THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24TH MARCII, 1866.
139
This subject has several times been brought to my notics by Chinese, but I know of no present remedy for it. It has teen suggested that the three Chinese masters should rent large houses in the neighbourhood of the School, boarding the boys, intending their lessons in the evening, and, in other ways, supplying the want of parental control. I have no faith in a plan. The masters, for reasons which I need not specify, would prove more difficult to manage than the boys; and, ach houses would be under my control, I should, by adopting the plan, take upon myself a responsibility for that which ould be morally impossible for me to perform.
On one point I must be candid. Formerly, the reading of the Bible in Chinese formed part of the School routine. ing the past year this practice has been departed from. The Chinese masters in the School are not qualified to teach it, object to reading it with the boys in English, reducing it, as I should thereby be doing, to the level of an ordinary -book. One of the masters is a professing Christian and might conscientiously perform the duty. Another has lately ca excluded from the congregation of which he was a member. The third is not a Christian. It was the conduct of the nd that determined me, in the meantime, to discontinue the daily lesson. I discovered that he had been in the habit drawing comparisons between the Bible and the writings of the Chinese sages by no means favourable to the former. hether this was done from conviction or from perversity I cannot say. It was, however, a sufficient reason for taking the tower of future mischief out of his hands. Under these circunstances I cannot, for the present, give that prominence to the
ling of the Scriptures by which, as a School in a Christian Colony, it ought, perhaps, to be characterized.
It affords some grounds for satisfaction that the School is rapidly growing in favour with the Chinese. The employment of another European Master thoroughly trained for his duties, the fact of one of the Chinese masters having taken what cor- ponds to our Bachelor's degree, and the raised standard in Chinese studies, may be enumerated as the chief causes which Lave tended to produce this result.
I should be glad to find a greater interest taken in the School by Europeans also. If some of the more wealthy residents among us would give a prize, or something in the shape of a small scholarship, to enable a poor but deserving boy to prolong 1.s attendance, I think I could guarantee that the money would not be misapplied.
I now come to that part of my Report which refers to the Village Schools,
It will be seen, on reference to the Tabular statements appended, that although we have not again reached the number of scholars given for 1802,-the first year of my connexion with the Schools, the numbers enrolled last year are greater than for the two preceding oues.
The comparatively large number in 1862 was due to various causes; in the first place, to the anomalous state of the Central School, where 258 were enrolled at the commencement; and, in the second, to my ignorance of a system of deception practised the masters in the case of their School-rolls.If no other advantage has been gained by monthly inspection this result, at least, has been attained that the School-rolls can now be relied ou.
Nothing puzzled me more in the course of my earlier visits to the Schools than the peculiar circumstance that the number I actually found in School was always so small when compared with the number marked as present during the previous days of the month. Excuses were, of course, never wanting to show that there were sufficient reasons for the thin attendance on that particular day.
On
I began to suspect that the rolls were not marked until the masters were sure that it was too late in the day for my arrival, and then they were filled up, I have no hesitation in saying, with greater regard to appearance than to truth. oze occasion I found a large attendance given when the muster was absent two days on leave. When this was pointed out to him he answered, without any compunction, that the boys came to watch the School till he should return. Such a state of things was only counteracted when the masters became aware that, in the monthly reports to the Board of Education, I gave only the number-in several cases nothing--which I happened to find present on the days of inspection.
If from 424-the average attendance during 1562-we subtract 200, the average attendance at the Central School; and if from 209-the minimum attendance for the year-we take 150, the minimum attendance at the Central School; the cumbers remaining, when divided among sixteen Schools, showed no great appreciation of the advantages of free education on the part of the villagers of Hongkong, and completely justified the action of the Board of Education in suppressing five of the worst of the Schools.
Since that time, without any great accession to the number enrolled, the regular attendance, calculated always from the umbers actually found present, has been sensibly increasing. If we apply the same rule to 1865 which has just been done to 1862 it will be found that the averages amount to 30, as the maximum attendance for each School, in the one case, and 14, as the minimum, in the other.
But this, even in a thinly populated district, which is not the case with Hongkong, is not the attendance one is entitled expect, since the Schools are free to all who choose to go to learn, It prevents me from recommending the re-opening of any of the five Schools which were discontinued in 1862. The Chinese are evidently quite callous to the best interests of their children, and under no circumstances can Governinent afford to offer advantages which are not availed of.
Of the Schools now under consideration the Panti one at Tang-lung-chau occupies, as it has always done, the first place, if not this year in numbers, in efficiency. With all the disadvantages under which it has laboured during the two last years from the removal of the houses in that neighbourhood—nothing being left but a part of Jardine's Bazaar-the master has been able to secure a very good attendance. I was particularly pleased, at the late examination of his School, not only with the number of books his boys had read but with the accuracy with which they had been learnt.
Great attention is paid at this School to the explanation of the books. Most of the boys, except those in the lowest classes, understood what they had committed to memory. The children too are, considering the circumstances of their parents, remarkably clean and tidy, and one has only to look at their intelligent countenances, contrasting them with the derent state of things in some of the other Schools, to obtain a proof of the superior character of the instruction and discipline. Here, as at West Point, a new and commodious School-rooin was opened last year, and this has also added its part to the favourable state of the School. Although a much greater attendance was expected when the Board of Education approved of the erection of a School-house here I have already explained why those expectations have not been realized. As the houses is the neighbourhood are rebuilt the attendance will gradually increase.
In the same building with this School there is also one for Hakkas, which has suffered very severely from the removal of the houses. There were but three boys present on the examination day, and the master is afraid that he will have no scholars all when the School is re-opened after the Chinese New Year. I hope his fears are groundless, although there is little prospect at present of anything beyond the most meagre attendance. Nearly all the Hakka families that used to live here have removed to the Kowloon side of the Harbour. It will be a question for future consideration whether the master should Lot be sent after them.
The School next in order is the one at Stanley. Under the present master this School has made wonderful progress. la so poor a state was it in 1862 that had a change of master not produced the good effect now observable it would have been discontinued in 1863.
Stanley School is undoubtedly inferior to the one at Tang-lung-chan; but, nevertheless, it may be said to be in a fair ay of improvement. The worst feature connected with it is the School-room which is not Government property, being
rely rented.
Although one of the best houses in the village it is not suitable for its present purpose; and, if I
may be ved to do so, I would strongly recommend the building of a good Selwoo-oom here. The prent one is low and damp; y badly lighted and ventilated. If it is advisable to make the most of the Schools which are at present supported, beforö ablishing others, nothing would tend more to add to the efficiency of the Stanley School than a suitable School-house.