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the Italian Convent School specially distinguished themselves in various subjects, the Diocesan School especially also by continuing its laudable efforts in bringing forward, year after year, a good proportion of its pupils in extra-subjects (Euclid, etc.). None of these Schools, however, calls this year for special remarks, with the exception of St. Joseph's College.
16. St. Joseph's College is not only well housed now, but the discipline and method of this School appear also to be very good. There has also been an improvement in the regularity of attend- ance, and the staff of Masters has also been increased during the last few years.
But year after year I have to complain of the low results obtained in the highest Standards, in Standards V. and VI., in the subject of English composition. When it is considered that the subjects of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, and the amount of proficiency required of a scholar under this Scheme in order to entitle him to a pass, do not represent the maximum but the minimum of an elementary English education, and when it is found difficult to obtain in composition more than three correctly formed sentences in Standards V. and VI., and when a School, otherwise well organized and well taught, year by year exhibits poor results in composition, there must be something radically wrong. The defect lies, I believe, in the fact, that nearly all the scholars of this College are Portuguese to whom the English language is entirely foreign, but who, strange to say, do not first learn to express thought and feeling correctly in their own mother-tongue, and, in fact, learn neither to read nor write Portuguese, knowing their own language only colloquially. They make very good progress in the lower Standards, because they devote all their school-time to English studies, whilst in other Schools half the time is. devoted to teaching the scholars to master their respective native language, but when these Portuguese youths reach the higher Standards, though excelling in arithmetic, grammar and history, they appear to think and feel not in English but in Portuguese, and having no practical idea of the differences in structure and idiom which distinguish the two languages, they find themselves signally at a loss when called upon to express their thoughts and feelings independently in correct and idiomatic English on any given subject. I am therefore clearly of opinion that the remedy lies in applying the policy of education which, in accordance with previous suggestions of my Annual Reports, a portion of the Portuguese Community adopted in starting several elementary Portuguese Schools in the Colony, to a re-organisation of St. Joseph's College. The Head Master endeavoured to do this, but met with opposition on the part of many parents. I believe it highly desirable that all Portuguese youths, to whom the English language is not their mother-tongue nor the language of their home-life, should first of all be set to master the Portuguese language before they are put to more advanced English studies.
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17. The needle work of the Girls-schools was this year examined by two separate sets of Ladies' Committees, to the members of which the thanks of the Government are due for the painstaking examination of the needlework submitted to them. It was found impracticable to arrange for a public exhibition of the needlework submitted for examination, but endeavours will be made on a future occasion to improve the whole system of examining the needlework of all the Girls-schools under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme.
18. Government Scholarships for the study of Law, Medicine or Civil Engineering in Great Britain' have been established during the year and a pupil of the Government Central School was the first successful competitor. Apart from these Scholarships there are now four Scholarships connected with the Central School, viz., a Morrison Scholarship, a Stewart Scholarship, and two Belilios Scholar- ships. St. Joseph's College enjoys the benefit of two Belilios Scholarships.
19. I enclose the usual Tables, I. to XVI., containing the Educational Statistics for the year 1884.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
The Honourable W. H. MARSH, C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretary,
E. J. EITEL, PH. DR., Inspector of Schools.