IV.
349
EDUCATION.
ness.
The educational system of the Colony is still undergoing revision, and the results which may be expected from the changes cannot yet be judged with exact- The demand among the Chinese for instruction in the English language continues to increase, and every effort is made to meet that demand and to render the methods of instruction as thorough as possible. All the Anglo-Chinese schools have their full complement of pupils, and Queen's College, the principal school in the Colony, is unfortunately obliged, through lack of accommodation, to refuse admittance to many applicants. A Sub-Committee of the Governing Body of that institution was appointed during the year to draw up a course of study for the Chinese classes in the College. The same course has been adopted in the Anglo- Chinese District Schools, and in most of the Anglo-Chinese and Vernacular Grant Schools.
One of the most important changes recommended by the Committee on Educa- tion which sat in 1902 was the substitution of a new Code for the then existing Grant-in-aid Code. The new Code was drafted early in the year under review and has met with general approval. It was decided not to bring it into universal opera- tion till January 1st, 1904, but schools were permitted, if they so desired, to adopt it from the 1st July, 1903. About one half of them elected to do so. The follow-
jog
are some of the points of difference which distinguish the new from the old
Code:
(a.) The Grants are paid upon the results of the Inspector's observation throughout the year, and not upon the success or otherwise of individual scholars at an Annual Examination.
(6.) The Code recognizes that schools employing a well educated Staff are worthy of special recognition by giving a higher rate of Grant, paid in sterling, to such schools. The Staff must, in order to meet the requirements of the Code in this respect, be partly composed of Europeans, or natives of very unusual qualifications.
(c) The old Code gave Grants to schools giving a Chinese education ou the time-honoured Chinese lines, as well as to schools in which Portuguese or German was the medium of instruction. The pre- sent Code recognizes only modern Western methods of imparting instruction, and insists that either English or Chinese must be the medium of instruction: other languages may of course be studied as Class subjects.
The Kowloon School for European British subjects has now been open for nearly two years. The attendance during 1903 averaged 46-4 as compared with 39-3 in 1902, an increase of 18 per cent.
The District Schools were entirely re-organised at the beginning of the year. Special attention has been paid to the improvement of the Chinese Masters in their methods, especially in the method of teaching English.
Of the Anglo-Chinese Schools, three at least-the Roman Catholic Cathedral School, the Ellis Kadoorie School, and the St. Stephen's Anglo-Chinese School- have given evidence of a desire to attach greater importance than heretofore to the study of spoken English. The last-named is an encouraging example of a well- conducted school under Chinese Masters only.
The Vernacular Schools have on the whole greatly improved in the last two years. This improvement is most apparent in the schools which elected to come. under the new Code at once, thus freeing themselves from a hard-and-fast line of study.
V.- PUBLIC WORKS.
The principal public works in progress during the year were the new Law Courts, new Harbour Office, and extension of the Tytain Reservoir, the Kowloon Water-works, the provision of temporary pumping plant for water-supply purposes at Tytam Tuk and preliminary works there to ascertain the most favourable posi- tion for a large dam, the reconstruction of street gullies, large extensions of the cattle depôts, and the training of nullahs for the improvement of the sanitary con- dition of some of the residential districts. A substantial start was made with the