Directory_and_Chronicle_1893 — Page 603

HONGKONG

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House, and are beautifully laid out in terraces, slopes, and walks, with parterres of flowers. A handsome fountain adorns the second terrace, around which the European children and their amahs resort daily, and the community gather there in throngs when the Regimental Band plays. There is a band stand, presented by the Parsee community, some aviaries, orchid houses, and ferneries, and seats are provided in every spot where a view is obtainable or shade afforded by the varied foliage. A fine bronze statue of Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of the Colony 1872-6, erected by public subscription, stands above the second terrace looking down on the fountain. It was unveiled in November, 1887, by Governor Sir William Des Voeux. The chief public building is the City Hall, erected in 1866-9 by subscription; it contains an elegant theatre, numerous large rooms used for balls and public meetings, an excellent and valuable Library, and a Museum yearly increasing in importance. In front of the main entrance is a large fountain presented in August, 1864, by Mr. John Dent, a merchant of the Colony. Eastward of the City Hall is a fine open space or lung in the shape of the Parade Ground south of the road and of the Cricket Ground on the north. The latter is furnished with a neat Pavilion, and the turf is kept in perfect order. The Government Offices, Supreme Court House, and Post Office are plain but substantial edifices. Government House occupies a commanding situation, in picturesque grounds pleasingly laid out, in the centre of the city. The Gaol is a large and massive structure, but the accommodation afforded by it is not in excess of the large demands made on it, owing to the inroads of the criminal population of Kwangtung being so constant and persevering. The Police Barracks and Central Station adjoin the Gaol, as does the Magistracy, a small and inconvenient structure. The Police Force numbers about 670, of whom 120 are Europeans and 230 Indians, the remainder being Chinese. The Lunatic Asylum consists of two small buildings, one for Europeans and the other for Chinese, below the Bonham Road. The Government Civil Hospital is a large and well designed building affording extensive accommodation, situated in the Western part of the town. The Alice Memorial Hospital, situated at the corner of Hollywood Road and Aberdeen Street, is a useful and philanthropic institution, which is also the headquarters of the Hongkong College of Medicine for Chinese. The Royal Naval Hospital occupies a small eminence near Bowrington. The Victoria College, a handsome and commodious structure, which stands on a fine site having its chief frontage on Staunton Street, is the home of the chief Government educational institution in the colony. It was opened in 1889. The Tung Wa Hospital, a Chinese institution, occupies a large and roomy building. The Barracks for the garrison are extensive, and constructed with great regard to the health and comfort of the troops, and the buildings belonging to the Naval Establishment are substantial and spacious. The cantonments lie, on both sides of the Queen's Road, between the Cricket Ground and Arsenal Street, Wanchai. There are also extensive temporary Barracks at Kowloon, in which the "Hongkong Regiment" are quartered. Head-quarter House, the residence of the General in Command of the Troops, occupies a pleasant elevation overlooking the cantonments. A new and commodious Central Market has been designed, and is now in course of erection on the old site, which has been increased by the removal of a number of houses; a temporary market has been constructed on the water frontage to supply accom- modation in the meantime. The building of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank is large, handsome, and massive, and would do credit to any city. It occupies a fine site next to the City Hall, and has frontages on Queen's Road and the Praya, while the eastern elevation occupies the whole of one side of Wardley Street. The exterior walls and elegant fluted pillars are of dressed granite, and the offices on the Queen's Road frontage are crowned with a large dome. The Praya wall, which was reconstructed in 1879-80, is a work of much solidity and strength, of dressed granite with a strong backing of concrete, and has successfully withstood some heavy seas. The present Praya will not, however, long continue to be the water frontage, as the reclamation of a further strip of land from the foreshore has been commenced, which will make the existing Praya an inland street from the City Hall in the centre of the city to the Sailors' Home near West Point. Two sections of this reclamation are now completed: one near the Sailors' Home, and the other from Murray Wharf to the point where Ice House Street debouches, which has an area of 10 acres. The Clock Tower, near Pedder's Wharf, was erected by public subscription in 1862, and the illuminated clock was presented to the Colony by the firm of Messrs. Douglas Lapraik & Co. The tower, though of fair proportions and height, is now somewhat dwarfed by the lofty new building of the Hongkong Hotel.

The chief religious buildings are: St. John's Cathedral (Anglican), which occupies a commanding site above the Parade Ground, erected in the year 1842, and is a Gothic church of considerable size but with few pretensions to architecture. It has a square