684754-1880-Meeting-of-Council-of-10th-September-Subjects--Estimates-City-Hall- — Page 17

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11 SEPTEMBER, 1880.

The ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER--Your Excellency, I entirely concur in the remarks of the Honourable the Attorney General, who has expressed himself in a most clear and moderate manner. I have myself taken a great interest in the City Hall, and, whenever I have been so requested, have been glad to assist the purposes of the Institution with a small donation. Consequently I have felt som what interested in the controversy which has taken place between the Government and the gentlemen who represent the Committee, but I had not been able to get much insight into the points of disagree ment until I read the pamphlet which has been spoken of to-day, and with a copy of which w doubtless favoured in consequence of my occasional donation. When I had read through that pamphle I was asked by a friend what I considered the rights of the case. I naturally inquired if that pani- phlet contained all the documents by the light of which the Committee were supposed to come to a decision. On the one hand, I was told these were all the documents submitted to the Committee, and on the other, that some had been omitted.

Under such circumstances I declined to give an opinion until I was able to have the whole case before me, an opportunity which I expected would most probably occur at this Meeting of Council. I can now as sure Your Excellency, as a member of this Council, that after the statement which Your Excellency has just made, and after listening to the reading of the documents which have been laid before the Council, and which I understand were in the hands of the City Hall Commitee, I am of opinion that no sensible man could have come to any other decision than that at which Your Excellency has arrived. I was in the Colony when the grant of the ground on which the City Hall stands was first made by Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL for the purposes of a Public Hall, and although I was not then in a position to take an active part in the arrangements for the erection of the Building, I well remember the great stress which the Governor laid on the public nature of the grant.

I think the Committee are much to be blamed for not accepting the very reasonable compromise offered by the Secretary of State and coincided in by Your Excellency, namely, to throw the Library and Museum open to all nationalities, as an experiment, for a space of six months.

The reason the Committee have offered for not accepting that suggestion is a most absurd one, and cannot for one moment be sustained, namely, that they fear that the indiscriminate opening of the Library and Museum to all classes will probably give rise to a collision between the lower classes of Chinese and the lower classes of Europeans. My experience of the lower class of Chinese is that they are better behaved as sight-seers than the lower class of almost any other nation, and the lower class of Europeans who frequent this Colony are not to be complained of in that respect save when they are. as we sometimes unfortunately see them, under the influence of drink.

But if the Committee carry out their own regulations thoroughly no collision need occur, for in that case drunken and disorderly persons would not be allowed admission into the building, which is only intended for "decently dressed and properly behaved"

persons.

Your Excellency, when the City Hall was first projected, the subscriptions towards its erection were limited to a comparatively few persons, but in course of time, when it was discovered that the building was no longer self-supporting and the Committee found themselves in want of funds for its maintenance, they sent round the hat and collected subscriptions from the general public.

Their appeal was generously responded to. Some became annual subscribers, while others con- tented themselves in making a donation. This money was raised from ali classes of the community. and from all nationalities, and a good deal was subscribed by Chinese.

The building has, therefore, it may be said, passed out of the narrow limits of its original sub- scribers, to whom the Colony is very much indebted for its philanthropic inception, and is now and has been for some time supported by general subscription.

The City Hall is a more Public Institution at the present day than it ever was.

Now as to the allegation of the Committee that the Library and Muscum are as free as Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL ever intended them to be, I can assure them that Chines have made the complaint me, when I have asked them if they have seen the latest novelty added to the Museum, that they have not been able to get in. I have added, “It is a free exhibition," to which has been made the reply. "It was not open for the admission of Chinese when I happened to be there." There are many

CHE nese who only get an occasional holiday, and if when they go to the City Hall they find it close! against them, they naturally consider it a hardship that they cannot obtain admission on the only opportunity which they may be able to obtain for the next six months. The same may be said f Europeans when they come on shore and find the place only open for Chinese. The reason so littl complaint is heard of these restrictive and exclusive regulations was that the Chinese in the Colony. were unaware that this was a public Institution. I hold that in making regulations which at times exclude Europeans and at others exclude Chinese from the Library and Museum, the Committee of the City Hall have violated the terms on which they received the grant for those Institutions, t only on behalf of the Chinese but also on behalf of Europeans.