Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/168

160 be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Mackay Commercial Treaty of 1902, and to that end the Chamber has joined with the Chambers of Shanghai and Tientsin in memorialising the Diplomatic Body at Peking in favour of the currency of China being placed on a uniform basis, and the mints being transferred from independent provincial authorities to the control of the Imperial Government.

The Chamber has interested itself in the improvement of typhoon and storm warnings, and has urged the pressing necessity for a large typhoon refuge for small craft. At the request of the Government the Chamber nominated a member for service on a committee which sat to consider whether earlier warning could not have been given of the great typhoon of September 18, 1906; and on a committee which subsequently went into the whole question of weather forecasts and storm warnings.

Other matters which have been debated by the Chamber are the Sugar Convention, as worked under the Brussels Agreement, and the regulations enforced by the Imperial Merchant Shipping Act, upon British shipowners carrying Asiatic passengers and engaging in the coolie trade, which has always formed a very important section of the trade of Hongkong. This coolie traffic is considered likely to assume still greater proportions in the immediate future, and the Chamber has pointed out to the Government, that the existing regulations are a handicap upon British shipowners, and practically amount to a subsidy to foreign shipping.

It will thus be seen that the Chamber still holds to its old tradition of exercising a careful vigilance over all matters affecting the general welfare of the Colony. The Hon. Mr. E. A. Hewett has been the chairman for the past five years and represents the Chamber in the Legislative Council. Mr. A. G. Wood holds the office of vice-chairman; and the other members of the committee are the Hon. Mr. H. Keswick, Messrs. G. Friesland, D. R. Law, G. H. Medhurst, A. Fuchs, J. R. M. Smith, and H. E. Tomkins; with Mr. E. A. M. Williams as secretary.

principal residence of His Excellency the Governor stands in spacious and well-timbered grounds, just below the Public Gardens, the main entrance being in the Upper Albert Road. The older portion was completed in 1853, and took the place of the temporary accommodation provided soon after the Colony was established. It is substantially built, granite entering largely into the structure. On either side of the entrance hall are offices apportioned to the use of His Excellency's Aide-de-Camp and Private Secretary, a reception hall, large dining and drawing rooms, billiard and smoking room, and comfortable suites of bedrooms. In the dining room, which can seat as many as fifty guests, hangs a picture of George IV., to which a curious interest attaches. The only record which can be found concerning it is dated June 16, 1865, and states that the face and hands were painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and the remainder by his pupils. The picture was formerly the property of the East India Company and was sent out to their factory in Canton in 1827 or 1828. During the troubles at the close of 1840, it was removed to Macao, and eight years later