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11. The subject of the Queen's College has been so often brought up and considered in past years without, as far as I can judge, any very substantial gain from the discussions, that I rather hesitate to express any additional views on the subject.
I have already stated that I do not agree in the Committee's recommendation that the College should be confined to Chinese boys only. On this point I share Sir C. C. SMITH's view, and I accept his view also that the institution should, when the Headmastership next falls vacant, be again placed under the Inspector of Schools, a view which commends itself to the Committee and to General GASCOIGNE, and that the purely Chinese classes should be restored.
It seems to have been agreed that it would be unwise to entirely confine the College to higher education, and therefore the same reasons that suggest linking Vernacular Schools to Anglo-Chinese Schools seen to me to operate in favour of having Vernacular classes in this most representative school in the Colony.
The restoration of the Chinese School or Vernacular classes is warmly advo- cated by Dr. WRIGHT and apparently favoured by yourself, but I presume that some additional expense will be involved though Dr. WRIGHT harily seems to contemplate it, and that there may be difficulties of housing and management.
12. The Committee are inclined to "view with disfavour the idea of selecting one or two promising students and giving them a free Professional or University education in England" for the reason, I presume, that only a limited amount of Government money can be applied to education and they consider that it can be used to better advantage in other ways. It is a matter in which local opinion should certainly prevail, but I must confess that I am sorry that, in the inatter of Colonial Scholarships, Hougkong is not in line with other Colonies, and I should have thought that the provision of such scholarships was eminently likely to stimulate sound and thorough, as opposed to widely diffused, education.
I should also be sorry if the Oxford Local Examinations were discontinued. The defects in it as a test of education in the Colony might be discussed with the University authorities, and possibly removed, and moreover the Government examination for certificates suggested in paragraph 22 of the report tnight supple- ment or be partly combined with the Oxford Local Examination.
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13. The other points of detail in the report I can leave to your discretion. There are some which should be further defined and considered, such for instance as the recommendation in paragraph 62 that "all boys of sufficient age should be required to join a cadet corps, if the military authorities can arrange to form one,' if the recommendation contemplates more than the ordinary school-boy drill. understand that of the expenditure which Mr. IRVING would like to include in the Estimates for next year as set out in the enclosure to General GASCOIGNE'S des- patch No. 183* of the 8th of May and on account of which I have suggested that a lump vote should be taken, he considers the most important items to be firstly, those which concern the Anglo-Chinese District Schools, that is to say, the expen- diture on giving them sufficient European supervision and improved salaries to the masters and linking to them Vernacular Schools, and secondly, the provision which he has made for two linked schools in the New Territory. I have no objection to this expenditure being incurred. or indeed so far as the finances of the Colony allow, of other items being taken up also at your discretion; but I wish this despatch to be read and considered before any large innovation is made-if indeed any is contemplated.
I have, etc.,
J. CHAMBERLAIN.
No. 8.
Governor, Hongkong.
HONGKONG. No. 389.
Secretary of State for the Colonies to
DOWNING STREET, 18th November, 1902.
SIR-I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 435* of the 30th September last, forwarding a copy of a letter from various Man- agers of Grant-in-Aid Schools in Hongkong on the subject of certain recommend- ations made in the Report of the recent Committee on Education in the Colony.
* Not printed.