JANUARY 25, 1941.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT
Hongkong's First Schools:
Many Still
(Continued from Page Four)
rebuilt and the area of the Cathedral enlarged. In its present form it was opened for worship in 1888.
St Joseph's Church in Garden Road was opened in November, 1872, but was partly demolished by a typhoon in 1874, and had to be rebuilt, this work being completed in 1876.
The only other religious institutions of some age are the Mosque at Shelley Street, the original building having been erected in 1855 and a new structure going up on the same site in 1915; and the Synagogue. The Jewish com- munity held worship from 1860 to 1864 in a house in Seymour Terrace lent by Mr A. D. Sassoon. A house in Shelley Street presented by Mr Solomon Sassoon was later converted into
Synagogue. In 1882 Sir Jacob Sassoon. Bart, converted the old Cosmopolitan Club in Staunton Street into a place of worship; and a move was made to Robinson Road two years later, services being held in a temporary structure while the present Ohel Leah Synagogue (also erected by Sir Jacob, and dedicated to the memory of his mother) was being built.
THE SCHOOLS
Closely associated with the religious bodies have always been the schools, founded originally by missions. A brief review of these is possible within the limited scope of this article.
St Paul's College, a Church of Eng- land school, was originally an institu- tion for training Chinese as ministers of the church. The land on which it stands was granted by Government in 1843, and within a few years the building was commenced, being com- pleted in the later 'forties, the founda- tion stone being laid in 1847. In 1849 the first Bishop of Hongkong (Rt. Rev. George Smith) was appointed its Warden under statutes approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the following year took up residence in the House. Bishop's then recently built which is still in use.
Another very old school was the Anglo-Chinese College, opened in the later 'forties by Rev. Dr Legge. This had to close in 1856 owing to lack of support.
Another early institution which became defunct after a comparatively brief existence
St was
Andrew's School, intended for the education of English children. It was formed after a public meeting held in 1855 to consi- der the need for such a school, among those sponsoring the plan being Mr George Duddell, one of the early opium monopolists, after whom Duddell Street is named. St Andrew's School in was opened in premises situated Staunton Street, but had to close in 1881. The Union Church erected in 1863 occupied the site of this old school. An old school still in existence, and in a flourishing condition is Queen's by the amalgamation of three small Government schools, and was original- Ancionated the Central School.
a
The Canossian Institute,
or
å
In Existence
CECO
was
The pioneer içe manufactory established in the sixties in Spring Gardens, Wanchal, but soon went out of business; and in the 'seventies an ice factory was in operation at East
The Des Voeux Road seafront as it appeared in the late 'eighties. The old portion of the Hongkong Hotel, where Gloucester Building stands to-day, is in the right foreground, with Jardine, Matheson's premises
on the extreme right. Italian Hotel, in 1847, at Queen's Road; it ap- Convent, has a local history going back pears to have been the leading hostelry to 1880, when six Italian Sisters arrived of the time, and its charge was $2.50 in Hongkong. They opened day a day for board and lodging exclusive school and foundling home in St of wines or beer, one of the attractions Francis Street, Wanchai, which still
survivor of early times, which was a exists, and extended their work to surve a good billiards table. The only other branch institutions in different parts of the Colony from 1880 onwards. hotel of the first class, is the present in 1900 a property known as "Rosehill" Hongkong Hotel, established in 1867- in Caine Road was acquired, and this was turned into the present Italian Convent.
The principal educational institution of to-day in Hongkong, the University, was opened in March 1912; but there was a nucleus of its Medical Faculty in the Hongkong College of Medicine, founded as far back as 1887, largely through the enthusiasm of Dr Patrick Manson, father of tropical medicine; and Dr Sun Yat-sen was one of the earliest graduates.
OLD BUSINESSES
68.
It is interesting to recall the names of some of the earliest local tavernsTM such as the Crown and Anchor, British and American Inn, Fortune and War, Pilot Boat, Prince of Wales, Victoria Tavern, Neptune, and Bee Hive; all in business in the 'forties and to sense the appropriateness of the following verse on the sign of the Bee Hive Inn
"Within this hive we're all alive, and pleasant is our honey:
of
the Hongkong Ice Company in the Point, followed by the formation eighties.
One of the developments that na- turally enough followed the growth of the city was street lighting. The chronicles show that oil lamps were used to light the town, in 1857 no fewer than 350 such lamps coming into use. The first gas lights were installed in 1864, when the original gas works were completed.
"If you are dry, step in and try, kong Telephone Company, Ltd.) intro- we sells for ready money"!
These names are redolent of
Electricity came to the Colony in the 'eighties: in 1887 the local branch of the China and Japan Telephone Company (now replaced by the Hong- duced electric lighting: and the Hongkong Electric Company was organised, and sold the first electric authorities. But tele- phones had arrived much earlier, for they were established here in 1882.
College. This was "founded" in 1880 erecting godowns and office premises, sailing ship days, and one cannot help lamps to the
מנור
While the business community were
and Queen's Road and Wanchai were assuming the aspects of busy mercantile centres, several large trading concerns etablish themselves here. Some, like
weath
the
regretting that reforms have abolished them. if only because such picturesque titles should have gone.
etentious,
in 1889
The history of the electric telegraph system in the Colony goes back to 184S
ĮLANE & CRAWFURD
1850-
NOW, AS THEN, THE
COLONY'S
LEADING
BRITISH STORE
Lane, Crawford, Ltd.
Exchange Building,
Hongkong.
- 1941
13
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