DJUNAREN I
AZALTEN,
TEMBER, 1880.
703
proval. Well, the Committee met. The gentlemen who were not British subjects managed again a small majority-to exclude a number of British subjects from the Museum. I intimated at once that the rules did not mest my approval; nevertheless I kept the vote on the Estimates for 1880, and rections were given to the Colonial Treasurer to pay the money in accordance with Sir RicHAND MACDONNELL'S minutes and in accordance with the counsel of my law adviser, that is, to the trusted. Therefore I did my duty. The question now arises, whether we are to pay the ratepayers' money to these gentlemen who have no legal position whatever as far as the City Hall is concerned, who are lating every engagement they have made to the Government, but above all, who are endeavouring At this time, in the nineteenth century, to retain in Hongkong the last little remnant of intolerance in the shape of their notice. There is no other notice in this Colony in which a distinction is made ween Chinese and Europeans except that notice in the City Hall Museum; and, forsooth, it is to be kept up there, and the public money to be paid to gentlemen who, by a narrow majority, still retain that foolish and intolerant notice. I need not say it cannot be done. I am not surprised that my Lonourable friend, when he made his interesting statement, as to what was omitted in the Estimates for Issi, avoided all reference to this subject in my presence. I have now given all the facts of the case. papers from which I quoted are upon the table. My honourable friend had an opportunity long ince of perusing them. He knew the case thoroughly. But for the first time, now, the essential facts for the right understanding of the question have been laid before the public.
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Honourable W. KESWICK-Your Excellency, I am not prepared, not having expected this attack, nor would I think it desirable, to occupy the time of the Council, to go through in detail all have said, but as you have declared that that report does not contain all the facts, so do I, as ampliatically as words can express it, declare my conviction that the statements you have made are zot borne out by facts, that these papers that are put on the table as representing what was the understanding between Governor Sir RICHARD MCDONNELL and the trustees or those who got up the City Hall, do not bear out the construction you put upon them, and that the conditions have not Leen violated. There is no distinction in the way of the exclusion of Chinese from the City Hall; they are as free to visit the Museum within certain hours as any other nationality. The English are excluded during a certain time, and for reasons clear and well defined, and the rules are supported by those whose opinion we have good reason to respect, and these rules are said to be in accordance with the requirements of the community, both Chinese and Europeans. As regards the title-deed of the property, it is a pure and simple ordinary title-deed such as is granted in similar ordinary cases. contains no more conditions necessary for the opening of the Museuta and the terms on which it should be kept open than does any book of ancient Sanscrit. And I would state with regard to these papers, when before the Associated Commiter--they were before that Committee-that the Committee duly considered and attached to them such weight as they thought the minutes referred to by Your Excellency deserved. They gave them due weight, and the result was an alteration in the rules such as no sensible practical man can for a moment doubt is in accordance with the best means of making that institution useful. There is no exclusion of the Chinese in the sense of exclusion. There is a regulation for making the institution useful. As to the Library, there is no inducement for the Chinese to flock to it as they do to the Museum, and regulations were necessary in the case of the latter, but those regulations do not exclude anyone. I deny in toto the charge that there has been any sup- pression of facts; none whatever has taken place. The truth as regards the City Hall is stated in the rrespondence, and Your Excellency's views are printed, as given by Your Excellency, and very little comment is made. It is for this community to judge between Your Excellency and the City Hall Committee, and the community does. I can conceive of nothing more likely to stir up a feeling f strife between races than the course Your Excellency has pursued. Previously to Your Excellency's arrival no such feeling existed, and I doubt now if these efforts to stir up such a feeling will be successful.
Honourable P. RYRIE said his convictions had all along been that Chinese should be freely almitted and that there should be no distinction, no restriction. When His Excellency's letter was rst placed before the Committee he urged them to get every statistic and every document that could had concerning the City Hall, from its commencement, and before any discussion took place or any etter was written, to have all these papers before them. He also strongly urged on them that they hould secure statistics of the 'number of visitors to the Museum for the first few years of its opening,
, up to 1870 or 1871. That had not been done, so far as he knew. He might detail at the
present int his recollection of what was done when the Museum was set on foot, so far as he knew the thers. He could only, as he was absent for a time, detail what took place before 1868 and after 1869. is recollection was distinctly to the effect that the Museum was principally for the Chinese, that it was to enlarge the minds of the Chinese ou natural, scientific and various other matters. As years pass by one's memory becomes weakened for details, bent that was his general recollection of what urred; when the Library and Museum were opened, that was the general impression left on his l. There was one statement in the Committee's letter which he took objećtion to, at the time, The Committee said that these rooms would, in all probability, in the event of the grant being with drawn, revert to their original use as part of the entertaining rooms of the building. If the Committee zeferred to the document, they would find that these rooms in which the Museum was were never
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