61
20. The Reading and Cricket Clubs flourish. Gymnastic instruction under Bombardier W VADE, R.G.A., is very successful to small squads of 17 making a total of 85. Our Football Team has distinguished itself this year, by winning the Hongkong Schools Football League Shield, and fighting a well contested game with the Empress of India Football Team, (winner of the Empress Competition Cup). Visits interchanged between the Queen's College and Christian College (Canton) Football Teams are a distinctly new departure, as there is no precedent on record of a Chinese Football Team leaving the mainland to play upon foreign shores. Queen's College was too strong for them but it is hoped that better matches may take place in the future.
21. During the year 1907, 93 boys from Queen's College obtained situations: 9 in the Hongkong Government Service, 25 in local firms, 8 under the Chinese Government and 51 in various parts of the Far East. The above figures represent only those boys whose careers on leaving school are known to us. Many boys are employed in Government and other offices without our knowledge, and it is impossible to say how many of the 89 boys who did not return after vacations last year and were marked Left, are so employed.
22. I have once again to express our most fervent sense of gratitude for the generosity of the public in supplementing the Government Grant of $200 for Prizes. Without their aid we would be unable to provide 48 prizes for 24 English, and 15 prizes for 15 Vernacular Classes while Special Prizes for History, Composition and Special Translations would be hopelessly impossible. We have no space for their names here, but they are annually posted at the College Entrance, and are published in the Yellow Dragon, the monthly organ of the College.
23. Queen's College is hindered in an ambitious upward course by the following con- siderations. It is a Day-school, so that all attempts to teach English Conversation are necessarily confined to school-hours and no supervision can be given to preparation of work. Again fully one third of the boys change annually, and this has always been the case from time immemorial: 400 boys leaving and 400 new boys being admitted each year is a very serious obstacle in the way of obtaining a large and efficient Upper School. In this connection it must be observed that there is no external system for feeding the Upper School of Queen's College such as exists in England: for the half-dozen boys from the Government District Schools are lost sight of when the number of seats available (400) is borne in mind. The Table below should succeed in illustrating the slow but steady progress of Queen's College. Gradually the number of subjects has increased, and the increase in the number of scholars taking these subjects is enormous.
Subject.
1881
1885
1889
1907
Translation, E. to C.
301
379
676
736
C. to E.
301
379
676
736
>>
Grammar,
172
312
547
1,044
Geography,
Composition,
History,...
Geometry,
144
253
477
1,044
83
127
360
736
30
75
143
295
75
143
528
Algebra,......
75
143
528
Mensuration,
25
24
115
Latin,
...
General Intelligence,.
117
83
32
Shakespeare,
24
32
...
Trigonometry,
17
14
Hygiene, Bookkeeping,
736
115
20th January, 1908.
GEO. H. BATESON WRIGHT, D.D., (Oxox.),
Hend Master.