Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/816

This page has been validated.
808
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF HONGKONG, SHANGHAI, ETC.

Brigade, was born at Poiares, near Regoa, in the district of Villa Real, Portugal, in 1875. He obtained honours at the University of Coimbra and at the Army School in Lisbon. As a civil and mining engineer he served in several Portuguese colonies, including West Africa, and has been Chief of the Railway section of St. Thomé, Chief of the Survey of the Railway of Malange, and Director of Land Surveys in Angola. He received his present appointment in 1906.

PEDRO NOLASCO DA SILVA.

MR. P. N. DA SILVA.

Mr. Pedro Nolasco da Silva has taken part in a number of progressive educational movements, and has been responsible for initiating several important municipal improvements. He was born at Macao, on May 6, 1842. During his academic course at the Seminary of St. Joseph he won the first prize in Philosophy, and, on the completion of his studies, was appointed Student Interpreter in the Government Chinese Translation Department, of which, subsequently, he rose to be the head. When, later, the department became an independent government office he was responsible for its total re-organisation. In 1887 Mr. Nolasco da Silva was appointed Secretary Interpreter to the Portuguese Minister Plenipotentiary to Peking, Conde de Souza Roza, at present Ambassador in Paris, whose special mission to the Chinese capital resulted in the Portuguese-Chinese Treaty of December 1st of that year, in which China, for the first time, recognised the sovereignty of Portugal over Macao. Always interested in educational matters Mr. Nolasco da Silva has been a teacher of Chinese in the Seminary of St. Joseph, and in the Commercial Institute. He has translated and compiled several school-books, among which is the "Manual da Lingua Sinica para uso dos Joveus Macaenses." He founded the "Associacao Promotora da Instruccao dos Macaenses" (the association for the promotion of the education of Macaenses), which now maintains the English Commercial School conducted by Mr. R. A. Coates, a graduate of Dublin University, and he organised the two central schools of primary instruction for boys and girls respectively. It was due also, to his initiative, that that splendid charitable institution, the Santa Casa da Misericordia, was revived, and, by his organisation of the great "Santa Casa" lottery, placed on a sound financial basis. For several years he was the provedor, or president, of this far-reaching philanthropic enterprise, and his term of office was marked by the erection of the Orphans' Asylum, the introduction of the service for the relief of the poor, and the framing of the present regulations. Mr. Nolasco da Silva's participation in municipal affairs has been no less noteworthy. During his occupancy of the positions of vice-president and president of the Municipal Council or the "Leal Senado" as it is termed locally, a number of important reforms were carried out. The new market and some fine commodious buildings were erected on the site of the old São Domingo market and in the Largo do Senado, where, formerly, only insanitary little houses existed. In other parts of the town several resumptions of insanitary property were also carried out, and the lighting of the public streets by electricity was due almost solely to his efforts. For a time Mr. Nolasco da Silva was editor of the Echo do Povo, a Portuguese weekly paper published in Hongkong, and he was also the principal contributor to the weekly papers, O Macaense and the Echo Macaense, published at Macao. He is a member of the Conselho Inspector da Instruccao Publica, and has been several times a member of the Conselho de Provincia. About twenty-five years ago, in recognition of his many services, he was created by the Portuguese Government Cavalleiro da ordem de Nosso Senhor Jesus Christo.

MR. F. X. PEREIRA.

FRANCISCO XAVIER PEREIRA,
President of the Leal Senado.

Mr. Francisco Xavier Pereira has the distinction of being the youngest president of the Leal Senado ever appointed. He was elected to the position in 1907, and his term of office will not expire until 1909. Born at Macao in 1883, he was educated at the Macao Lyceum and at Coimbra University. After being admitted as a barrister, he returned to Macao, in 1905, to practise law.

MR. A. J. BASTO.

Mr. A. J. Basto, who has been elected many times as president of the Leal Senado, has practised as a lawyer in Macao for thirty-eight years. Born in Macao in 1848, he travelled a great deal during his younger days, visiting Shanghai many times, India, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, England, and different parts of Africa. He is a Commander of the Portuguese Order of Christ, the Order of the Pope, the Rising Sun of Japan, the Crown of Siam, and the Redemption of the Republic of Liberia; a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, and a Knight of various other orders. Mr. Basto is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England, a member of the Royal Geographical Society of Lisbon, and of other scientific societies of Europe, and was the secretary of a Diplomatic Mission from Portugal to Japan and Bangkok.

LOURENÇO PEREIRA MARQUES, M.D.

DR. L. P. MARQUES.

Dr. Lourenço Pereira Marques, son of the late Commander Lourenço Marques, was born in Macao, in the famous garden of Camoens, which belonged to his family. Educated at the Royal College of St. José, Macao, and at Lisbon and Dublin, he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of Lisbon. He is the author of essays on various subjects, and has written several articles descriptive of his travels. He is a Commander of the Portuguese Military Order of Christ, and a Knight of the Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Tower and Sword, the latter decoration being awarded him in recognition of assistance rendered during the plague epidemics. Dr. Marques frequently gives poor patients the benefit of his medical experience without payment. He has a large circle of friends, and is a highly esteemed member of the local community.

MR. L. A. L. REMEDIOS.

Mr. Luiz Augusto Lopes Remedios, the Postmaster-General of Macao, was born in the Colony in 1874, and was educated at Macao and Singapore. At the age of nineteen he joined the China Trades' Insurance