Sessional_Paper_1885-1886 — Page 28

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL No. 10.

WEDNESDAY, 9TH DECEMBER, 1885.

PRESENT:

.HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR

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(SIR GEORGE FERGUSON BOWEN, G.C.M.G.)

His Honour the Chief Justice, (SIR GEORGE PHILLIPPO, Knt.)

The Honourable the Acting Colonial Secretary, (FREDERICK STEWART, LL.D.)

the Attorney General, (EDWARD LOUGHLIN O'Malley.)

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the Colonial Treasurer, (ALFRED LISTER.)

the Surveyor General, (JOHN MACNEILE PRICE.)

PHINEAS RYRIE.

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THOMAS JACKSON.

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FREDERICK DAVID SASSOON.

WONG SHING.

ABSENT:

The Honourable the Colonial Secretary, (WILLIAM HENRY MARSH, C.M.G.), on leave.

WILLIAM KESWICK, on leave.

The Council met pursuant to adjournment.

The Minutes of the last Meeting, held on the 2nd instant, were read and confirmed.

PAPERS.--The Acting Colonial Secretary, by direction of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table the following paper :-

Despatch respecting the submission in future of the Municipal taxation to the Legislative

Council. (No. 8).

BILL ENTITLED THE MUNICIPAL RATES ORDINANCE, 1885.-IN COMMITTEE. The Council resumed consideration, in Committee, of this Bill.

The Honourable P. RYRIE addressed the Council at length on clause 20, pointing out that Quarry Bay should not be rated the same as Victoria.

The Attorney General replied.

Bill reported with some verbal amendments, and the addition of a clause.

The Attorney General moved the suspension of the Standing Orders.

The Acting Colonial Secretary seconded.

Question-put and passed.

On the motion of the Attorney General, seconded by the Acting Colonial Secretary, the Bill was read a third time.

Question put-that this Bill do pass.

Bill passed,

His Excellency the Governor then said :-

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN,-I desire to state that it is highly satisfactory to me that I should have now passed an Ordinance which, for the first time in the history of this Colony, places the entire taxation under the control of this Council.

FAREWELL ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.-His Excellency the Governor was pleased to speak as follows:-

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,

I desire to announce officially to you that I intend to proceed from this Colony to India, on my way to England, on the 19th of this month. As you are already aware, I had obtained leave of absence on medical certificate at the beginning of this year, but I then felt that it was my duty to remain at my post during the protracted crisis of the Franco-Chinese hostilities, and of the threatened war with Russia. Her Majesty's Government have expressed "their high appreciation of the public spirit which led me to this decision." Now that peace has been restored, the permission to return to England has been renewed. After twenty-six years' continuous service as the Representative of the Queen in five Colonies successively, it will be agreed that I have fully earned a period of rest.

2. One of the most eminent of the Governors of Crown Colonies, in bidding farewell to his Council, remarked: "I think it very useful that the last Address of a Governor should be exhaustive; that it should touch on all subjects of public interest; that it should be a standard of comparison by which the progress of the Colony may be measured at different epochs." Accordingly, in pursuance of the custom established elsewhere, I will take advantage of this opportunity to place on record a