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(h.) In return for these advantages given something more was expected from the Scholars. In particular it was desired that new Scholars unduly ignorant of their own Written Language should not be al- lowed to hamper the work of the translation classes. Consequently the vacant seats were allotted upon the result of test examinations held at the beginning of the year. The subject of the examinations was a simple narrative told by word of mouth, which the competi- tors were required to reproduce in literary Chinese. About twice as many candidates attended as there were seats to be filled; and the experiment-one recommended by the Committee on Education must be considered successful.
(i.) The other point on which additional effort was expected from the scholars was in the matter of payment for their education. I did not venture to recommend that fees should be charged throughout these schools at once, though this further development has taken place from the beginning of 1903. It was however decided that all new Scholars should pay the small fee of fifty cents a month. No difficulty was experienced in collecting these fees, which pro- duced a revenue during the year of $152.50.
In order to give an opportunity to boys of good attainments whose parents might find a difficulty in paying this fee, a system of free scholarships, tenable for one year, has been started. On the result of the Summer Examination fourteen of these scholarships were given to scholars at Sai Ying Pun and fifteen at Wan Tsai, to date from January, 1903. The number is large and will probably be reduced in future years. The rather degrading practice of giving a great number of small money prizes of fifteen or twenty cents at Christmas, has been abandoned.
I was able to do less with the school at Yau Ma Ti. Mr. Young has visited it regularly on Saturdays, and a Fifth Standard has successfully been added. Here again the general weakness in colloquial is a blot on what otherwise would be a well conducted school. No serious attempt was made to work up the English School at Wong Nai Chung, and at the end of the year its closure was recommended, partly because the knowledge of English possessed by its one Master was insufficient to justify his position; partly also because the school is situated too near the Anglo- Chinese School at Wan Tsai to be necessary at present.
Of the other Vernacular Schools than those of Wan Tsai and Sai Ying Pun there is nothing to report. The best that can be said of them is, that they are po- tential nuclei of Western thought and knowledge in the remoter districts of the Colony whether this justifies their existence is a question which will engage the attention of the Department during the present year.
:
Sanction has been given for the engagement of a second Master and Supervisor— Mr. WILLIAMS of the Municipal Technical School at Birmingham, who is expected in a few days. Since my return from leave I have laid before Government a scheme for placing the Yau Ma Ti School on the same footing as the other two Anglo-Chinese District Schools, by the engagement of a third Master and Supervis- or and the establishment of a Lower (Vernacular) School. Should this scheme be sanctioned, there will then have been equipped three schools with a purpose and aim which it will be well to enunciate and bear clearly in mind. In the first place. they are to teach the English language, not merely by Readers, Grammars and Spelling Books, but in the only way a language can be taught-by word of mouth. On their ability to accomplish so much the schools must stand or fall. The Chinese Written Language will also receive much attention and will be taught,