Sessional_Paper_1885-1886 — Page 31

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Now and then

The Council has, during the whole of your time here, been a most harmonious one. there have been discussions; perhaps I myself have been the greatest disturber of the peace-but the other members of Council have taken my ebullitions very good naturedly, your Excellency especially. With these remarks, if your Excellency will allow me, I will read the address in reply:--

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY.

We, the Members of the Legislative Council, have listened with great interest to your Excellency's review of the history and progress of public affairs during the term of your administration of this Government. This period, though shorter than a Governor's usual tenure of office, has been marked by events of the greatest interest to the communities in the Far East, and more especially to the com- munity of this Colony. We agree with your Excellency as to the undoubted usefulness of a glance at the past, which is too apt, under the continuous pressure of business, to be forgotten in the absorbing interests of the present.

2. Your Excellency's administration will always be associated in our minds with much personal kindness, consideration, and hospitality, as well as with the memory of a constant and assiduous attention to facilitating the course of public business.

3. We are glad of this opportunity of acknowledging the great services your Excellency has rendered to the cause of good government in this Colony by your successful efforts towards a larger and fairer representation of its community, and a more effective control of our finances. We have lately learned with pleasure the progress made in our greatest public work, the extensive scheme for improving the water-supply of the city. We cannot but regard with satisfaction the rapid and indeed wonderful development of this Colony, both during the past forty years and as it is proceeding at present; and we are happy to think that the day is not far distant when the defences of Hongkong may be considered commensurate with the magnitude of the interests to be protected. We join with your Excellency in the fervent hope that the public works commenced, and the changes inaugurated during your administration will bear ample fruit in the future to the permanent benefit of the Colony.

4. We rejoice that a tedious and desolating war has been brought to a close, and the difficult questions raised by it happily terminated. We congratulate your Excellency on the success with which you maintained the difficult attitude of neutrality during the serious crisis forced on this Colony by conflicting interests of international importance.

5. In cordially reciprocating your Excellency's kind expressions, we can only hope that every administration of the Government of Hongkong will be marked by an observance of the same sound constitutional rules which have invariably guided you, by the same healthful freedom of speech and abundant opportunity for debate, and by the same avoidance of any tendency to infuse private views and individual fancies into the legitimate current of public business.

6. With these words we respectfully bid your Excellency Farewell, hoping that you may long enjoy the rest earned by more than a quarter of a century's service, and that your unequalled experience may be found of service in the Councils of the Empire.

His Excellency replied as follows :—-

I can only say a few words in thanking my Honourable Friend, the Senior Un-official Member, for the extremely kind terms in which he has spoken of me; and I thank the Council for this most gratifying reply to my address. I shall always as long as I live treasure it as one of the most precious heirlooms of my family.

There being no other business on the Order of the Day, the Council adjourned until Wednesday, the 6th proximo, at 4 P.M.

Read and confirmed, this 6th day of January, 1886.

ÁRATHOON SETH,

Clerk of Councils.

W. H. MARSH, Administering the Government.