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2 SIR HERCULES ROBINSON 1862一 1866 It was not only territorially that Victoria increased its stature as it came of age. Sir Hercules Robinson,energeticand far-sighted, completed his first term in 0伍ce. As the first Governor to be relieved of the concurrent post of Superintendent of Trade he had been able to concentrate his entire ener穹y and talent on the young colony. The result was that the face and character of the place underwent a transformation. The ci吧， had been given its first piped water supply collected in the new reservoir at Pokfulam. For street-lighting, oil had been discal ded for the latest thing in gas lamps. A volunteer corps had been started. The Peak had been prospected for residential llUrposes. A Chamber of Commerce had been formed. Gold had been abandoncd as currency and a mint was in course of erection to turn out much-needed silver dollars. Finance was entrusted to a represent.1tive body of the leading merchants who were later to incorporate themselves under the title Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Public education had, on the advice of Dr James Legge, been placed on a broad foundation. A system of cadetships, open by competitive examination to young Eng1ishmen, was designed to soften the impact and lubricate the wear and tear of intercourse between East and West. The legal hierarchy had been strengthened by the substitution of a Judge of the Court 0 1' 前ummary Jurisdiction and two Po1ice Magistrates for the old posts of Chief, and Assistant, Magistrate. For the regular civil seryice the coming-of-age was fittingly ushered in by the introduction of a Pensions Ordinance (No. 10 of 1862). Moreover, Sir Hercules' personality, seconded by the genia! rays of returning prosperity,- had contrived to smooth out many of the acerbities of intercourse, social ，md 。但cial， which had so seriously marred the previous regime. Of the prosperity there can be no question. Never before had such fortunes been made on the Chil1.a coast and perhaps never since, for this was Hong Kong's Goldcn Age. Various causes contributed to make it so. Between 1859 and 1861 Canton, city of shopkeepers, had, under foreign administra- r862-I866 II tors, been for once free to indulge a natural keenness for busmess. In 1860 and 1861 Hong Kong had provided the base for a large expeditionary force; this had put money into local pockets, both English and Cantonese. In 1860 Lord Elgin, following in the wake ()f Commander Perry of the United States, had obtained overnight a treaty of commerce with the Tycoon1 and a substantial trade had soon started up with the then exclusive and mysterious islands of Japan. In 1862, in the confusion of the American Civil W缸， the world had turned to China for its cotton. In 1862 also, de Lesseps had formally opened the Suez Canal and, though seven more years would pass beforc the first merchant-ship could go through, it required little imagination to sec the important e缸ect which it was destined to have on trade in Hon厚 Kong. In 1863, with the help of ‘Chinese Gordon',2 the Imperial forccs wcrc at last able to crush the T'ai P'ing rebellion; thus, after a decade of confusion, Chinese merchants could turn their thoughts again to ordinary trade. But the trickle of emigration which the confusion had started,so far from drying up when peace was restored, contmued to grow and find fresh channels; Hong Kong, m common with Macao, the neighbouring Portllguese province, and the Treaty Ports, proceeded to establish itself as a port of embarkation for the tra伍c and in due course became the clearing-house for remittances passing in the opposite direction. Appropriately enough we find during these years scveral of the more prosperous citizens presenting the city of Victoria with a variety of expcnsive gifts. In 1863 a wealthy busincssman, Douglas Lapraik, on the eve of his rctirement, made himself responsible for a clock tower, one hllndred and twenty feet in height, which stood at the junction of Queen's Road and Pedder Street. The firm of Jardine Matheson stood out for something useful and, besides a princely donation towards a City Hall, headed the list of subscribers to a Sailors' Home at West Point which opened its doors in 1864. Also in 1864,another firm, Dent's, leaning to the purely ornamental, gave a fountain raised on the backs of four lions which stood in the open triangle...

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