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enjoying an immortality in the hearts of his scholars in all parts of China, I might say the world, his memory will be kept green in Victoria College by the scholarship founded in his honour by old scholars in 1884. I believe too that the Memorial Committee appointed since his death contemplate applying to the Government for permission to affix some permanent memorial in the College Hall.
5. It was originally proposed that Victoria College should furnish accommodation for 770 boys, a number which was supposed by some to be extravagantly large. By the simple expedient of dividing all the desks into six instead of five parts, seats have been provided for 960 boys (including the Pupil Teachers' room) affording each boy a space, that compares favourably with what is required in England; while future undue crowding, an evil long felt at the Central School is rendered impossible by each boy's space being defined by his desk-lid. In addition to the manifest saving of expense in providing education for 924 boys by the same staff as was allotted to 770, there are great advantages derived from the assembling of a larger number of boys in one building; these are--one continuous system of education, as the larger number of boys to be promoted from lower classes will gradually lessen the number of admissions into higher classes from other schools,--a prolongation of the course, which will delay the undue promotion of backward boys which has long been to their detriment, and to the dis- credit of the upper classes-and the more effective shading off of degrees of knowledge so that too great a stride in education will no longer follow on promotion. There were 800 boys on the Roll in September, and there is every reason to believe that the College will be full in a year or two, if not
next month.
6. During the past year there were on the Roll 790 Chinese and Eurasians, 23 English, 4 Germans, 8 Hebrews, 1 Hindu, 10 Japanese, 36 Mohammedans, 1 Parsee and 46 Portuguese. This college can therefore in a marked degree lay claim to a cosmopolitan character.
7. Chinese boys, as a rule, are very intelligent, docile and painstaking. That they are intelligent is established by the large number of boys, that in the short period of five or six years have advanced from the alphabet to a knowledge of English sufficient to do a creditable paper on a play of Shakespeare. Their docility proverbially arouses the admiration of every new master from England. Painstaking- ness is a national characteristic sometimes provoking to the more impetuous European. It might be thought that with these admirable traits the work of teaching in this College would be an easy task and the results should be even higher than they are. There would be grounds for this supposition, if there were not serious compensating drawbacks such as the following. Stolidity and absence of facial expression render it next to impossible for a teacher to gather how much of what he says is understood by the class; he has not the satisfaction of seeing perplexed ignorance dissolve into triumphant know- ledge, for difficulties do not pucker the brow, nor does success kindle the eye of the Chinese student. This difficulty is increased tenfold by the fact that all instruction is given in English, thus there is not merely the doubt whether a boy understands the subject itself, but a fear that he does not grasp the phrase in which it is conveyed. Again the Chinese answer in English with a single word after the genius of their own language leaving a great deal to the imagination; such a habit is hard to break, and very tantalising to the teacher, as the embryo answer may contain a corret idea or the reverse. Further where an English boy would answer to the best of his ability, even running the risk of a mistake, or would ask the master for assistance or explanation, a Chinese is deterred by a nervous fear of the ridicule of his comrades. Once again, though keen in detecting the shades of their dozen native tones, Chinese ears are remarkably dull in detecting the difference in English vowel sounds, and between sharp and flat consonants; the result of all which is impossible mistakes in Dictation and Reading. It might be thought too, that the inherited power of memory in the Chinese race, of which one hears so much would prove a considerable factor in their progress, but this is far from being the It would certainly be so in Examinations if special care were not taken in framing the questions to avoid putting them in such a form as would allow of an answer being previously committed to memory. But as a matter of fact, in daily school life there would appear to be a sad lack of an in- telligent memory, the master cannot rely on the work done in the previous year as a foundation on which to raise a higher superstructure. I have dwelt at this length on the characteristics of Chinese boys, because only those daily engaged in the task of teaching know exactly where the difficulties lie, and because some explanation is thus afforded of the necessity of the slow progress that has been made in the past, and may be expected for some time in the future.
case.
8. To impart the principles of a sound education in English is the main object of this Government Institution. In the distribution of work to each class this is steadily aimed at, and strict injunctions are given to employ the English language alone in all instruction, except of course in the Translation Lessons and when occasionally in the Junior Classes difficulties require to be explained in Chinese. The natural consequence of this is that the boys become very apt at understanding what is said to them in English. The great problem is how to get boys to speak English before they leave school. Ex- perience has shown that, within a few months after obtaining a situation, our Chinese boys, with their store of grammatical rules and knowledge of composition, develop the power of speaking English very creditably; but, as a rule, only Pupil Teachers and Monitors really speak English well before leaving school. This would seem to point clearly to a want of self-confidence, and to the absence of the spur of necessity. Special attention will in the future be paid to this in Junior classes. The work of the upper classes is at present regulated by the requirements of the Oxford Senior Local Examination,