Ho
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community, for whom the Hon Dr Kai noted as spokesman; and the next address was from the the Masonic Lodges in Hongkong, which was presented by the Hon. C. P. Chater, the Right Worshipful District Grand Master, who was accompanied by the members of the Grand Lodge and the Masters and Wardens of the Private Lodges in regalia. The addresses were punctuated with warm applause by those present, and on receiving each one His Excellency the Governor, on behalf of Her Majesty, heartily thanked the givers and expressed his inten. tion of forwarding the addresses to the Queen. Just as the mid-day gun was fired the interesting proceedings terminated and everyone went on to the verandahs to watch the firing of a Royal Salute of sixty guns from the men-of-war in the harbour. Rain was falling in torrents and the prospect of a fine afternoon was most dismal indeed. The following are the speeches delivered at the pre- sentation of the Addresses. .
THE ADDRESS FROM THE COLONY,
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
pervade this colony; is the wish of us all, and in those eventualities it is not too much to hope that as the years roll on Hongkong will yet more and more gather all that is worth possess ing in the higher and better sense and reflect a brighter lustre, if only as one of the lesser lights, in the diadem of England's Queen. (Applause.) I will now, with your permission, read the address to Her Majesty from the Colony :—
To
HEE MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY VICTORIA, OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, QUEEN, EMPRESS OF INDIA. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY
The undersigned, Residents of Hongkong, of all races and of all classes; subjects of Foreign States dwelling in this Colony as well as the subjects of Your Majesty, desire most respect- fully to tender to Your Majesty on this the sixtieth anniversary of your accession to the Throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland their heartfelt congratula- tion and good wishes, and they pray that Your Majesty may long continue in health and happiness to reign over the vast empire that, under Your Majesty's guidance and care, has during the last sixty years grown so exceedingly great in size, in population, and in wealth.
[July 1, 1897.
to fly over it till the end of time. (Applause.) I am proud to think, Sir, that at this great com- memoration, this great celebration of an event which has never occurred in the long line of England's monarchs, I have the honour to represent in this colony our most gracious and much beloved Queen. (Loud applause.)
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THE CHINESE TABLET. Hon. Dr. Ho KAI, who was accompanied by a number of the leading Chinese residents, then stepped forward and said-May it please Your Excellency, on behalf of the Chinese com- munity of this colony, and at their special request, I have the distinguished honour of presenting to your Excellency, for your gracious acceptance, a Chinese tablet in token of the profound respect and great admira- tion the Chinese here resident entertain for Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, and for yourself, Sir, who, have represented her so worthily here in this colony for the past six years. (Applause.) For över half a century the Chinese in Hongkong have Hon. C. P. CHATER-Your Excellency, upon
enjoyed the fruits of strong, righteous, and me, as Chairman elected by the Hongkong Jubilee
benevolent government, and in the prosperity Committee, which was nominated by you, on
of this port they have shared largely. Under behalf of the community, to supervise the com-
the British flag they have found perfect pro tection and liberty and from the Government memoration here of the glorious and august event which Her Majesty's subjects are every Hongkong as a British Colony has known no they have received equal justice and con- where celebrating to-day, the happy fortune other Sovereign than Your Majesty. It was sideration. (Applause.) They feel, therefore, has fallen of tendering to you, as representing added to your empire before Your Majesty had that they owe their happiness and well-being in large measure to the wise rule of a the Sovereign of Great Britain, the address been many years upon the throne. It was then which, emanating alike from the loyalty of
a barren island, to-day it is the site of a pros. mighty and virtuous Sovereign, and to the Her subjects here and the deep reverence of perous city, by your gracious permission liberal and just administration of those of ber officers who have represented her abroad those who claim other nationalities in Hong-called after Your Majesty; it is a fortress, a kong, it is my high privilege to beg of you to naval station, and by no means the least im—(applause)—and for all the blessings they accept and forward to England. The address, portant of the great trading centres in Your have received the Chinese are truly and which I shall ask you to allow me to read, Majesty's dominions. For its prosperity and deeply grateful-firstly, to Her Majesty the speaks for itself, and wants no words of mine progress it is indebted to the healthy opera- Queen and secondly, to your Excellency and to assure Her Majesty of the heartfelt congrata- tion of that freedom of commerce which dis- your predecessors, and they are now desirous of lations of its signatories, or to emphasize the tinguishes Your Majesty's Government from showing their gratitude in taking a prominent earnest and kindly wishes of all who reside all the Governments of the world and to the part in the general rejoicing throughout the here, secured as they are in their rights and constant observance by Your Representatives realm, and more particularly by presenting the tablet here to-day. I will ask your Excellency liberties by our laws, and by the wise legislation of those constitutional principles by which
to be so good as to accept this tablet and have of the Empire in whose list of Colonies our own Your Majesty has always been guided in your
it hung up in the Government House as a name is enrolled, and nothing that I can say can administration of the empire. add to the sentiments or more deeply impress
lasting memorial of the loyalty and gratitude of the respectful feelings which are to be gathered
the Chinese residents of this colony-(applause) from the scroll itself. Yet would I desire on
as manifested during the celebration of the this occasion, an occasion never before ex-
completion of the sixty years of Her Majesty's perienced in the long line of England's mon-
Record Reign. With your permission, Sir, archs, to briefly allude to the lowlier status of
I will read a translation of the Chinese this Island when first it came under the pro-
characters that are engraved upon this tablet. tection of the British Crown. I would point
It is as follows--" The Chinese community of out, Sir, how from an insignificant off-shoot of
Hongkong humbly and respecfully present its parent stem with a constitution undeveloped
their congratulations to Her Most Gracious and untried, it has, for more than half a century
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland on the completion of the sixtieth year won its way through good and evil report,
wish His and blossomed into the sturdy plant over which The deep reverence in which Your Majesty of Her Glorious reign, and they also you rule to-day. (Applause). From a colony is held by your faithful subjects is shared by Excellency the Governor, Sir William Robinson, with crude ideas and unknown capabilities, with all the residents of Hongkong of other nation- great joy and happiness. May ten thousand tentative laws and obscure position and respon- alities. Your virtues, your sorrows, your devo- years of continued happiness be thine.” sibilities, it has threshed its course through all tion to duty, and the great example of your life doubts and difficulties, through sunshine and are before the world and have won for Your through storm, till it has gained the place Majesty the widest recognition and the most which it at present holds in the Colonial history profound respect. The Chinese who within of Great Britain. (Applause.) From a rockbound Your Majesty's Colony of Hongkong find peace, and desolate isle, Hongkong has passed through order, and good government specially desire to its childhood and grown to man's estate. Sir, express their most respectful concurrence in all no one who dispassionately reviews the past the congratulations and in all the professions and seeks to learn the reasons of the advance of admiration with which Your Majesty is which Hongkong has made, no one who looks greeted on this auspicious occasion from all back over the last fifty years with an unbiassedquarters of your world wide dominions. mind and endeavours to find the grounds for our progress, can fail to meet with an answer to his question or doubt what that answer must be. Rights of person and property equal and open to all, whether British-born subjects or not, the beneficial enactments from time to time of the English Parliament and of our local statutes, a sense of security engendered by the presence in the East of a powerful and increasing British fleet, the cantonment here of an Imperial gar- rison, which is, as we understand, to be yet fur- ther augmented, surely these things, with others which could be readily suggested, bring home with irresistible force to even the most unobserv. ant, the fact, the indisputable fact, that the position which this colony has acquired in the entities of the world, and which entitles it to be considered and recognised in even international questions, is due in the main to the flag that flies above us and tells us that we are entitled to its protection and its privileges. (Ap- plause.) That that protection may long continue, that those privileges may long dominate and
now,
A
Your Majesty's subjects resident in Hong. kong yield to none in their devotion and loyalty to Your Majesty's person and throne. in their admiration for the many noble qualities that have enabled you to support for so many years the great burden of the Empire, and in their love for the woman and the Queen whose virtues have adorned the palace and sustained the throne and whose sympathy with sorrow and suffering has been extended to all alike, rich and poor, native and foreign, without distinction of race. of creed,
His EXCELLENCY→Mr. Chairman and Gentle- men of Her Majesty's Jubilee Committee, as the Representative of Her Majesty in this colony, I have the honour to accept the address which you have just read to me. It will give me the greatest satisfaction to forward the document to the Queen, and I am sure that Her Majesty will receive it most graciously, Of the loyalty of Her Majesty's subjects here, and of the loyalty of members of other nation- alities to Her Majesty, there can be no doubt. As you have inferred, Sir,, Hongkong presents a unique object lesson to the traveller. In sixty years, more or less, Victoria has, from a small fishing village, grown into a city which in some parts might be termed palatial. As I have said elsewhere, it appears to me that the only limit to the still increasing prosperity of Hongkong is the limited area of the colony itself. Ithas flourished exceedingly under Her Majesty's benign reign for upwards of half-a-century, and the British flag whose protection and privilege its inhabitants have enjoyed will continue
OF
His EXCELLENCY-Dr. Ho Kai and gentle. men, it was only last night I knew that this tablet was to be presented to me. I have, therefore, had no opportunity of knowing what the substance of Dr. Ho Kai's speech would be, and, have had no opportunity of preparing anything like an appropriate reply; but I need hardly assure you I accept this tablet on behalf of Her Majesty most graciously, and I can also assure you that I have been very much struck with the noble manner in which the Chinese have come forward on this great occasion to commemorate the sixtieth year Her Majesty's reign. (Applause.) So struck have I been that I have telegraphed to the Secretary of State, and I have not the least doubt that he has informed Her Majesty this very morning that the Chinese in this colony, who have been so happy and have been treated with justice I think Dr. Ho Kai has said by myself and by Her Majesty this morning Her Majesty will know that the large sum of $35,000 has been subscribed by the Chinese with the view to celebrate this record reign of Her Ma- jesty... (Applause.) I shall hang this tablet up in Government House as you request, Sir, with much pleasure, and I hope my successors will be as well treated as I have been by the Chinese, and that their period of service may be as happy mine has been during these six long years. (Applause.) *
as
THE MASONIC ADDRESS. Hon. C. P. CHATER, District Grand Master, now came forward in company with members of
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