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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 20TH NOVEMBER, 1880.

THE HONGKONG IRISH FAMINE RELIEF FUND, 1880.

The following Report of the final meeting of the Hongkong Committee of the Irish Famine Relief Fund is taken from the Hongkong Daily Press.

PRESENTATION OF TESTIMONIALS.

A special meeting of members of the Local Committee which raised the Irish Famine Relief Fund was held on Saturday afternoon (13th November) at Government House, having been summoned by the Honourable P. RYRIE for the express purpose of presenting testimonials to the Honorary Treasurer and the Honorary Secretary of the Committee. The testimonials consisted of two handsome claret jugs of silver, with suitable inscriptions, and had been privately subscribed for by members of the Committee.

The meeting opened by a brief address from Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY, in which he dwelt upon the success of the Hongkong Committee. In a small Colony, he said, with a population of less than 150,000, they had collected £7,359 3s. 4d. sterling, and this sum had been accounted for by remittances to the Duchess of Marlborough of £4,359 3s. 4d.; to Mr. GRAY, M.P., the Lord Mayor of Dublin, of £2,000; and to Mr. KENNEDY, the Mayor of Cork, of £1,000. The expenses connected with providing collection books, messengers, and so forth, as well, of course, as the silver jugs now about to be given to the Honorary Treasurer and Secretary, were privately met by some members of the Committee. Comparing the population of the Colony and the annual revenue with the population and revenue of other Colonies, the proportion contributed by Hongkong is relatively greater than the contributions sent to Ireland from any other Colony. Applying the same test, population and public revenue, the seven thousand pounds sent from this small island constituted a far larger contribution, comparatively speaking, than the thirty-five thousand pounds raised by the Lord Mayor of London or all the generous contributions from the United States. Those were facts on which the Committee and the community of Hongkong may be congratulated. But still more did he congratulate them on the infinitely more important fact that the world-wide movement in which they had taken a little part had been entirely successful. Unlike all preceding calamities of this kind in Europe, India, or China, the loss of the crops in Ireland was so promptly met by benevolent action that not a single death from starvation occurred; distress had not merely been alleviated but a famine prevented. The same energy and business-like capacity that was shown by those entrusted with the administration of the various funds in Ireland was seen here in their popular Treasurer, Mr. JACKSON, and their painstaking Secretary, Mr. STARKEY. His countrymen in the county of Armagh were no doubt grateful to Mr. JACKSON, and they might well be proud of him too, cn knowing the unrivalled position he has won by his ability and character in this great emporium of Eastern commerce. As the Governor of this Colony and as Chairman of the Committee, His Excellency said he had the greatest pleasure in presenting the

testimonial to Mr. JACKSON.

Mr. JACKSON said he gladly accepted the handsome gift presented to him, although he had done no more than his duty, as it would be a memorial in his family testifying to the remarkable generosity and sympathy with which the Hongkong Community responded to the cry of distress from Ireland. Many of his correspondents in Europe had expressed to him their astonishment at the amount of money raised in such a small place as Hongkong. He would therefore be proud of this testimonial, as he was proud to be a member of such a generous community. His own share in the movement had been small, but whatever it was, he could not help pointing out that the final success was, in the first instance, attributable to the manner and spirit in which His Excellency, Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY, had initiated and guided the whole undertaking.

The GOVERNOR then mentioned the assiduity and accuracy displayed throughout the movement by Mr. STARKEY, the Honorary Secretary, and paid a just tribute to his share in the work for which the second testimonial had been subscribed. His Excellency then went on to say that the memorable share taken by the Chinese Community in the subscriptions raised in Hongkong was mainly due to the influence and efforts of the Chairman of the Chinese Sub-Committee, the Honourable NG CHOY. He would venture, he added, to ask him to accept as a slight memento of his benevolent exertions a of JUSTIN MCCARTHY's work, "The History of our own times." His honourable friend, as he knew, had already studied English History in Lincoln's Inn, but the volumes on the table were written by an Irishman and contained an impartial record of the dreadful famine of 1846. Possibly, when further chapters were added some time hence, the historian would not lose sight of the practical sympathy shown for Ireland by the Chinese in 1880.

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The Chief Justice, Sir JOHN SMALE, said that whilst acknowledging that a sum of $39,000 raised on this "dot in the ocean was a sum creditable to the humane sympathies and noble generosity of the Hongkong Community, he thought the fact should not be overlooked that this result, creditable as it was, would not have been achieved had it not been for the action taken in this matter by the Governor, Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY. He would therefore propose, on this occasion, a special yote of thanks to His Excellency.

The Honourable P. RYRIE seconded the proposition, which was put to the vote, unanimously passed, and forthwith suitably acknowledged in a few words by Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY.

His Excellency then invited the Committee to adjourn to the dining-room, where he proposed the health of the popular Treasurer.