THE HONGKO † GUVDION MEN I
TE, LITH FEBRUARY, 1880.
140
alary into the Colonial Treasury with never-failing regularity. I would have recommended promotion to Yau-ma-ti, but the villagers were loth to part with him as he has gained
onfidence.
pret to say the Wantsai Anglo-Chinese School was not found equal in the results of the year's other two schools which fully deserved to be classed as very good," but I could cons-
lt as "good.'
In the Aberdeen Anglo-Chinese School, I am sorry to say, the results ination yielded were such that the school could not even be classed as "fair.' The www.an scarcely be blamed, as intermittent fever seriously interfered with his health and nd children, few of whom ventured to remain in school until the close of summer, when her having lost his wife, his brother and two servants within four months through fever, to Hospital, and the school to be closed for six weeks. The school-honse was condemned, the Colonial Surgeon and Surveyor General as unfit for a dwelling place, and rooms in an adjoining house where the school was subsequently re-opened, and no more trouble wn caused on the score of health.
for schools are the only Government Schools, outside the Central School, in which English it. 1879. I have been watching these schools with a view to form an opinion as to results of the optional and compulsory systems. I am not fully prepared to pronounce don at present, but of this I am convinced, both from what I observed in the Central Isis and in these schools in 1879,--that when both English and Chinese are taught side by uits are poor with the best teachers, and that when English is tanght in a school to the o Chinese, or Chinese is taught to the exclusion of English, the results are fairly proportionate ingy of the teacher. In other words, when both the English and Chinese languages are by side in the same class, the children learn neither English properly nor Chinese satis- Learning the Chinese language muere proficiency in reading and writing requires nearly dusive teaching. The children in these schools all speak Chinese without exception; they all horn here and therefore British subjects; their own interests as well as the interests Lem dietate that they should learn English, and they might learn it, one and all, in six well, if their time and strength were not wasted on the bootless attempt to learn the he sutne tine. As the decision of the Secretary of State refers only, as I under- introduction of the optional system into the Central School and not to the outside
ined to recommend that all thes» outside schools he kept open for all who co by he compelled to try and do the impossible, whilst English be taught to those me English, and Chinese to those who wish to learn Chinese, with a view rather to make
language properly than to make them smatterers in two.
come to
eds the purely Chinese Schools, the schools at Sheng-wán, Stanley, and the Girl Selool Plasal as very good," the schools at Há-wán, Tang-lung-chau, Yu-mi-ti and Sai-ring- mer and the retainder as "fair," with the exception of the schools at Mong-kok and Little elich were conducted so badly that, unless speedy improvement takes place, serious men- I regret to bave also to mention that I had to exclude two schools, that of nod slant of Tai-tura-tuk, from the benefit of prizes, because, on two separate occasions, surprise visit to these places lately, I found one school shut up and the other without time when both ought to have been at work.
so llency then distributed the rewards to the teachers, and, after putting the pupils who ing English through a little virâ voce examination in spelling and reading, he 4 the prizes to the boys.
GovERson then said,-1 am glad to have the opportunity of meeting here the representatives fokomment Schools, exclusive of the Central School,-26 masters of those schools being It is salheory to see such a large assembly of school-boys, more than one hundred of on learning English, whilst all, or nearly all, of these boys were born in this Colony, British subjects.
No doubt you are all aware that, apart from the moral effects of bit and character, the high-roud to worldly prosperity, to social rank and position in in the direction of English knowledge. I aja glad, therefore, to be able to say that in Four English Government Schools, outside the Central School, at present existing in the more
re will be opened for English teaching after the Chinese New Year. Furthermore, Hicks-Brach has sanctioned the building of five new schools at a cost of $10,000, and
elso English will be taught.
the Inspector has just said, it is manifest that the Chinese residents of the Colony Apatinis now offered to them by the Government in requiring a knowledge of indeed most satisfactory, as it is clearly desirable to see from year to year an audry dising up in this Colony, Chinese in manners and customs, bat English in to Her Majesty die Qeeen under whose rule you are living here in security and
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