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ing. The teachers of these Schools are all Chinese and have not had any professional training. We have further a few Schools (in 1890, 3 Schools with 219 scholars), which give to Chinese children a Euro- pean Christian education in the Chinese language, (Hakka and Punti). The instruction given in these Schools, which partly avail themselves of the use of the Romanized system of writing Chinese, adds, to the subjects taught in the preceding class of Schools, the further subjects of Arithmetic (up to decimal fractions) and Ancient History. These Schools are partly taught by Europeans and partly by Chinese teachers who have had a European training. A third class of Schools (in 1890, four in number, with 280 scholars) are devoted to giving a Christian education in the Portuguese language to Portuguese children. These Schools, taught by European ladies, who (with one or two exceptions) hold certificates of some European Government, teach, in the Portuguese language, the ordinary subjects of an elementary English education. The next class of Schools consists of 8 English Schools with exactly 700 scholars, all under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. These Schools give to English and Portu- guese children (including a few Chinese), by the instrumentality of trained European teachers, an elementary English education in the English language, but the highest class or classes in each of these Schools superadd the principal subjects of an English secondary School, viz.: Algebra, Physical Geo- graphy, Music and Needlework in the Girls Schools, and Physical Geography, Algebra, Euclid, Lite- rature, Mensuration and Book-keeping in the Boys Schools. Some Schools add to the foregoing list of secondary subjects special lessons, as for instance Latin (Hongkong Public School), French and Geometrical Drawing (St. Joseph's College), French and Freehand Drawing (Victoria English Schools). Finally we have a class of Schools which combine with the aim of giving an elementary English education in the English language the endeavour to keep up also the previous attainments of their scholars in the classical Chinese language, giving thus an Anglo-Chinese education by English methods of tuition. In 1890, we had 14 Schools of this class, attended by 2,016 scholars of Chinese or Eurasian extraction. Three of these Anglo-Chinese Schools (with 364 scholars) are Mission Schools, the remainder (with 1,652 scholars) are Government Schools, but only three out of these fourteen Schools (Diocesan School, Victoria College and Government Girls School) are taught by trained teachers. The Victoria College and the Diocesan School are the only Anglo-Chinese Schools which combine, like the above mentioned English Schools, with the advanced subjects of a secondary English education, also the ordinary subjects of elementary English and elementary Chinese Schools. To the ordinary sub- jects of a secondary English School, the Diocesan School adds Animal Physiology, Geometrical and Prospective Drawing and Book-keeping, whilst the Victoría College adds Latin, Mensuration, Chemistry and Book-keeping. The Victoria College, St. Joseph's College, Diocesan School, Hongkong Public School and the Victoria English School prepare candidates for the Oxford Local (both Junior and Senior) Examinations. There has been a visible tendency of late, in the case of St. Joseph's College, Diocesan School and Victoria English Boys School, to turn the secondary education they are giving into the distinct channel of a commercial education, whilst the Victoria College and the Hongkong Public School seek to combine commercial and classical teaching.
9. FEMALE EDUCATION.-Three causes have hitherto been at work retarding the expansion of female education in the Colony and preventing its keeping pace with the education of boys. In the first instance, the Chinese population of the Colony consisted for three or four decades of our Colonial history almost exclusively of men whose families (if any) were left on the mainland of China. In the second instance, the Chinese, though anxious to have their boys taught to read and write, because aware of the commercial value of such knowledge, did not until lately see why their daughters should go to school at all. In the third instance, there is a large class of purchased servant-girls (of school- going age) and Eurasian girls whom servitude and the stigma of want of respectability, combined with popular prejudice, seek to keep out of the education net. These three factors, hostile to the spread of female education, are to a certain extent still at work in the Colony, but year by year their effect becomes weaker. It is still a fact that the main body of our population consists of working ́men, either unmarried or having their families on the mainland, but the number of Chinese families permanently settled in Hongkong increases steadily from year to year. It is still true that most Euro- pean families, that can afford the expense, send their children to Europe to be educated there, but the number of those that cannot afford it is on the increase. As to Chinese indifference to the value of school-education for their daughters, it is rapidly vanishing, as the needlework instruction, gratui- tously added to the programme of the Girls Schools, has introduced a commercial value. But whilst freely sending their sons to English Schools and gradually learning to appreciate the value of the education given in Chinese Girls Schools, they cannot as yet see why their daughters should learn English. Finally, as regards the pariahs of local society, the Registrar General has of late made valuable efforts to bring home to the Chinese families, in which purchased servant girls are employed, their moral obligation of providing these girls with an education, and the establishment of the Government Central School for Girls has given a first impetus to the education of Eurasian girls. The net result of this general movement in the matter of female education is exhibited by the subjoined Table, shewing the proportion of boys and girls under instruction, in schools subject to the supervision of the Government, during the last ten years. It will be seen from this Table that, while there was in the year 1890 but a very slight increase of scholars (63) as compared with the year 1889, and a decrease of boys (145), there was an increase of 208 girls under instruction in the year 1890, and that, whilst in 1880, among every hundred scholars under instruction, there were only 18 girls, there were, in 1890, 32 girls in every hundred scholars in school. This is nothing to boast of, for it shews that female education is