THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 16TH APRIL, 1870.
upon, the Honorable the Chief Justice reads the following Address to Ilis Excellency:
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As this is probably the last occasion on which I shall have an opportunity of addressing Your Excellency in public, I ask permission to say a few words before the business of this tting is closed, to express the regret we feel that a long and most arduous tropical service has caused a break-down-we hope only a temporary break-down-of your strength, compelling you to seek restoration in quiet in England. We trust that whether in higher office, to which on restored health we may anticipate your elevation, or in a prolonged life of hardly earned and dignified ease at home, you may find renewed enjoyment of life. It has been the misfor- ne of some, at least of one of us, to have differed from the policy of the Executive in some very important particulars. Divergencies in opinion are daily incident to public life, even in England, much more do honest differences, (occasionally expressed in too warm a manner,) necessarily arise here, where there is so much that is to us unprecedented and anomalous. It would be inopportune and improper on this occasion to comment on the policy of the Government, but there is a great merit in an able and vigorous carrying out of a policy, and if we may be permitted to say so, to this great merit Your Excellency's Government is pre- eminently entitled. Guarding myself individually from expressing concurrence in--indeed, having dissented from some of the measures adopted, I am bound to state what I think all will concur in, that on the results-the increased security to life and property, and great decrease of crime to which I have elsewhere referred, the extent of which is confirmed by the Statistics which Your Excellency has this day laid on the table-the materal improvements in roads, in buildings and in water supply and also the increased educational advantages for the Chinese--on the foundation of a Chinese Hospital by Chinamen, helped by the Government, which we have this day established by Ordinance,and on the display by the Chinese of increas ing interest in public affairs, Your Excellency's Government may well be congratulated. The trafic, which having been so designated by one of Her Majesty's Ministers, I individually may be excused for calling the Coolie slave trade, has been watched and regulated with jealous care, ever since your attention was first directed to it. That watchfulness has culminated in the Ordinance No. 4 of 1870, the last, the crowning act, of this day's Legislation, which will render, as we hope, enforced labour of Coolie Einigrants from this colony impossible. A generous liberality on all occasions, especially during the recent Royal Visit, has well sustained the dignity of your high office as the Representative of Her Majesty. We should be wanting in the duc expression of our own sentiments-the sentiments of the whole Community-did I omit to add that Lady MacDonnell Las filed her exaited station with an urbanity of manner, and a kindness of heart, which will leave a grateful remembrance of the gentle courtesies which she has extended to all. No Lady who has presided at Government House, will have left the Colony, more deeply, or more generally regretted, than Lady MacDonnell." Honorable HUGH BOLD GIBB next rises, and on behalf of himself and the Un-official Members of
the Council, says:-.
"I was not aware when entering this Chamber, that the Chief Justice had prepared an address to Your Excellency, or following the same course, I should perhaps have more dis- inctly stated what I wish now to say on behalf of my Non-official colleagues and myself. We dorse most heartily the expressions of good-will towards you that have fallen from the Chief Justice, for although we have sometimes found it our duty to differ from, and oppose the casures that have been brought forward in this Council, we have always felt that Your Excellency has been actuated with an honest desire to promote the well-being of the Colony. Apart, however, from the deliberations that have taken place around this table, having had an pportunity of becoming acquainted with the nature of some of your correspondence with Her Majesty's Government, I cannot help thinking and am glad to have this opportunity of saying so, at this Colony has great reason to be thankful for the manner in which you have guarded its interest. I refer more particularly to the establishment of the Chinese Cruisers and Revenue Stations around this Island, and further the proposed appointment of a Chinese Consul within the City, both matters, in my mind, affecting very seriously the interests of this Colony, and hhough your efforts in preventing their existence have not in the one case been so successful s could be wished, yet we owe you a deep debt of gratitude for your exertions to that end. Again we have more lately to thank you for the able manner in which you have backed up the Memorial by this Community, in reference to the Convention lately made by Sir RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, and the Chinese Government. I trust, Your Excellency, that you are leaving us but fer a short time, and most deeply are we concerned that ill-health should have attacked you the eve of your leaving to avail yourself of your well earned leave. As regards the expressions regard and esteem made by the Chief Justice towards Lady MACDONNELL, we most sincerely encur, and whether to return to this place or in the more genial climate of home, we trust she may enjoy a long and happy life."
Hency, addressing the Chief Justice, Mr. Gibb, and the other gentlemen, said that there were mes when words to express one's feelings did not occur readily; and as he had no notice of Pese friendly intentions until he was just entering the Council roam, he confessed he was
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