would be given by a system of competitive examinations, similar to that which had been established for the Civil Service of the United Kingdom by Her Majesty's Order in Council of June 4, 1870. To stimulate the study of the Chinese language, Sir John published (February 4, 1881) an extract from an old dispatch by Sir George Grey (April 28, 1855) stating that, as a rule, subject only to very special exceptions, no application for increase of salary in the Civil Service of Hongkong was to be made for any person who had not learnt Chinese. He also published a notification issued (July 2, 1855) by order of Sir J. Bowring to the effect that, in claims for promotion, a knowledge of Chinese would be considered a recommendation. But the Board of Examiners, specially appointed by Sir A. Kennedy, was quietly shelved by Sir J. Pope Hennessy. At first, indeed, he recognized the existence of the Board, by publishing (April 27, 1877) the names of the Members (C. C. Smith, F. Stewart, J. Bussell, E. J. Eitel and A. Lister), but a month later he ignored the existence of the Board by appointing, without apparent reason, for the first of the new competitive examinations (June 2, 1877) a separate Board (Bishop Burdon, C. C. Smith, and Ng Choy), and did so again for the next examination (June 19, 1877) when three examiners (Bishop Burdon, Ch. May, and Ng Choy) were appointed. When the original Board thereupon sent in their resignation (July 18, 1877), it was not accepted, but a separate Board was thenceforth appointed for every competitive examination. The Gardens and Afforestation Department, which in 1872 had been treated as a separate Department, but in 1873 placed under the joint control of the Surveyor General and a Garden Committee, was (February 8, 1877), before Governor Hennessy's arrival, again made a branch of the Survey Department by the dissolution of the Garden Committee. The result was considerable friction, which continued until the management of the Gardens and Plantations was once more constituted a separate Department (March 15, 1879). A report, giving a history of the former dissensions, was published in the Gazette (October 16, 1879)
