1933

HONGKONG
.97,1
already for the reclamation, the base of the hill was left standing and build¬
ings a,re already being erected on its slopes! The road?'on 'ti^e;reclaimed area,
are designed on modern; lines, the main thoroughfare being 100 feet and others
60 ,feet in width. Godowns and over a thousand Chinese ,hou,ses of ferrd-con-
crete have already been built and were scarcely completed before (beipg occupied,
and two sites; have jbeen.bqoked .for thp building of new theatres.. Building is
likely to. continue on the ,pew reclamation, for another couple of . years. Not
the, least,, of the benefits conferred on the Colony by the addition of this’npyr
territory, is that it, has entailed the filling up of Bowrington creek formerly
a,, .most insanitary apd unsavoury—if. picturesque feature of the east end of
the city. There are also extensive Barracks at iKowloon, in which; fhe Indian
regiments (and lately a European regiment) ..re quartered; and a magnificent
sanatorium (formerly the Mount Austin Hotel) at the Peak for the European
tr90.ps. Head-quarter House, the .residence of the General in; Command of
the Troops, occupies a pleasant elevation! overlooking the cantonmenia in
Victoria. The Central Market, situated between Queen’s Road .Central and
Ops Vceux Road, vras opened in 1895, and in 1906 another fine market ■ was
opened further west, and is known as the Western Market. The building of
the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank is large, handsome and massive, and would
do credit to any , large city. It occupies a fine site next to the City Hall, and
has frontages on Queen’s Road and Des Voeux Road. The exterior walls and
elegant fluted pillars are of dressed granite, and the offices oh'the Queerl’s
Road frontage are crowned with a large dome. Opposite the Des Vceux Road
entrance to the Bank stands a, bropze statue .of the late Sir Thomas Japksdn,
Bart., who from 1876 to 1602 was chief manager, of the institution. Tlie statue
was unveiled hy .Governor Sir Matthew Nathan on Eebruary 24th, 1906. At the
opposite end of." thp Bank garden, facing the Praya, a memorial has . been
ereqted to the 42,, members of the Bank’s staff who made the supreme sacrifice
in the Great War. It takes the form of a female figure; of ‘‘Fame,” in bronze,;
8 feet high, holding in her hand a’, wreath, while in front is a smaller statue
of a soldier with kit and rifle. The Memorial was unveiled by H.E. the
Governor (Sir R. E. Stubbs) on.. May 24th, 1923. An extensive reclamation
along the city watef frontage frbm lVest Point to Murray Road, initiated By
Sir C. P. Chater, c.m.g., was completed .in. 190S, the total area i^eclaimed froni
the sea being approximately 65 acres. Of this area 33.73 acres constitute
building land, the remainder being occupied by roads and open spjdee&'. The
total . cost, . including reconstruction of Government piers, was $3,362,325. The
various sections as they were ready were rapidly built upori and some of the
finest buildings in the Colony have %en erected on the reclaimed land. On‘the
eastern section; a handsome building for the Hongkong Club was finished in
1897, arid was occupied in July ofi fhat year. The Pier at the foot of Peddef'
iStreet was .qppped on thp 29th December, 190(>, and named Blake Pier in honour
of Governor Sir Henry Blake. A hundred yards to the East is Queen’s Pier
a handsoipp stoucture now used oh; all official occasions. Further. West is thp
Harbour Master’s Office, a commodious building completed in 1906.
The’chief religious buildings are.: —St. John’s Cathedral (Anglican), which
was erected in the year .1842, oceupies a commanding site above the Parade
Ground, and is a Gothic churchtofi considerable size but with fevy. pretensions
to architecture. It has a. square, towPr,, with pinnacles, over .the western porch,
and possesses a peat of bells. A new chancel was built in 1860-70, the founda¬
tion stone of which was laid by the late Duke of Edinburgh on the lf>th
INovember, 1869. A handsome stained glass window in the east end, over
the altar, to the memory of the late Mr. Douglas lLapraik, another in the
north transept erected in 1892 to the memory of the late (Dr. F. Stewart,
formerly Colonial Secretary, one in the south transept, to the memory of tho^P
who perished in the wreck of th^ P. & O. sir. Bokhara, another.-to the memory
of the Hospital Sisters who died in 1898 while in execution of their duty
during an outbreak of plague-, and the stained clerestory windows of the
chancel, presented by Lady Jackson in 1900, and one to the memory df Bishop