Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/393

Rh to the Shanghai Baseball Club Tls. 2,000. He further authorised the expenditure of Tls. 6,764·56 for raising, levelling, and fencing the cricket ground. The loan to the Shanghai Club, made for the purpose of completing the building of the club-house, subsequently caused the members of the Club, the trustees of the Recreation Fund, and the shareholders of the Racecourse considerable anxiety. It seems that the trustees of the Recreation Fund eventually found themselves unable to discharge their liabilities to the Race Club. A meeting of the shareholders was held on January 26, 1868, at which it was ascertained that Mr. Dent, acting on behalf of the Recreation Fund Committee, had, on September 1, 1865, acknowledged that the Recreation Fund was indebted to the shareholders of the Racecourse to the extent of Tls. 3,428, plus interest at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum from October 23, 1862, and had promised payment "whenever the Recreation Fund should be placed in funds by the receipt of monies advanced by them to the Shanghai Club." After several schemes had been proposed for placing the Shanghai Club on a firm financial footing and enabling it to repay the sum due to the Recreation Fund, the club building was on December 17, 1869, sold to Mr. Francis A. Groom, on behalf of the Shanghai Recreation Fund, for Tls. 35,000. Under an order of the Supreme Court new trustees of the Recreation Fund were appointed, consisting of the chairman for the time being of the Municipal Council, the manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Messrs. F. B. Johnson, F. A. Groom, David Read, and F. B. Forbes. These trustees were authorised to realise the trust either by purchasing the Club and re-mortgaging it, or otherwise as they might be advised, and, as soon as they had the necessary funds, to repay the shareholders their original subscription of $50 per share, the balance to be devoted to such purposes of recreation as seemed naturally to fall within the original intention of the donors. From that date onwards the fund prospered, the arrears of rent and interest, as well as various debts, were paid to it by the clubs that had leased portions of the Recreation Ground or had received loans, and the committee of the Shanghai Club, after renting the property which they had formerly held, ultimately recovered the lease.

From time to time the Recreation Fund has initiated and supported numerous projects for the entertainment of the foreign residents. The Lyceum Theatre, Yacht Club, Rowing Club, Cricket Club, Baseball Club, Museum, Flower Show, and Public Band have all in turn been indebted to it. In 1894 the trustees agreed to let to the Municipal Council on lease for the purpose of a public park and recreation ground for foreigners only all the land inside the Shanghai Racecourse except that portion occupied by the Shanghai Cricket Club, the Shanghai Recreation Club, the Shanghai Swimming Bath Club, and the inner, or training course. The rent agreed upon was Tls. 600 Shanghai sycee per annum. In 1902 the trustees, acting on behalf of the Municipal Council, secured a large plot of ground, bordered on one side by the railway and on the other by the rifle-range, and made a contribution towards the cost of laying it out as a recreation ground, and in 1905 they made a grant of Tls. 3,000 to the Municipal Council towards the cost of constructing a public swimming bath on the property.

The present financial position of the fund (1908) is exceedingly satisfactory. An income of about Tls. 3,000 per annum is derived from the interest on loans to various clubs and investments in debentures. The assets on December 31, 1907, were Tls. 86,782·50. Of this Tls. 31,000 represents the nominal value of the interior of the Racecourse, the actual value of which, as gauged by the surrounding lands, is nearer Tls. 3,000,000. The changes in the trustees have been very numerous, upwards of forty gentlemen having administered the trust from time to time. The secretaries, on the other hand, have been very few. Mr. F. A. Groom held office for several years down to 1880; on his retirement Mr. George R. Corner succeeded to the position for eighteen years; and upon his death, in 1898, the present secretary, Mr. Crawford D. Kerr, was appointed.

The North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society sprang from the Shanghai Literary and Asiatic Society, which was founded on October 16, 1857. The Rev. E. C. Bridgman, D.D., the first president of the newly formed Society, delivered an inaugural address of great interest, and a paper was also read by Sir F. W. Nicolson, Bart., Captain of H.M.S. Pique, on "Cyclones, or the Law of Storms."

This Society, after communication with the Royal Asiatic Society of London, was soon organised into the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Mr. Alexander Wylie