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470 formation (November 12, 1867) of the Association for securing Parliamentary influence on behalf of the Colony. It was hoped that relief might by this means, rather than by appeals to the Colonial Office, be obtained for the most pressing grievances, under which the community laboured. Mr. A. P. Sinnett acted as secretary for the society until July, 1868. On 23rd December, 1867, a meeting of the Association adopted a Memorial to be presented to the House of Commons. It was a forcible protest against the levy of the Military Contribution. During the following year the influence of the Association was strengthened by the formation in London (April, 1868) of a corresponding Association of former colonists, and the Hongkong Association received some recognition by a Committee of the Legislative Council, consulting the Association in the matter of the Building Ordinance then under discussion. However, the Petition to the House of Commons fell to the ground owing to the inaction of the London branch of the Association. Moreover, the action of the local Association was paralysed for the time (July 8, 1869) by internal dissensions as to the question whether the scope of the Association was confined to local grievances or included the general tenor of British policy in China and Japan. Another semi-political but less aspiring association was that formed by Mr. W. N. Middleton, and supported by other talented local artists (Mr. J. B. Coughtrie and Mr. E. Beart), who humorously but most effectively criticized and caricatured, to the intense amusement of the community, local politics and manners, celebrities and oddities, by means of the China Punchy published at irregular intervals from 28th May, 1867, until 28th May, 1868. In the Public Gardens, where the Parsee community erected a handsome Bandstand, great improvements were made by the new Curator (Ch. Ford) and public interest was enlisted for the time in the management of the Gardens (January 10, 1872) by withdrawing the Gardens and Afforestation Department from the supervision of the Surveyor General and placing it under a representative Advisory Committee. The re-opening of the Seamen's Hospital which Jardine, Matheson & Co.