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eating stalls were for the convenience of coal carriers and other labourers did not approve of the proposal that they should be cleared away, holding that it was hard enough for the coolies to obtain a livelihood at a time when rent was so high and that in the event of the eating stalls being prohibited it would be harder still for these men to get their meals in other ways.
The above are instances of the loving care that His Excellency evinced for his people when they were in difficul- ties, however small, and of his personal disregard for petti- ness in the interests of the public.
When the New Territory was first included in Eritish jurisdiction, the people misguided by rumours were greatly agitated and attempted armed opposition. Opinion was divided at the time as to whether it was desirable to quell their distor- bances by force or to pacify them by concessions. His Excel- lency, however, at the time of hoisting of the British flag (at Kowloon City), assembled a meeting of the gentry and elders from the various villages and announced that it was his kind intention to improve the administration of the place but not to change the customs and usages of the people, and to modify the existing laws only so far as compatible with practicaoility and necessity. The roads too, His Excellency declared, would be improved so that wayfarers need now no longer complain of the difficulties of travel which they had formerly experienced, but would have the satisfaction of travelling by roads that would be broad, even and straight. The people of the New Territory were reconciled by such assurance, and raised no more rebellign.
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