in contact with him that not only was he the recipient of a token of the esteem in which he is held by the Court staff, but also of au exceedingly Battering testimonial from the Chinese community of Hongkong. The Jatter presented to him a splendidly prepared address bound in green velvet and mounted in silver, and the former an address in an oakwood frame. Each address made a complimentary reference to the valuable work which was bat recently issued from Mr. Kyshe's pen-The history of the laws and courts of Hongkong" -a work which has beeu received by a chorus of eulogiums throughout the colony, and a work which will serve as a lasting monument to the author, We feel sure all our readers will join with us in re-echoing the hope that Mr. and Mrs. Kyshe will have a pleasant voyage and will be all the better in health for their woll earned holiday.
The first address presented was that from the Chinese merchants.
Mr. CHAUTSENG FAT said-I have been asked by the Chinese merchants to call upon you and to present you with an address. During the few years you have been in this colony as Re- gistrar of Supreme Court, Registrar of Com- panies, Official Administrator and Land Officer, you have rendered valu-ble assistance to the Chinese, especially to those who came in con- tact with you. We cannot allow you to leave us! without expressing our gratitude to you, and also to wish you and Mrs. Kyshe a pleasant voyage, and we sincerely hope that you will soon be promoted to a higher position. On behalf of the Chinese merchants who are now before you, I beg to hand you the address, and trust you will be pleased to accept it. Bet before handing it over to you, I wish you will be good enough to allow one of your officers, Mr. Mok Man Cheung, to read the address.
Mr. Mox MAN CHEUNG read the address, which was in the following terms →→
"Hongkong, 12th December, 1898. "JAMES WILLIAM NORTON-KYSHE, Registrar of the Supreme Court, Official Adminis- trator, Registrar of Companies, and Officer, &o, &c., Hongkong.
"We, the undersigned, take the liberty to acknowledge the valuable services which you have rendered to the public in this colony dur- ing the time you have been Registrar of the Supreme Court of Hongkong. We can testify that you have performed your various duties with fidelity and nuremitting attention, and that the public here are loud in their praises of your ability and faithfulness to duty. We appreciate you not only for your fidelity and integrity in the discharge of your duties as a public officer, but also for your kindness and civility towards us whenever we have had occasion to approach you. We have noted with great pleasure that you have so ably compiled and published a very valuable work designed "The History of the Laws and Courts of Hongkong." The work will certainly ever prove a monument of your industry and will moreover be of use, not only to ourselves, but to the rising generation of English-speaking Chinese. We also note with equal gratification that in all matters both public and private, you have ever been ready and cheerful iu affording us the benefit of your advice. Your candour and frankness have en- sured for you the good-will of all nationalities, especially the Chinese who have been thrown in contact with you, and all those who know you always feel happy to cultivate your friend. ship. Your unquestionable ability undoubtedly must have induced Her Majesty's Government
205.
1491
to appoint you to the Registrarship of t colony from Singapore, where we have heard you were very much respected and esteemed.
"Now as you are about to proceed to Bog land with your family, we cannot but expres. our regret at your departure.
&
"We beg to prosent you with this address 13 JAN 39
testimony of the sincere good-will and respect entertained for you, and we venture to hope you will do us the honour of accepting it as an acknowledgment by ourselves of your valuable services.
We avail ourselves of this opportunity to wish you and your family a plussant, calut, and safe voyage; and sincerely hope that you will derive rest and great benefit from your sojourn in England. We have the honour to be, Sir, Yours most truly."
(Here follow signatures and chops.) The address is bound in green plush, with silver corners of dragon design, and a contrai shield bears the following inscription :--" To James W. Norton-Kyshe, Registrar of the Supreme Court of Hongkong, from the Chinese merchants, on his doparture from the colony, December, 1898."
Mr. Krane said-It is gratifying to me as a high official of the Supreme Court to find by the magnifvent testimonial which you have presented to me--unknown of your "intention but a few moments ago--that you so fully ac knowledge the services which I have been ablo to render to yourselves and countrymen as a public servant in the faithful discharge of his duties. In no department of the service is an official in a better position to make himself appreciated than that connected with the administration of justice, and so far as I am concerned I can assure yon that no stone hare I left unturned which could make you understand that when entering my office you were there to find yourselves on a footing of aquality with any of Hor Most Gracious Majesty's subjects seeking what assistance our benign laws conid coufer apon you. These were my positive instructions to my subordinates on my assumption of duty in Hongkong, and I am pleased to think that on no occasion has it ever been brought to my notice that you were de prived of that assistance whenever you sought for it. For my part, I have done for you what right consonant with justice demanded. Those of you who have songht my advice from time to time well know how earnest I have been in discouraging litigation whenever it was pos sible to avoid such, and I am glad to know that in several instances I have been success- ful. I appreciate your testimonial for the little I have been able to do for you. Your allusion to my career in the Straits Settle- mouts brings back very pleasant reminis- cences to my mind. I laboured for fifteen years in that colony. There, as here, my services were appreciated by your fellow country-men, and I now hold up to your view two addresses which were presented to me by the Chinoso and other nationalities in Singapore so long ago as in 1884 when I relinquished magisterial duties in that settlement. Although a stranger to Hong- kong itself, on my arrival I soon found that the people were no strangers to me. Here, as in the Straits, the backbone of the population is Chinese, and except for change of scene I soon found myself completely at home; and hence the reason probably why, if I may be allowed to Bay go, I have, benn alla by wako my survices ap- preciated. Believe me when I tell you under no Power could the Chinese be a more free people than under British rule. I have often spoken to some of the loading Chinese on the i subject, and it is satisfactory to know how much those in that vast empire from which you come appreciate the benefits they derive from being connected with us. This is a matter, gentle- men, that I need not go into further. During. my stay here. I have done in my own quiet way, not as a judge in public, but as a Court official sitting in his own Chambers, what good I could, and your kind reference to my recently. published work is fally appreciated by me. I shall now carry away with me the highest ma- mento that I could possibly have received, namely, the knowledge that as a public servant specially appointed by the Home Government I have done my daly faithfully towards those who constitute the majority of Her Majesty's sub- jsets and of the foreign community of Hongkong. I thank you for your kind wishes to myself and family and particularly for your magnifi- cent address which I shall hand down to my family as an heirloom.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.