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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
renders assistance-not necessarily mone- tary but by free grants of land in the New Territory for experimental farming -cattle, chicken and vegetable in order that we as a Colony may be more self contained and less dependent on others for our fresh food supply.
There are thousands of acres of suitable land there which could be utilized for this purpose, and I believe if the Government were to shew its sympathy in such enterprise the pioneers would be forthcoming.
PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
Last year 1 drew attention to the entire lack of any attempt to indicate clearly the names of our streets. When later on I was asked to inspect some sample labels I had hope that action was about to be taken. On enquiry as to why nothing further had been done, information is given me that this very necessary work has now been cancelled, or at any rate postponed. It is incon- ceivable that the few thousand dollars, involved would embarrass the Govern- ment, and I would ask that this work be proceeded with. Perhaps the twelve thousand dollars to be spent on the Geological Survey could be utilized for this purpose.
It is satisfactory to note that money is to be spent on more efficient lighting throughout the Colony, and it is to be hoped this work will be carried out with- out delay. Whilst on the subject of lighting may I suggest that the big banyan trees in Nathan Road be re- moved and replaced by small and more suitable trees. The cutting down of any trees is to be deprecated unless absolute- ly necessary, but these banyan trees, fine though they are in themselves, are unsuitable for lining roads. They grow too quickly and their roots spread too widely. The trees in question have grown to such an extent that they meet in the middle and entirely hide some of the street lamps. Moreover, they encroach to a considerable extent on the road-
way.
No item appears to be allotted to the improvement of the road to Taipo, where there are several bridges which are positively dangerous to motor
traffic. Let us hope no serious accident occurs before these bridges are widened and the approaches improved.
SANITARY DEPARTMENT
On many occasions the Unofficials of this Council have urged the adoption of refuse destructors, and I am glad to hear my honourable Colleagues pressing the matter again. We have been told in the past that these contrivances are not suitable for Hongkong. You will pardon me, Sir, if I say that answer does not satisfy me. I have it on good authority that these destructors are used to very good purpose elsewhere, and should give them
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trial. Mechanical contrivances of all descrip- tion should be employed where possible so as to eliminate the human element as much as possible.
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I am afraid, Sir, that none of my remarks suggest retrenchment, my ex- cuse being that I cannot see that the financial situation is such as to neces- sitate applying the axe to works which are urgently required. In your Budget speech last year, Sir, you stated that you saw no necessity to maintain our balance at a higher figure than five million dollars. Our estimated balance at the end of this year is five million three hundred and fifty-five thousand. The maxim of cutting ones coat accord- ing to the cloth in hand is sound pro- vided there is no more cloth available. This, however, does not appear to me to be the case. It is my opinion that the new assessment of the Colony, if efficiently carried, out will produce a bigger increase than has been allowed for.
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Land sales is admittedly a difficult item to estimate, but with trade resumed I believe there will be fresh application for land coming in almost immediately. This Colony has been
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or even
foully struck below the belt, but we have not been " knocked out nearly so, and, therefore, it would seem there is no reason to display ourselves in garments too small for us.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL should like to make a few remarks on the Sir, I subject of education in this Council. Perhaps in the recent Bolshevik cam- paign, which has been engineered from
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Canton, and perhaps it would be more accurate to say from Moscow, nothing has more annoyed old residents, who have a real affection for this Colony and a firm belief in British fairplay, than the lying campaign of calumny which has misrepresented the British officials and the British business men of this Colony as riding rough shod over the rights of the Chinese and brutally, or imperialistically, for that is the favou- rite word used-riding roughshod also over the rights of the Chinese here. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. On the contrary the record of this Colony is one of sympathetic Government by three generations of hardworking officials of the highest Integrity, and of friendly intercourse of three generations of British business firms with the Chinese in this Colony.
BANCTUARY FOR CHINESE
The wonderful prosperity which this Colony has attained and the manner in which Chinese have flocked here to do business, is a sufficient refutation of the gross slanders to which I have referred. Some years ago a former Land Officer of this Colony estimated that the Chinese owned fifteen-sixteenths of the landed property in this Colony, and it is a well known fact that their large land-owning still continues and also that they are the owners of a large proportion of the shares in our public companies. We have also the curious fact that the wives and families of some of the officials in Canton, who are now working against us, are actually receiving sane- tuary here in our midst in this so-called imperialistic British Colony.
STRIKING COMPARISONS
I have in my hand a despatch of a former Governor, Sir William Des Voeux, dated October 31st. 1889, reporting to the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the condition and prospects of Hongkong, and in that despatch he points out with pride that our revenue for 1888-one and a half million dollars- was larger than in any former year. In 1924 our revenue was about 24 million dollars. Another item which Governor Des Voeux mentions is land sale receipts which amounted to $160,000 as against
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1923, a bumper year. The population for nearly three million dollars received in
1888 he mentions as 160,000. Before the commencement of the recent unrest it was probably about 800,000.
A WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATION
despatch, Sir William Des Voeux pointed In the concluding paragraph of his out the wonderful transformation since we took over in 1840 of Hongkong from
a bare rock, with a fisherman's hut busy and prosperous shipping port. here and there " to a wonderful and the last paragraph of his despatch he In
says as follows:-
Hongkong has indeed changed its aspect; and when it is remembered that all this has been affected in Her Majes- ty's reign and indeed during a space of less that fifty years on ground in im- mediate contact with the most populous Empire in the world, by a comparatively infinitesimal number of an entirely alien race separated from their Homes by nearly the whole earth, and, unlike their countrymen in Australia and Canada, living in an enervating and trying climate; and when it is further remem. bered that the Chinese, whose labour and enterprise under British auspices have largely assisted in this development, have been under no compulsion, but have come here as free men, attracted by liberal institutions, equitable treat- ment, and the justice of our 'rule; and when all this is taken into account, it may be doubted whether the evidence of material and moral achievement, pre- sented as it were in a focus, make any- where a more forcible appeal to eye and imagination, and whether any other spot on the earth is thus more likely to ex- cite, or more fully justifies pride in the name of Englishman.'
THE TASK FOR THE SCHOOLS
The point that I wish to make now is that the Hongkong Government ought to make it its business to teach in its schools and in the University, the won- derful growth and prosperity of this Colony, owing to its liberal institutions, its equitable treatment of, and justice to, all races, and, starting onward from Governor Des Voeux's despatch to the
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