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it will be open to the managers to start English classes for boys who have reached a certain proficiency in their own language. These suggested means of employing the widely-spread desire of learning English to induce boys to study their own lan- guage and Western knowledge are admitted to be experiments. It can at least be said of them that they appear to be ingenious and carefully devised; and they con- form to the indubitably sound principle that the Chinese should attain to some proficiency in their own language before they attempt to learn English.
11. You will observe that the adoption of the Committee's recommendations will necessitate an increased expenditure on the Education Department. The total present increase asked for by the Committee is nearly $35,000, a sum which if added to last year's estimated nett expenditure (nearly $70,000) represents approx- imately 2 per cent. of the actual Colonial revenue for last year. According to the table given in section 90 of the Report, a larger proportion than that has been spent on Education in this Colony as late as 1896. It must also be remembered that $60,000 does not now represent nearly as much productive expenditure on Education as it did a few years ago. The total increase necessitated by the new scheme appears to me to be very reasonable when the far reaching improvements which it is designed to effect are taken into account.
12. To suppose that the adoption of the new scheme will immediately bring about an educational transformation in Hongkong, or that each recommendation made by the Committee is the one true solution of the particular problem with which it professes to deal, would be to expect too much. I am satisfied, however, that the general principles enunciated by the Committee are sound, and once those principles are accepted and established it will always be a comparatively simple matter to modify, if need be, the minor recommendations involved.
13. I have omitted special reference to Queen's College in this despatch, inasmuch as the views of the Committee do not commend themselves to Dr. WRIGHT, the Headmaster, whose letter on the subject I shall transmit to you under separate cover.*
Subject, however, to any unodifications which may occur to you in conse- quence of the criticisms of Dr. WRIGHT and the Bishop of Victoria, I have no hesi- tation in recommending that the new scheme framed by the Committee be adopted and initiated as early as may be found practicable.
I have, &c.,
W. J. GASCOIGNE, Major-General,
No. 2.
The Officer Administering the Government to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
[No. 178.]
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 7th May, 1902.
SIR, With reference to your despatch No. 416 of the 13th December last, and paragraph 13 of my despatch No. 177 of the 6th instant, I have the honour to transmit for your consideration the enclosed two copies of a letter and Memoran- dum by Dr. BATESON WRIGHT, Headmaster of Queen's College, in which he criticises some of the recommendations made by the Committee on Education with regard to the future status of that School.
2. In paragraph 36 of their Report it is recommended by the Committee that Queen's College should revert to the purpose for which it was originally intended, and supply an education only to Chinese and (section 29) to Eurasians who elect to be educated as Chinese.
3. The desirability of taking this step is emphatically disputed by Dr. WRIGHT. He begins by saying that he disapproves the providing of different schools for different nationalities in general, and then points out what appear to him to be the disadvantages of applying that principle to Queen's College in particular. As regards the principle itself, it is unnecessary for me to enter into a re-consideration of the arguments which led to its adoption. That it is held by very large sec- tions of the English and Chinese communities has already been proved by the
* No. 178 of 7th May, 1902.