Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 995

HONGKONG

909

on a site between Park Road and Lyttleton Road. The foundation stone was laid by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales during his visit to the Colony in April, 1922, and the building was opened by Lady Stubbs in January, 1924. The Tung Wah Hospital, a Chinese institution, which has been of great utility in the Colony, was considerably enlarged in 1903, and new plague wards were added in 1909. A new wing, to provide accommodation for 120 patients, was com- pleted in 1921. A Tung Wah Eastern Hospital was opened in 1929 by Sir Cecil Clementi at the Caroline Hill Road. A well-designed Plague Hospital for Chinese, situated at Kennedy Town, was also built at the expense of the Chinese community. In April 1930, Mrs. Southorn (wife of the then Acting Governor, the Hon. Mr. W. T. Southorn) presided at the laying of the founda- tion stone of the Hongkong War Memorial Hospital on Mount Kellet. There is accomodation for about 50 European patients, while provision was made in the plans for an extension which will accommodate from 30 to 50 more. An up-to-date X Ray department and two excellent operating theatres are features of the new hospital. The Barracks for the garrison are extensive, and the buildings belonging to the Naval Establishment are spacious if not substantial. The chief cantonments lie on both sides of the Queen's Road, between the Cricket Ground and Arsenal Street, Wanchai. Representations have been made to the Imperial authorities to relinquish this area in order that it may be available for the constantly growing needs of the commercial community. Terms for the surrender of the property have been offered to and accepted by the local Government, but owing to the general trade depression since the strike in 1925, the matter was dropped and has not been subsequently re-opened The town has spread to the East on the new Praya, and building developments are proceeding so rapidly there that it promises to become the most thriving district in the Eastern part of the city. The original scheme, on which work started in 1923, was to level Morrison Hill and build the new reclamation from it, the site of the former hill to have been used as playing fields. As the work progressed, however, the plan altered somewhat. As the core of Morrison Hill was found to be of hard rock, and sufficient earth had been obtained from it already for the reclamation, the base of the hill was left standing and build- ings are already being erected on its slopes. The roads on the reclaimed area are designed on modern lines, the main thoroughfare being 100 feet and others 60 feet in width. Godowns and over a thousand Chinese houses of ferro-con- crete have already been built and were scarcely completed before being occupied, and two sites have been booked for the building of new theatres. Building is likely to continue on the new reclamation for another couple of years. Not the least of the benefits conferred on the Colony by the addition of this new territory, is that it has entailed the filling up of Bowrington creek formerly a most insanitary and unsavoury-if picturesque feature of the east end of the city. There are also extensive Barracks at Kowloon, in which the Indian regiments (and lately a European regiment) re quartered; and a magnificent sanatorium (formerly the Mount Austin Hotel) at the Peak for the European troops. Head-quarter House, the residence of the General in Command of the Troops, occupies a pleasant elevation overlooking the cantonments in Victoria. The Central Market, situated between Queen's Road Central and Des Vœux Road, was opened in 1895, and in 1906 another fine market was opened further west, and is known as the Western Market. The building of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank is large, handsome and massive, and would do credit to any large city. It occupies a fine site next to the City Hall, and has frontages on Queen's Road and Des Voeux Road. The exterior walls and elegant fluted pillars are of dressed granite, and the offices on the Queen's Koad frontage are crowned with a large dome. Opposite the Des Voeux Road entrance to the Bank stands a bronze statue of the late Sir Thomas Jackson, Bart., who from 1876 to 1902 was chief manager of the institution. The statue was unveiled by Governor Sir Matthew Nathan on February 24th, 1906. At the opposite end of the Bank garden, facing the Praya, a memorial has been erected to the 42 members of the Bank's staff who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War. It takes the form of a female figure of "Fame," in bronze,