40
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 15TH FEBRUARY, 1868.
4. I have witnessed curious scenes on such occasions. Sometimes the Master will lose his temper at such displays of stupidity, and, taking up the question himself, try in vain to get an answer, even when he has communicated it in a whisper trusting that it may not be audible to me. And yet, some of these boys will repeat, without a single mistake, the "Four Books of Confucius. In one instance, in the Hakka School at West Point, a boy brought up, on the examination day, an armful of books, consisting of the "Shi-king," portions of the "Kú-man," the "Four-Books," the "Odes for Youth," and one or two others, some ten goodly volumes in all. When asked what he did with so many books he said he knew them all. He began with the "Four-Books," and, to my astonishment, went on repeating, as rapidly as lip and tongue could move, for a quarter of an hour when I thought it time to stop him. I believe he could have repeated the whole had there been time to listen to him. But this boy, whose powers of memory were so great, and whose application must have been intense, could not explain one word of all this which he must have so laboriously committed to memory.
5. It is almost impossible to get the Masters to understand that one-tenth of this, fully understood, would be infinitely more valuable to their scholars than such a Body of Chinese ethics which is wholly unintelligible to them. This weary plodding, day after day and year after year, in the sterile region of sound without one glimpse at the knowledge which it contains, produces the inevitable result, as conspicuous sometimes in the Master as in the Scholar,—an incapacity to evolve a single thought or idea beyond what has been handed down, by tradition, for ages.
6. The question is often asked-Why is this state of things allowed to continue, and why are not suitable books translated, and suitable Masters provided to teach them? In a Western country no question could be more natural, and great blame would attach to those who had the power to make the necessary reform without at least attempting it. To those who are unacquainted with Chinese literature and education it is almost impossible to explain why a reform cannot at once be made in Hongkong. I believe that every such attempt will fail until the Chinese as a nation come, by continued intercourse with the West, to have a higher idea of our civilization and institutions. To say nothing of the difficulty-in itself not an inconsiderable one,
of getting the more appropriate lessons of English school books translated into Chinese,—and of training Masters, for that would be indispensable, to teach the schools,--one who knows anything of the people would pause before displacing Confucius by such works as these. Those who have seen the undisguised contempt with which an educated Chinese looks upon an English school book when he is made acquaintedith the nature of its contents will understand what I mean. Ignorant as the villagers are of even their own literature, and unable as they are to give any opinion on education, they have one potent argument in store which would defy contradiction--they would not send one of their children to school. 7. The comparative success of the Central School, where English school books are used, is no argument against what I have stated. I do not believe that one of the two hundred and odd boys in the school comes to be educated, in the proper sense of the word. Their only aim is to obtain such a knowledge of the English language as will enable them to get situations which prove more lucrative than any which they could hope to get without it. I am afraid that, before long, this will receive too disagreeable a confirmation. Complaints are often made by the boys of the difficulty they now have in getting employ- The popularity of the school, therefore, would thus seem to depend very much, if not entirely, on the varying prosperity of the Colony, and not on the nature or amount of real instruction communicated in it.
ment.
8. I have sometimes been asked why the best scholars in the Central School were not trained as Masters for the Village Schools. These, it is said, with suitable school books in their hands, would completely meet the want that is felt, and the the present intractable race of Masters could then be dispensed with. It may appear strange to say that, in the meantime, this is impossible, but such, however, is the case. It would involve the necessity of a separate department in the school, with a separate Master for the work. This, it is evident, would entail a very considerable addition to the present Estimate for Education, with the probability, I might say, the certainty, that the special training thus to be given would, if it were through the medium of English, so familiarize the boys with the language that they would not accept such situations, and, if it were to be done through the medium of Chinese--in itself a difficulty, I need hardly say that scarcely one would be found willing to undergo it.
9. I cannot doubt that the time will come, in the history of the Colony, when the Village Schools will in some such way, be supplied with Masters, and when the villagers will appreciate the education which such Masters would impart; but, for two very obvious reasons, this cannot be accomplished at present. The first is that the boys can get higher salaries elsewhere than Government could afford to pay them. The second is that the Chinese, to say nothing of the estimation in which they hold them as regards character,-
-to which reference will be made hereafter, look upon them, in the meantime, as totally
uneducated and unfit to teach their children.
10. What has just been said, has been said, of course, judging the schools by a European standard. Looking at them, however, from another point of view, as schools, namely, where a Chinese education is given to Chinese children, there are one or two things to which more particular reference may be made. I stated last year why I thought these schools should be continued and encouraged, poor, in our estimation, though the education given in them be. It is painful to see the number of children in the Colony who seem to spend their whole time in the streets, generally at play, frequently at mischief, always watching for opportunities to pilfer, and thus commencing a career of idleness and crime. Could these children be made to attend school, the opportunity at least of doing evil would, so far, be removed. It were much better that they should be con- fined for the greater portion of the day in school, than that they should spend, as it is to be feared many of them do, the best part of their days in prison. Even on this ground, low though it be, the schools, well attended, would be of no mean ad- vantage to the well being of the Colony.
11. If it could be possible to make the Chinese here feel a greater interest in the education of their children, and if they could be induced to send them regularly to school, the work of reformation would be more than begun. It would be much easier than to prevail on them to allow changes to be introduced than it is now when there is nothing but stolid indifference to appeal to. In many cases, the people do not conceal that they consider they are doing Government a favour by sending their children to its schools. It does not seem to occur to them that the advantage is at least mutual. I have had cases where a father has urged as a reason why some request of his should be grunted that he sent his son to the Government school, and was therefore, doubtless, entitled to a favourable hearing.
12. As regards particular schools, I am sorry to find such a falling off at Tang-lung-chau. Two years ago, the attend- ance at this school was upwards of fifty Now it is scarcely twenty. This state of things is not due entirely to the removal of many of the inhabitants from the neighbourhood but to a cause with which it is more difficult to deal. In the early part of last year, it was discovered that the Master was appropriating money which should have been spent in the payment of a Monitor to assist him in school, to the payment of his own servant. The case was a clear one against him and he was dis- missed. A petition, signed by many of the people, was then brought to me praying that the Master might be re-instated because he was a good teacher. The cause of his dismissal was completely ignored. When their request was refused, the scholars were sent to me in a body to ask that he should be allowed to return. No reasoning as to the flagrancy of his fault and his consequent unsuitability for such a trust as that of teaching the young had the slightest effect. They admitted most willingly that his conduct had been bad, but he is a good teacher. Another and undoubtedly the best native Master we have, was sent to the school but one half of the children were withdrawn. Such are the people with whom we have to deal.
13. The most gratifying circumstance connected with the schools is the increasing interest that is now taken in female education. In addition to the Girls' School in Sheng-wan with upwards of forty scholars, there is now another at Bowrington with upwards of seventeen. In several of the others, ciso, there are from two to six girls. To whatever cause