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Christians or Eurasians. He expressed the opinion that such groups had given up their heritage; he himself was an ardent Confucian and promoted the building of the Confucian Hall in Sookunpoo. He sarcastically added that “as people had already been admitted into the European paradise on earth, he thought it was scarcely fair to debar them from using the passage to the European paradise in heaven”. (The Weekly Press, 17 April 1909)
The Hong Kong Telegraph took up the cause; Lau Chu-pak was one of its owners. Following the April meeting of the Sanitary Board in which Mr. Lau had expressed the opinions given above, it ran an editorial entitled “More Class Legislation in Hongkong”. The editorial linked the cemetery question with what the paper regarded as a growing movement towards the enactment of class legislation. "The fact of the matter is that this sort of petty municipal legislation is all of a piece with the policy of the Government in reserving special lands for the bon ton of the Colony. First, they decreed that in life the Chinese should not live in the vicinity of the Peak, and now in death the Chinese are not deemed fitting occupants of lairs in the public cemetery.” The editor asked for consideration for the Chinese who were seeking a better deal for their dead: “Fancy the outcry there would be among the elite if the remains of the deceased predecessors were subjected to removal at the whim and caprice of some insignificant official in a Government Department. That in itself should constitute a plea for the Chinese that they have a right of interment in the Colonial Cemetery." Indeed, “the Colonial or Protestant, or whatever fancy name anybody might wish to call it, the public cemetery of Hong Kong is maintained out of the rates and taxes provided by the residents in the Colony. It is no more a private institution than the public gardens. No sect or body has a right to say that it has any particular claim on the domain; as far as we can make out, all have an equal right to interment”.
The Christian Cemetery Ordinance of 1909
The Government decided to draft legislation which would create separate sections in the cemetery where only those
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Christians or Eurasians. He expressed the opinion that such groups had given up their heritage he himself was an ardent Confucian and promoted the building of the Confucian Hall in Sookunpoo. He sarcastically added that “as people had already been admitted into the European paradise on earth, he thought it was scarcely fair to debar them from using the passage to the European paradise in heaven". (The Weekly Press, 17 April 1909)
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The Hong Kong Telegraph took up the cause Lau Chu-pak was one of its owners. Following the April meeting of the Sanitary Board in which Mr. Lau had expressed the opinions given above, it ran an editorial entitled “More Class Legislation in Hongkong”. The editorial linked the cemetery question with what the paper regarded as growing movement towards the enactment of class legislation. "The fact of the matter is that this sort of petty municipal legislation is all of a piece with the policy of the Government in reserving special lands for the bon ton of the Colony. First, they decreed that in life the Chinese should not live in the vicinity of the Peak and now in death the Chinese are not deemed fitting occupants of lairs in the public cemetery.” The editor asked for consideration for the Chinese who were seeking a better deal for their dead: “Fancy the outcry there would be among the elite if the remains of the deceased of their predecessors were subjected to removal at the whim and caprice of some insignificant official in a Government Department. That in itself should constitute a plea for the Chinese that they have a right of interment in the Colonial Cemetery." Indeed, “the Colonial or Protestant or whatever fancy name anybody might wish to call it the public cemetery of Hong Kong is maintained out of the rates and taxes provided by the residents in the Colony. It is no more a private institution than the public gardens. No sect or body has a right to say that it has any particular claim on the domain, as far as we can make out, all have an equal right to interment”.
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The Christian Cemetery Ordinance of 1909
The Government decided to draft legislation which would create separate sections in the cemetery where only those
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