448
7. LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOLS IN GENERAL.-The injuries which the local distribution of Schools suffered during the year 1894, in consequence of the plague, affected the Saiyingpoon District more than any other portion of the town. In the other Districts, Schools closed through the plague were within a few months re-opened in other houses not far off. While thus the total loss of Schools extinguished by the plague is very evenly distributed over all the Districts of the Colony, each losing from 4 to 6 Schools only, as many as 15 Schools were wiped out of existence by the plague in the one District of Saiyingpun. Of the Schools extinguished by the plague, the vast majority (40) were Kaifong Schools. The changes which the location of the people underwent, in the districts principally affected by the plague, will soon be overtaken by the natural expansion of the Grant-in-Aid system, and I have no doubt that in a few years the educational injuries caused by the plague will be entirely effaced. As tentative measures have been taken both at Kowloon and on the Peak to supply the English families of those two Districts with Schools, there is now not a single District in the Colony left unsupplied with a measure of School accommodation, sufficient at least in proportion to the exist- ing demand. I subjoin a Table exhibiting the distribution of secular and religious Schools throughout the Colony.
Table shewing the local distribution of Secular and Religious Schools in 1894.
Districts
exclusive of Peak and
Tsimshatsui.
Govern- ment.
Kaifong.
Grant- iu-
Un-
Un-
Total.
Total.
classed.
classed.
Aid.
Grand Total.
Sec. Schools.
Scholars.
Sec. Schools.
Schools
Scholars.
Rel. Schools.
Scholars.
Sec. Schools.
Scholars.
Rel. Schools.
Scholars,
Sec. Schools.
Scholars.
Rel. Schools.
Scholars,
Schools.
Scholars.
of all
Descriptions.
I. & II. Kennedy Town and Shek-
tongtsui,
III. Saiyingpun,
IV. & V. Taipingshan & Sheung-
wan,
VI. Chungwan,
3 90
Co
3
215
8 100 181,040
4 1,450 31 458 221,625)
1
1 356 26 453 21 1,580
VII. & VIII. Hawan & Wantsai,.
3
305 11 244 11
605
IX. & X. Bowrington & Sookon-
pou,
1 66 1 16
Co
3
118
N
1
52
+85
42
4 142
11
: ོ
$15
201,082
4 142
31 1,397
88
29
I
54 27 809
2126
14
549
36 1,937
2 2 2
22 1,625
58 3,562
22 1,634
49 2,443
13 731 27
1,280
XI. Villages of Hongkong,
XII. Villages of Kowloon,
Total,......
7 218 12 189 9 350
:
:
:
:
:
2
76 15 297| 12 | 556 1 40
2
82
**
3
118
CT
200
19
407 9 350 28 757
18
413 12 556 30 969
21 2,686 104 1,757 99 5,964 2 69 6 274 127 4,512 | 105 | 6,238 | 232 | 10,750
8. EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURE OF THE GOVERNMENT.-The sum total of educational payments made by the Government during the year 1894 ($79,268.14 as compared with $79,413.84 in 1893) amounted, after deducting school-fees and educational refunds paid into the Treasury ($11,896.19 as compared with $12,683.00 in 1893), to $67,371.95 (as compared with $66,730.84 in 1893). The slight increase in nett expenditure is chiefly due to the decrease caused by the plague, in the item of school-fees. The details of educational expenditure incurred in the year 1894 are as follows:-Office of Education Department $5,411.52; Queen's College (after deducting school-fees) $24,321.63; Belilios Public School (after deducting school-fees) $2,777.67; sixteen other Departmental Schools $5,743.07; 99 Grant-in-Aid Schools $25,312.44; Physical Training $192.00; Government Scholar- ships $3,805.62. The nett cost of education ($67,371.95) amounted in 1894 to 2.07 per cent. of the total Colonial Revenue (as compared with 3.22 per cent, in 1893, and 3.29 per cent. in 1892). The total number of scholars educated in Hongkong in 1894 at the expense or with the aid of the Govern- ment being 8,294, the education of each scholor cost the Government (exclusive of two scholarships held in England) $7.66 (as compared with $7.75 in 1893 and $8.57 in 1892). In the several classes of educational institutions in the Colony, the cost to Government of the education of each scholar under instruction was as follows:-in Queen's College $24.57; in Belilios Public School $21.87; at other Departmental Schools $4.86; in Grant-in-Aid Schools $4.23. The Managers of those 99 Grant-in-Aid Schools, who received from the Government in 1894, as Grants-in-Aid based on the definite results ascertained by the individual examination of each scholar, the sum of $25,312.44,