998
28
emoluments. This increase would eventually fall on the Government, as well as the cost of the Normal School: but the Committee do not recommend any more money to be spent on Vernacular Schools unless real efficiency can be assured.
ORGANIZATION.
96. Under the existing arrangement the Education Department is organized under two distinct heads. Queen's College, by far the most important school in the Colony, is under its Head master: the Inspector of Schools is responsible for the other scholastic establishments.
This arrangement, obviously an unsatisfactory one, should be abandoned
when occasion offers.
CONCLUSION.
97. It is desirable to state briefly the principles which were accepted by the Committee as those which should govern the distribution of the expenditure upon education. The Portuguese community present no difficulty: their education is already provided for by the Roman Catholic Corporations, and all that remains to be done is to increase the Government share of the cost. The education of the children of British parents has been provided for on grounds which are justified by the interests of the Empire and of the Colony alike. The only difficult problem is inet when the education of the Chinese in the Colony is con- sidered. To what extent is that education a duty incumbent upon the Govern- ment? Beyond that point, how far is it expedient in the interests of the Colony or the Empire? Should the funds available be so handled as to give the greatest number a limited course of instruction; or would they be expended to greater advantage in thoroughly educating a smaller number?
The Hongkong Government has never pretended to supply education to all the children within its jurisdiction, never having asked the ratepayers for the very large sum which would be needed, were it so largely to increase its responsibilities. It is equally unnecessary and undesirable that such an extended provision should be made. A very large number of the Chinese resident in Hongkong prefer to send their children to be educated in their own country: they do not pretend to be citizens, or anything more than strangers in the land; yet it would be im possible to discriminate so as to avoid taxing them for an education which they would never take advantage of. Moreover it would be necessary under the conditions con- templated to put narrow limits upon the courses of study. To suggest, for instance, that taxation should be extended in order to pay for a ten years' course for every child in the Colony is a reductio ad absurdum.
Thus, the argument that provision should be made for the entire population leads naturally to the conclusions, firstly, that taxation should be largely increased in order to provide a smattering for the children of persons who neither ask for it nor desire it; and, secondly, that no attempt should be made to provide a thorough educa- tion. The Committee hold that what education is given should be thorough, and that better results will be obtained by assisting to enlighten the ignorance of the upper classes of Chinese than by attempting to force new ideas on the mass of the people. Civilised ideas among the leaders of thought are the best and perhaps only means at present available of permeating the general ignorance: for this reason much more attention has been paid to the Anglo-Chinese Schools than to the Vernacular. At the same time the principle has been adopted that the cost of a good education should be borne by the recipients so far as they can possibly afford it. The tax- payer who reaps the benefit of every advance in the intelligence of the Com- munity may fairly be called upon to supply the balance.
A. W. BREWIN.
HO KAI, M.B., C.M. EDWARD A. IRVING.