256
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! examinations in China in 1905, brought about a new situation in which command over the classical learning was no longer the channel to position and wealth. The official report on the New Territories in 1912 contains the following remarks: Roads and railways have indeed been made through the centre of the Northern district and country folks who used to require a full day to reach Hong Kong can now go in and out and do their shopping in the day. More and more of the young men from the country have been tempted into Hong Kong or abroad in quest of higher wages, and many have returned with their savings to their native villages: money has been brought into the country to purchase land required for roads and railways.
The increase in wealth led to a rise in the cost of living. The same report gave a list of the average prices of staple food in 1900 and 1911, showing that rice had risen from $4 to $8 per picul and pork from $15 to $25. The average increase was almost doubled. The only cost which remained almost stable, at least at Sheung Shui, was the school fees, which were in 1912 from $3 to $6 per annum for each boy. Thus, as the report says, "In spite of the rise of cost of living, there is practically no family which cannot obtain elementary education for the sons of the family.” Yet, the same also meant a very low income for the village teacher. According to the recollections of a village elder whose father gave up teaching in 1913, the general income of a teacher was from $4 to $6 a month, with small presents in kind on feast days. But the income might vary with the come and go of the students. Thus, the standard of living of a teacher became in fact poorer than it had been in former days. This made the teaching profession much less attractive in the short run, and in the long run led to a lowering of the prestige of the village scholars as well as to a drop in the practical value of learning.
In Sheung Shui, where the lineage had long been known for its deliberate efforts in promoting education, we have evidence which seems to show that there may have been a decline in village school attendance after the turn of the century. The observation is based partly on the oral testimony of ten informants who were born between 1893 and 1903, reaching their school age