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Enclosure.
The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, January 11th, 1899.
THE TUNG WAH HOSPITAL.
THE NEW COMMITTER INTRODUCED TO THE GOVERNOR.
In accordance with the annual custom, the new committee of the Tung Wah Hospital, together with the retiring committee, attended at Government House yesterday for the purpose of being presented to His Excellency the Go- veruor (Sir Henry Blake, G.C.M.G.). There were also present the Acting Colonial Secretary (tbe Hon. T. Seroombe Smith), the Acting Regis. trar General (Mr. J. Dger Bail), Dr. Thom- son, Viscount Suirdale, A.D.C., and Major Somerville (Private Secretary). Mr. Dyer Ball introduced the members of the committees to His Excellency, who shook hands with such of
them.
We
Mr. FUNG WA CHUEN (a member of the old committee) said-Your Excellency, on behalf of the retiring Committee, I beg to thank your Excellency for receiving us here to-day. It is our duty to present ourselves and pay our 18- pects to your Excellency after having served our term of one year. During our tenure of offico several suggestions as to the improvement of the institution wore adopted, and the conduct of the hospital has been well attended to under Dr. Thomson's careful supervision. At one time of the yoar
bad the visitation A braneh of plague in the colony and hospital was sanctioned by the Government. In this connection, valuable assistance was ren- dered us by Captain May in the discharge of our duties towards those of our fellow-country- men who, unfortunately, happened to be attacked by this terrible disease. For this we owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. May, for without his help the task would bave been much moro difficult to us. The building of another mortuary at the re- commendation of the Sanitary Board has been placed in the hands of our architect, althongh this will bear rathor heavily on our limited finances. Now, Sir, it only remains for me to report to you that our duties have been trans- ferred to the hands of the incoming committen, who I feel sure will be able to effect still fur ther improvements in the management of the hospital. Once more I thank your Excellency for your kind reception.
Mr. Ho TUNG (chairman of the new com-: mittee) said-Your Excelleney, in taking over the duties of the retiring directors of the Tung Wah Hospital, I do not think the chairman of the committee has availed himself on every occasion of the opportunity to address the Go- vernor. On the present occasion, however, I would beg your Excellency's permission to make a few remarks on this charitable institution. As your Excellency is well aware, the election ¦ of the board of directors of the Tung Wah is made exclusively by those Chinese who contribute an- nually to the funds of the hospital. The sunual election is therefore not merely a purely formal function restricted to a fow of the well-to-do or better-informed Chinese of the colony. Indeed, if it can be accepted as any criterion, it affords ample evidence that quite a large number of the Chinese in Hongkong evince au active interest in the institution. It may be a matter of satis faction for your Excellency to know that quite 500 persons took part in the last election, all of whom exhibited an intelligent interest in the object and purpose of the election. We, the now directors, as well as the Chinese com- manity of Hongkong at large, wish to express our sense of thankfulness to your Excellency for the early interest you have already shown in the institution we have just taken charge of. In spite of the multifarions duties which a Governor has to attend to soon after his arrival in the colony, your Excellency has made it possible to pay a visit to the hospital_
on
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Fon Friday last. We hope to hear Erdiff your
Excellency to-day that that visit gevealed to Dunj Excellency the nature of the work that Hae and is being done in the Tung Wao. We hope alo that the visit has been the means of disclosing to your Excellency any of the defects which your Excellency might be good enough to suggest to us the means of removing. Now as regards the past. When our present retiring directors were last year introduced to Sir William Robinson, before assuming the duties of the directorate, your predecessor was good enough to give them a few words of encourage. ment and advice with regard to the working of the Hospital. Ho enumerated several expedients whereby necessary reforms could be introduced- and the usefulness of the institution increased in principal among these was the co-operation with Dr. Thomson who had been appointed visiting surgeon to the Hospital. I think I need hardly recall to your Excellency's mind the kind way in which Dr. Thomson reported to the Govern. ment the good relationship which exists be- tween himself and the board of dicectors res- pecting the internal administration of the Hospital. The Chinese appreciate very fully the courteous manner Dr. Thomson has re- corded his experience with the directors during 1897 and also his opinion that "the eu- lightened policy that is consistently guiding their action in their management of the Hospi tal is rapidly producing improvement of the in- stitution on all sides of its work." The new directors can only hope that it will be their good fortune to conduct the affairs of the Hospital for the ensuing year with the same. harmonious relation with its visiting Burgeou that has marked the initiation of the improve- ments following the recommendations of the Commission which in 1896 investigated aud reported upon the working of the Tung Wah Hospital. And they rely upon your Excellency for the encouragement and support of the Government in all that will tent to promote the good object for which this beneficent in- stitution was founded. Risen ploaix-like, from the dead ashes of the “I. Lez,” the Tung Wah, ander very happy auspices, was formally opened on the 14th February, 1872. During the fol- lowing year 581 patients were treated and 506 persons vaccinated. To-day, thanks to individual benevolence and the fostering care of this Government, the ffospital building has been considerably enlarged and daring the year just closed it received for treatment no less than 2,898 in-patients besides 121,542 visits by out-patients, and was instrumental in having 1,583 persons vaccinated. Although the existence of the Tang Wah is justi- fied by the large amount of good it has done and the alleviation of much physical suffering, I believe that it is still capable of further in- provements; and what might appear as the barrier to progress arising from the ignorance or pardonable surperstitions of the lower orders of the Chinese, the directors rely upon your Excelleney's kind forbourance to eudare, trast- ing to time for the bettor enlightenment of the ignorant class for whom the Tung Wah was especially founded,
His EXCELLENCY said-Gantlemen, I am bappy to have the pleasure of meeting the directors of the Tung Wah Hospital, and I have listened to your address with great interest. The Tang Wah Hospital is the first institution that I have visited and I must apologise for having made that visit without dus" notice. But I was anxious to see the institution in its overy day working condition rather than visiting it aftor a possible special preparation. I may say at once that so far as I could see, the cleanliness and regularity of the hospital left little to be desired, and reflected credit upon the directors and the medical staff of the charity. That such institutions as the Tung Wah Hospital and Dispensary, and the Fo Leung Kuk should exist, afford ample evidence : that the Chinese inhabitants of Hongkong possess in a bigh degres that most excellent gift of charity and tender solicitude for their suffering poor, and the ready response that your directors of last year have given to the
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