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building or the play-ground. The entrance from Gough Street, which was rarely used and was occasionally a source of annoyance, has been closed and the space on the play-ground available for games has been much increased in consequence. A tennis-court has been laid out and a club formed. Mrs. TUTCHER, the first assistant teacher, went home on leave on 19th February, 1898, and during her absence Miss LEY KUM was engaged as a temporary assistant in the Infant School. In September last Mrs BATEMAN, the headmistress, was incapacitated for work through sickness, and the Govern- ment was very fortunate in being able to obtain the services of Miss MANNERS, who acted as head- mistress until the Christmas holidays. Mrs. BATEMAN has recommended the engagement of a teacher who has had both a Chinese literary education and an English education, for the Chinese division of the school. The appointment of a teacher with these qualifications would enable the headmistress to exercise a more effective control over the Chinese classes. In any case an extra teacher will soon be urgently wanted as there are only three at present and the average daily attendance in 1897 was 162 scholars.
9. GOVERNMENT DISTRICT SCHOOLS.- Particulars as to enrolment and attendance at the District Schools are given in Tables IV, V and VII. I have already said that attendance was affected by the recurrence of the plague. The schools at Stanley, Wongmakok and Taitamtuk were closed at the end of the year.
The Stanley school had never been a satisfactory one; no school can be where a teacher on a salary of $20 a month has to teach both English and Chinese. So the villagers have never been satisfied with the knowledge of English possessed by the school-masters, whilst the unhealthiness of the village and its isolation, almost complete during the cold season when there is no steam-launch running between Victoria and Stanley, made it impossible to obtain teachers with a satisfactory knowledge of English. Finally, the school-house, a hired building, was condemned as insanitary and unsuitable. On closing the school, the Government offered a grant to a school for teaching Chinese, if the villagers should wish to open one, and in the meantime a mixed school under the management of the Female Education Society offers an education for boys as far as the Third Standard, beyond which boys rarely go. At the last census the population of Wongmakok was found to be 44 persons and that of Taitamtuk 43. Both villages are quite isolated and shew no signs of growth. The teacher at Taitamtuk has been transferred to the Tanglung-chau School, where there was a vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. TSUNG WAI-HING. Chinese has ceased to be taught at the two schools at Yaumati and Wong-nai-chung. This step will, I hope, improve their efficiency. At Yaumati, boys wishing to learn Chinese have a choice of more than one Grant-in-Aid School, and if no Grant-in-Aid School is opened at Wong-nai-chung the boys can attend schools at Wantsai or Tanglung-chau, about three-quarters of a mile away. The annual examinations were held in the month of January of this year after all the Grant-in-Aid Schools had been examined. The scholars at the schools at which English is taught were indebted to thirteen Chinese gentleinen who subscribed a sum of $90.00 for prizes, $84.60 of this have been spent and the balance will be carried forward to next year. Up till the year 1892 the Government set apart $185.00 a year for prizes, but in that year for reasons of economy prizes ceased to be given. In order that the prizes might be properly awarded I did not content myself with conducting a simple test examination on the lines of the Grant- in-Aid examinations, but held a severer and more searching one. Although such an examination is perhaps not necessary for testing the efficiency of the school, I have no doubt that it will act as a stimulus to both masters and scholars. I have reported on the state of each school in my letter No. 14 of the 17th ultimo. The teacher of the Chinese division of the Wantsai School resigned in January 1898. Mr. CH'AN U-11NG was appointed to the post in February at a salary of $15 a month and a house-allowance of $6 a month. His predecessor's salary had been $25 a month with the same house- allowance. The teacher of the Chinese division of the Saiyingpun School, whose salary was $13 a month with a house-allowance of $6 a mouth, also resigned at the end of July and his place was filled by the appointment of Mr. Li Cu‘AK-MAN at a salary of $10 a month rising to $13 a month with the same house-allowance.
10. GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS.--The examination of the Grant-in-Aid Schools commenced on the 26th October last and was completed with the exception of one school on the 30th December. The written examination of the four highest standards of all but one of the schools in Class III. was held in the City Hall on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Deceinber, the Committee having kindly placed the St. Andrew's Hall and the Music Room at my disposal. The Rev. T. W. PEARCE and Mr. J. P. BRAGA acted as Superintendents in the examination rooms. Mr. BRAGA was also appointed Assistant examiner in Portuguese and conducted the examinations of the Portuguese schools. There were 100 schools on the roll; the same number as last year, but three of them were temporarily closed owing to the inability of the managers to find suitable teachers. Two new schools have been placed under the Code; one, a boys' school, for teaching English at East Point, under the management of the London Missionary Society; the other, a mixed school for Chinese at Aberdeen, under the management of the Italian Sisters. The first school presented only 12 pupils at the examination, but its develop. ment had been checked by the plague. The school at Aberdeen was not admitted in time to enable the scholars to qualify themselves for examination. Hitherto there has been no girls school at Aberdeen. The Queen's Road West Boys School under the management of the Berlin Mission and the Santa Theresa girls school, under the inanagement of the Italian Sisters--both schools in Class I, have been closed. A case of fraud on the part of the teacher of a Chinese school was discovered, punished by withholding the teacher's share of the grant and by refusing to sanction his conducting a Grant-in-Aid School in future.
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