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raise house-rents to such an extent as to seriously embarrass large numbers of Chinese and European tenants. Very extensive reclamation works have been and are still being successfully carried out, and large areas of level building ground have thereby been created. It is hoped that before long a practical commencement will be made of a new reclamation which will extend from the Naval Dockyard in the centre of the town to Causeway Bay in the East.
The sales of Crown land in 1901 were, as has been already stated, much less than those in 1900.
III-LEGISLATION.
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Thirty-seven Ordinances were passed during 1901, of which fifteen were amendments of Ordinances already in force, and two were private Ordinances for the naturalisation of Chinese.
From the Imperial point of view perhaps one of the most important measures of the year was the first Ordinance, which raised the annual Military Contribution of the Colony from 173 per cent. to 20 per cent. of the total gross revenue, exclusive of land sales and premia on leases or statutory land grants.
Ordinance 5 is perhaps the most important measure of the year.
It is an Ordinance "to establish a Code of Procedure for the Regulation of the Process, Practice, and Mode of Pleading in the Civil Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Colony." The Supreme Court was established by legislative enactment in 1845 and all its proceedings were regulated by the practice of the English Courts "unless and until otherwise ordered by rule of the said Court." Successive attempts at im- proving the Civil Procedure of the Court were made in 1855, 1856, 1858, 1860 and 1861, and led to the enactment of what is known as the Old Code of Civil Procedure, in 1873, which abolished the old distinction between common law and equity, and established a uniform procedure for the administration of both. Alter- ations were from time to time carried out during many subsequent years, and the new Code, which was drafted last year by Sir JOHN CARRINGTON, C.M.G., and enacted as Ordinance No. 5 of 1901, contains the final results, up to the present time, of all the changes and improvements which experience had found necessary.
Ordinance No. 13 of 1901-a Consolidating and Amending Public Health Ordinance was an important measure which will probably, however, be partially superseded by new legislation during 1902.
IV. EDUCATION.
The system and methods of education in the Colony are fully described in the Report for 1899, since which time there have been few changes. The whole system of education is at present under consideration, and may shortly undergo considerable modifications as the outcome of the deliberations of a special Committee appointed towards the close of the year. A description of any changes which may take place should find a place in the next Report.
The principal school in the Colony is Queen's College, an institution which forms a distinct Government Department. The total number of pupils on the roll (European, Chinese and other Asiatics) is nearly 1,500. The average annual ex- penses of each boy are less than $18, and the total fees received by Government amount to over $28,000. There is a large staff of English and Chinese masters, who provide the pupils with an education which not only enables many of them to compete successfully in the Oxford local examinations but also fits them for import- ant posts as interpreters and clerks in the Government service and in mercantile houses.
There is a growing feeling amongst both British and Chinese residents that the system of educating European and native children side by side in the same schools is not without its serious drawbacks. The subject has been fully dealt with in a