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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND tions to those of the hief Justice upon the dis- In the course of a conversation which one of tinction that has been conferred upon you. When | our representatives had with him on the 30th ult. I was in the administrative branch of the Civil Dr. Chung gave interesting particulars as to Service of this colony I was privileged to see the Boxers. He said :- the work done by you both as legal advisers to this Government. You were skiful, wise, and loyal councillors. The present honour not only emphasises the position which you hold at the Bar of this court but also indicates to some ex- tent, I venture to say, Her Majesty's apprecia- tion of the counsel which from time to time you have tendered to her representatives in the colony.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said -Allow me to express my thanks to your Lordship for the kind expressions to which you have given utter ance from that Bench. I venture to think the Supreme Court of Hongkong is a Court in which suitors are sure to find a patient, a painstaking, an absolutley impartial, and a most concientious investigation of their cases by a Judge or Judges of ripe experience learn- ing and ability. I have had the honour of being Her Majestys' Attorney-General in this Colony for more than ten years. I have seen the Bench where Your Lordship now sits occupied by Sir. James Russell and by Sir Fielding Clarke, your Lordship's more immedicate predecessors, With them, as with our Lordship, I have always felt that the one desire has been the absolutely impartial administration of justice, It has always, therefore, been a pleasure to me to appear in this Court, for I have felt sure of kind and courteous treatment by the Bench and of a thorough investigation of the cases it has been my duty to bring before the Court. I be- lieve that feeling to be shared not only by every member of the Bar and of the legal profession but by the public generally, I, therefore, esteem it an honour to have been appointed one of Her Majesty's Counsel of Her Supreme Court of Hongkong.
Mr. POLLOCK-My Lords, I have to thank your lordships very much for the kind words which you have used concerning me.
The CHIEF JUSTICE, to the Acting Registrar, (Mr. J. W. Jones)-Mr. Registrar, let the letters patent be duly recorded.
THE NEW VOLUNTEER
HEADQUARTERS
HAPPY VALLEY CHOSEN.
The following appears in the General Orders of the Hongkong Vounteer Corps :- It is hereby notified for the information of all ranks that, as the result of the inquiry on the matter of the site of the new Headquarters, by far the larger body of opinion among the members of the Corps was in favour of the site on the Happy Valley. The accommodation required at the new Headquarters has been settled at a meeting of the Staff and Commanding Officers of Units, and, in accordance with instructions received from the Government, the Comman- dant is in communication with the Director of Public Works on the subject."
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"When any one joins the Boxers he puts pieces of red cloth round his head, stomach, and legs, and dons two shoulder-straps, on which are characters which.mean · Protect China and kill the foreigners.'
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"The Boxers include not only boys of from 12 to 15, but girls of the same age, and they form different branches. The branch to which the girls belong is known as the Hing Tong Chin, or Red Lantern Shines. They carry about with them red lanterns, and they profess that they have only to throw the lanterns up into the air and they will alight on any house," whether near or far, which they wish to set on fire. The boys' branch is called the I Wo Tun.
"On a man joining the Boxers he commences to bow to the south-east and say a prayer daily. When he has done this about 100 times he be- comes possessed of the power to hypnotise him- self at the right moment, any time he likes, He makes a bow to the south-east, says a prayer, and next begins to shiver, and he can then take up a sword and play with it. It is usual for them to hypnotise themselves before com- mencing to fight."
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[August 4, 1900. ollege during the last ten years. fees last year amounted to over $27,000 and it is only natural to wish that some portion at any rate of this large sum could be diverted to Education and not be lost altogether in the general revenue of the Colony. The net expen- diture on Education is now only 1.66 per cent. of the revenue.
I am much afraid that unless schools in Vic- toría are given an increased grant to compensate for the higher rents which land is now demand, the loss of 15 Chinese School and 700
There is scholars will never be made up. noticeable loss in Kowloon of 6 schools and. 280 scholars.
School Fees. -All the Chinese Grant-in-Aid Schools are free, but with one exception, the English Schools charge fees varying from $30 a year to $6. In the English Division of the Belilios Public School a fee of $6 a year is charged, but education in the other Government Schools which are under the Inspectorate is free. It is almost time, in my opinion, to raise the fee. at the Belilios Public School to $12 a year, and it is worth considering whether a small fee- say, $3 a year-should not be charged in the Chinese Division, which is now very well
attended.
School Attendance. The Average Daily That in Our representative ventured to doubt the Attendance in 1899 was 4,418. power of the Boxers to hypnotise themselves. the Grant-in-Aid Schools alone was 3,688.
Yes, truly, they can
The corresponding figures for 1898 are. but Dr. Chung protested. do so." He added: "Most of them are between 124,281 and 3,581. The ratio of the average. and 16 or 18 years of age and are farmors and daily attendance to the average monthly farmers' children. There has not been sufficient enrolment in 1898 was 81 per cent, and in rain for the last two years and that is why they 1899, 83 per cent. In the Grant-in-Aid Schools the highest average attendance--4,170—was in have joined the Boxers and set out to kill the
April; in July the average attendance had foreigners."
dropped to 3,165, or 24 per cent. This decrease was, no doubt, largely due to the plague. In the Chinese Division of the Belilios Public School where the attendance is naturally very quickly affected by epidemics the average attendance dropped from 181 in May to 64 in June, and in July stood at 70.
HONGKONG SCHOOLS IN 1899.
The Report of the Inspector of Schools for 1899 is published in the Gazette. We make the following extracts :-
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the study of hinese; but the Female Educa- tion Society which has maintained a Chinese Girls School at Stanley for the last sixteen years, took up the work and turned their school into a Mixed school, engaging a qualified man to teach the boys. The school has been well at- tended and two-thirds of the scholars are boys. The average attendance which in 1898 was 21 rose to 41 in 1899, and as the average atten- dance at the Government School in 1898 was only 24, it is clear that no injury to education has been caused by the withdrawal of the Go- vernment.
A reduction in the number of Government Government District Schools.-The number Schools was commenced in the year 1892. In of the Government District Schools was reduced that year there were 6 English and 28 Chinese by three at the end of 1898 in the manner stated Schools compared with 5 English and 7 Chi- in my report for that year. The villagers of nese in 1899. The number cannot be reduced Stanley, though they were encouraged by me to any further at present unless the school at Pok-do so, failed to start a Grant-in-Aid School for fulam, which last year had an average atten- dance of only 11 scholars, should be closed. I am loth to recommend the closing of an old school; but unless there should appear to be a prospect of an increase to the Chinese popula- tion in the neighbourhood, this school ought Of the 22 schools closed not to be kept up. during the last seven years 11 have been re- At one time placed by Grant-in-Aid Schools. or another seven other Grant-in-Aid Schools were started with the intention of replacing Government Schools, but five of them are no longer in existence, and two are closed for the time being. Nine of the schools therefore remain unreplaced, and it is much to be re- ever closed. gretted that five of them were Education by means of Grant-in-Aid Schools is cheaper than education by Government Schools, but it is subject to frequent interruptions owing CHINAMAN AND to difficulties with teachers and landlords, and THE BOXERS.
I believe that if the Government Schools re- ferred to had remained open, the attendance at them would by now have more than justified their existence. The remaining schools, four in number, were in small isolated hamlets and should never have been opened.
A HONGKONG
Among the many persons who have taken refuge in Hongkong in consequence of the trouble up north is Dr. Chung, a Hongkong Chinaman, who is staying for the time being at Applichan. Dr. Chung is a native of Stanley. He was educated at Queen's College, and 16 years ago went up to Tientsin, where he has been in the employ of the Imperial Maritime Customis as a medical man. He was present at the bombardment of the Taku forts and also at the outbreak of the trouble in Tientsin: It became unsafe for anyone wearing a queue to be seen in Tientsin. Hence Dr. Chung came down here for safety. He purposes securing his papers as a British subject, cutting off his quene and adopting European dress, and then returning to Tientsin. He declares that the Russian sol- diers are perpetrating all sorts of atroci- ties in Tientsin, killing the men and raping and then killing the women. On one occasion some Russians got hold of three Chinese women and tied them up in a room, but some Japanese who appeared on the scene set them free. He says the Japanese are civilised in comparison
with the Russians.
The decrease in the Grant-in-Aid Schools dates from 1895, when there were 83 Chinese Schools open as against 78 in 1899. I am afraid that in the near future the number will be still further reduced by the closing of schools in Victoria unless circumstances change very much. The general increase in rents is pressing severely on some of the schools and certain movements of population are also adversely affecting the schools in the Western Districts.
The total number of children on the rolls for the year under review is the largest on record. The number of scholars learning English con- tinues to increase and the number of girls on the rolls is only four less than in the year 1893, in which the highest number occurs.
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The ratio which the expenditure on education bears to the general revenue of the Colony has now sunk to a very low figure. This is, of course, due in some part to the increase in the attendance and in the fees charged at Queen's"
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The average attendance at the four schools which teach English shews an increase of 14 per cent. It has reached the limit of accommoda tion, and in the case of the two schools at Saiyingpoon and Wantsai, has passed a little beyond the point beyond which the teaching can remain as effective as is desirable.
Ten boys competed for the Free Scholarships at Queen's College in March, and four scholar- ships were awarded. Two of the successful boys had been educated at the Saivingpoon school, one at Wantsai and one at Wongnai- chung. There were no competitors from the Yaumati school.
No change has been made in the curriculum of the English School beyond the introduction of translation in the Fourth Standard and the substitution of the elements of grammar for geography in the second.
"Some slight progress, through not so great as I had expected, has been made in the sub- stitution in the Chinese Schools of system of teaching Chinese adapted to elementary schools in place of time-honoured system in force in China
Grant-in-Aid Schools. The number of grant- in-aid schools on the roll is 96 compared with 100 on the roll in 1898. One new school, a mixed Chinese school under the management of the Roman atholic Mission, has been opened at Aberdeen, where there was previously no school for girls, and the following five schools have been closed-The Basel Mission School at Matan-ch'ung, the Berlin Ladies Mission,