270
"Report of the Education Department", Administration Reports, Hong Kong 1921, p. 24.
* Subsidies were paid at varying rates of $45 to $180 per month according to a school's merits. Throughout the 1910's & 1920's, the few subsidized village schools at Sheung Shui were placed at grade C, receiving the lowest payment. The teacher got usually $4-$5 a month from the subsidy and a similar sum from school fees paid by students.
* Their usual work was to write formal invitations, announcements or acknowledgement for the villagers on occasions such as engagement, wedding, birthday and funeral. At times, they also composed couplets in fine calligraphy as gifts. In our research, we find that most of the few retired elderly village teachers whom we interviewed had in their possession a hand-written copy of manuals with exemplars of these types of writings. "Report by the Inspectors of Vernacular Schools", Hong Kong Administrative Reports, 1930, p. 023.
** Information is based on memories of fifteen of them who are still living at Sheung Shui. Seven had passed away but were contemporaries of these fifteen elders. The oral accounts given are also supported by written records such as certificates, school records, and photographs.
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* "Census Report for 1931", p. 138.