of heroic efforts made by the Royal Engineers under the personal direction of Major-General Jervois to stay the fire, 472 Chinese houses, north of Queen's Road, between the present Fire Brigade Station in the East and the P. & O. Company's godowns in the West, were entirely destroyed and thirty lives lost. Liberal aid was afforded by Governor Bonham in housing the burnt-out people and the crown rents of properties concerned were temporarily abated. The whole district was speedily rebuilt with considerable improvements. A new town sprang up in the place and the most eastern and the most western of the new streets were respectively named Jervois Street and Bonham Strand, the latter being laid out on land newly reclaimed from the sea.
The obituary of this period includes, among others, the names of Dr. and Mrs. James (April, 1848), Rear-Admiral Sir Francis A. Collier, C.B. (October 28, 1849), Captain Troubridge (above mentioned), Macao's famous painter Chinnerey (May 30, 1852), Mrs. J. T. M. Legge (October 17, 1852) and Dr. Gützlaff (August 9, 1854).
A survey of Sir George Bonham's administration clearly marks him out as the first model Governor of Hongkong. The renewed prosperity of the Colony, that set in with his regime, was indeed principally due to a fortunate combination of events quite beyond his control. But whilst it never is in the power of a Governor to create prosperity, he has it in his power to hinder, mar and destroy it. Sir George, when convinced that he might gain for himself the glory of making the Colony for the first time financially self-supporting by an increase of taxation which he knew to be practicable, refrained from forcing his views upon the community in deference to public feeling. He was the first Governor of Hongkong who, basing his action on the programme sketched out by the Parliamentary Committee of 1847, administered the government of this Crown Colony on popularly recognized principles, systematically sacrificing his individual views and his personal advancement to the welfare of the common weal. Both as a diplomatist and as a governor, Sir George was an unqualified success.
