He is also a member of the Peak, the Germania, and various local sporting; clubs. His chief recreation is racing. He resides at No. 32, Robinson Road.
MR. A. A. H. BOTELHO, who is a well-known merchant of Hongkong and a partner in the firm of Messrs. Barretto & Co., was appointed Consul in the Colony for the Republic of Nicaragua in January, 1905. He is a son of the late Mr. A. A. H. Botelho, for many years a prominent resident in Hongkong, and was married in December, 1905, to Sarah, daughter of Mr. J. A. dos Remedios.
MR. F. D. BARRETTO, Consul for Mexico in Hongkong, Canton, and the Provinces of the two Kwangs and Yunnan, was born in the Colony, and was educated at Queen's College. He is now a partner in the firm of Messrs. Barretto & Co. In 1905 he was elected a life member of the Society of Arts and Manufactures; in 1906, a member of the Japan Society; in the same year was appointed Magistrate for the State of Queensland, Australia; and in 1907, was elected a Fellow of the Geographical Society of Lisbon. His wife is a daughter of Mr. K. Jones, Commercial Agent in the East for the State of Queensland.
DR. A. S. GOMES, the oldest representative of the medical profession in the Colony, is a native of the neighbouring Portuguese Colony of Macao. After receiving his professional training in Bombay, London, and Edinburgh, he commenced practice in Hongkong in 1867. He quickly established a high reputation, and was actively and busily engaged with his professional duties until 1894, in which year he retired. Dr. Gomes has for many years taken a great interest in charitable work in the Colony. He was the donor of the Kowloon Catholic Church, a pretty building facing the harbour at Kowloon. He also established a school and orphanage close to the church, which is superintended by the sisters of the Italian Convent. Here a small number of orphans receive an excellent education, and a considerable amount of assistance in various ways. Dr. Gomes was responsible, too, for starting the Wanchai Hospital for the aged and infirm. As a reward for his many services in these and other directions, Dr. Gomes received from the Pope the Order of St. Gregory. He resides at Gomes Villas, Kowloon.
MR. MARCUS WARRE SLADE, Barrister-at-Law, was born in 1865, and was educated at Clifton and at New College, Oxford. Called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1891, he practised in London for five years before coming to Hongkong early in 1907. He has chambers in Prince's Buildings, Ice House Street, and resides at "Lewknor," Mount Gough. He is a member of the United University, the Hongkong, and the Royal Hongkong Yacht Clubs.
ORIENTAL SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHIES.
MR. LAU CHU PAK, J.P., who is a native of Hongkong and a member of a good old Cantonese family, is, at the present time, one of the most prominent members of the Chinese community in the Colony. He is a thoroughly up-to-date man, well versed in the customs of Western civilisation, and he has done a great deal towards establishing cordial relations between his countrymen and Europeans. On many matters relating to the Chinese and their treatment by foreigners he has very strong views; but he is always moderate and reasonable in expressing them, and this fact has added considerable weight to his utterances at public gatherings in the Colony. Born on June 5, 1867, he was educated at the Government Central School, Hongkong, and, after completing his scholastic course, served for five years in the Imperial Chinese service. He was appointed first clerk to the Hongkong Observatory in 1885, and obtained the position of compradore to the West Point Godown Company in 1888. In the following year he acted as Senior Anglo-Chinese Master of Formosa Government College. Educational questions have always appealed strongly to him, and he has made a special study of those phases of the problem which particularly affect his own countrymen. He is the honorary secretary of the Ellis Kadoorie Chinese School Society, which is doing a great deal of work in China and the Colony. Mr. Lau Chu Pak commenced business as a tea merchant in 1890, but for the last fourteen years, besides being connected with many other local companies and commercial enterprises, he has managed the Chinese department of the firm of Messrs. A. S. Watson & Co. As a public man he has had a very active career. He has rendered valuable aid and long and ungrudging service to many public institutions. In addition to being a Justice of the Peace and a member of the Sanitary Board, he is a member of the directorate of the Tung Wah Hospital; of the committee of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children; of the District Watchmen's committee; of the executive committee of the Tung Wah District Hospitals (since 1897), and of the finance committee of the Alice Memorial Hospital. He was a member of the reception committee on the occasion of the visit of Prince Arthur of Connaught, 1906; a member of the Public Health and Building Ordinance Commission, 1906; of the general and sub-committees of the Typhoon Relief Fund, 1906; and of the reception committee for the Duke of Connaught, 1907. Mr. Lau Chu Pak took a leading part in the establishment of the Plague Hospital for Chinese, the Blake Commemoration Fund, and the Chinese Commercial Union, of which last-named organisation he was chairman in 1906. He married in 1886, and is a grandfather, his eldest son being already established in business in the Colony, where four generations of his family have lived previously. Mr. Lau Chu Pak is a member of The Hongkong Club (Chinese) and resides at "Ardmore," No. 1, Babington Path.
MR. HO KOM TONG, J.P., or Mr. Ho Tai Sang as he is often called, is one of three brothers who all figure prominently in the social, commercial, and public life of the Chinese. He occupies the post of second compradore to Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and controls the immense outdoor Chinese business of the firm. Born in Hongkong in 1866, he received his education at the Central School, now known as Queens College. After completing his studies, he joined Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., serving under his brother, who was then the compradore. In the management of affairs entrusted to him he has always displayed great ability, and has gradually forged his way to the front. He is concerned largely in the cotton and yarn business of the Colony, and also carries on an extensive business in the import and export of sugar. But although he takes so active a share in the commercial life of Hongkong, Mr. Ho Kom Tong is, perhaps, even more widely known on account of his many public services. Whenever a good cause is in need of assistance he is always one of the first to come to its aid. During the Boxer troubles in North China he went to Peking and, at great personal risk, brought away many refugees in steamers specially chartered for the purpose. Again, after the great typhoon which swept over Hongkong in September, 1906, Mr. Ho Kom Tong acted for months on the sub-committee of the Tung Wah Hospital, assisting sufferers in every way possible, and his valuable services in this connection received hearty and official acknowledgment from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The building for the public dispensary at Kau U Fong was a gift from him; and the committees organised for public work, of which he has from time to time been a member, are innumerable. He has assisted in the collection of money for building the Tung Wah Hospital Extension and Infectious Hospital, for supporting the widows and orphans of the soldiers who died in the South African War, and for assisting the families of Japanese soldiers who fell in the war with Russia. In 1901 he was engaged in working on behalf of a fund for forming the Chinese Commercial Union; in 1902 on behalf of the Victoria Memorial Fund; and in 1903 on behalf of the Ellis Kadoorie School Fund, to which his own contribution was the largest. Mr. Ho Kom Tong, in short, has always been extremely successful in soliciting subscriptions to charitable objects. He was the only person who succeeded in obtaining support from the Chinese for the London Tropical School of Medicine. In the case of the Tung Wah Hospital Extension Fund he visited more than two-thirds of the Chinese business houses in the Colony, and, as a result, collected more than half of the total amount subscribed—$110,000. Mr. Ho Kom Tong served on special and
