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24.
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Lee Wing-kwong, Eo Kom-tong, Chau Shiu-ki, Li Po-kwai, Chan Kan-iu, Chau Tung-sang, S.W. Tao, Choy Hing, Fung Ping-shan, H.R. Wells, R.H. Kotewall and Wong Kwong-ting.
His Excellency arrived in the company of Capt. McGrath, A.D.C., and was received by the Hon. Mr. Lau Chu-pak, the Hon. Mr. E.R. Hallifax, and Mr. Lee Wing-kwong, the Chairman of the Tung Wah Hospital, which incidentally celebrated its Jubilee on October 4, the same year.
Mr. Lee Wing-kwong said: "Your Excellency and gentlemen. To-day is the day for the opening ceremony of the Chung Wah Shu Yuen, which has been well and truly constructed. The work has been expedited by the large grants generously made by the Government.....The object of the rebuilding is to provide the free school with more accommodation for the poor Chinese boys of the Colony so that by improved education they may be enabled to earn their livelihood and avoid the consequences of poverty. Enquiries show that there is a large number of poor boys in the Colony who cannot afford an education. The free schools previously established by the Man Mo Temple and by the Confucian Society in the past ten years have been insufficient to meet this demand, and the attention of the Government has been repeatedly invited to this deficiency by the Chinese representatives on the Legislative Council. Realising this, the professional and business communities have exerted their utmost efforts to develop the free schools so as to satisfy the desire of the Government in respect of education and to ensure that the greatest possible benefit should be derived from the kindness
of the Kai Fongs in collecting funds for the purpose of education. The school has three storeys and has accommodation for several hundred students. In future, though we cannot give education to all poor boys of the Colony, we can admit several hundreds in addition to the old number.
H.E. the Governor replied: "Mr. Lee Wing-kwong and gentlemen. This is the second occasion within a few weeks on which I have had the privilege of being associated with an extension of the philanthropic activities of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee. On the previous occasion it was for the bodily needs of the Chinese Community that provision was being made; this time the provision is for their mental advantage. The Government has assisted in the building of the present school by means of a grant-in-aid and will always be ready to cooperate with the Chinese community in education work, but I am confident that the best result will be obtained if the matter is left as largely as possible in the hands of the Chinese community and their worthy representatives. In this connection I should like to say a word of appreciation of the activities of the Confucian Society, which has now established twenty-four schools for the poorer classes, and is, I understand, preparing, with the assistance of a grant from the Government funds, to extend the scope of its work.
The
"An interesting example of the cordial cooperation between the Tung Wah Hospital Committee and the Government may be seen in the school which I am opening to-day. Committee has agreed to devote one floor of the building to the use of a normal school under the auspices of the Director of Education. This School will be of inestimable value in the training of teachers for vernacular schools.