A. Dalgarno, of the Ordnance Store Department (September 14, 1876).
When the time came for Sir A. Kennedy's departure, enthusiastically laudatory addresses were presented to him by the Protestant Missionaries, by the Members of Council, and by the Chinese residents. The whole community testified to the regard in which they held their Governor by a public dinner given (February 27, 1877) in his honour at the City Hall. Sir Arthur started from Hongkong (March 1, 1877) to take up the Governorship of Queensland, leaving behind a kindly message to the Police Force and a farewell address to the whole community, published in the Gazette. When the news of his death (June 3, 1883), on board the mail-steamer in the Red Sea, reached the Colony, a public meeting resolved (July 14, 1883) to erect in his memory the statue which now decorates the Public Gardens. Sir A. Kennedy indeed was in the estimation of the Colony one of those few men who deserve a statue because they do not need one. It was acknowledged that he had not done much, but he had made himself pleasant to all and his memory was cherished by the Colonists who looked upon him as the Governor 'who ruled them always with their own consent.'
