1
386
mortels. The state has wider and more con- tinuing interests than the private individual, and as we do not apply the principle of free-trading to include the permission of each individual to rob or cheat his neigh- bour, so neither do these necessary checks on the injuries of the state for the benefit of the individual conflict with the principle of free-trade. Although in the abstract it would be doubtless better that no duties or taxes of any kind should be levied, it has been found essential to maintain a govern ment in order to prevent liberty degenerat. ing to licence. It is the object of the
THE HONGKONG. WEEKLY PRESS AND
EDUCATION AT QUEEN'S COLLEGE.
—
i.e., re-
The above is only given as an indication of how far the people of Great Britain have wandered from an appreciation of the prin ciples at stake. Many others could be ad-
The Report of Mr. A. J. May, Acting Head duced. It is now many years since England Master of Queen's College, and that of Messrs. placed any restriction on the export of coal C. Clementi and S. B. C. Ross, the Examiners from her mines. For many years it has sppointed by the Governing Body for the year been pointed out that the turnout of coals 1900, as laid before the Legislative Council by from her mines was bound, before a long command of His Excellency the Governor, and time had elapsed, to be fatal to her recently printed in the Government Gazette, own industries. She was wasting her provide bitter and painful reading. A largely increased roll, and a proportionately largely own capital, while affording actual help to decreased teaching staff constitute the main others. If coal were a commodity which burden of the first of these documents. If the once taken from the ground could be replac- Governing Body has any other than a purely ed, the checking of the export would of nominal existence, it surely ought to secure course be an interference with the course of that the staff keeps pace, in point of numerical trade: yet even in such circumstances a strength, with the increased demands made prudent state may find interference politic. scholars for which Queen's College was origin- upon it. We have an idea that the number of Most civilised states, for instance, feel cm-ally built and equipped was nearly two hundred pelled to check the unrestrained export of below the maximum daily attendance recorded timber-not that timber is not a perfectly in April of last year. The structure has not legitimate staple of export, but that the been enlarged in any way. If the figures given temptation to exhaust the future supply for in Mr. A. J. May's Report be correct, the place the immediate benefit of the moment is one must have been overcrowded. Why was this that is apt to be too strong for ordinary allowed, and who is responsible for it? The Pupil Teacher system originally introduced into English schools from the Netherlands, is now strongly discredited at home. How comes it that it is so extensively adopted in Queen's College? Mornover, are these young men Pupil Teachers in the strict sense ceiving instruction when not engaged in teach- ing? We ask this pertinent question because of such tuition! Mr. A. J. May complains that we search both Reports in vain for any record
class as interim teachers? Why is he driven he has had to make use of lads from the first to such a discreditable make-shift expedient? The Report of Messrs. Clementi and Ross on the shooking condition of the first class is sufficiently convincing evidence of the prac- tically worthless material that the Acting upon. It is a well-known fact that no Normal College for the special training of teachers exists in the Colony. We ask again-Why is this? Teachers do not spring up ready-made in Hongkong, auy more than they do in Europe. If the Government cannot afford to furnish Queen's College with a staff recruited solely from the British Isles, it ought to take care that there is a supply of properly trained native teachers of English. The only satis- factory way of meeting the demand would be to have a Normal School or Training College with its attached Practising School. Such an in- stitution did exist years ago, when the educa- tional machinery of the Colony was far less complicated than it now is; but, for some occult since bean re-opened. The community is now reason or other, it was closed, and has never abundantly reaping the benefit of this ill-con- ceived action. It is a generally recognised rule, one too that was publicly enunciated quite recently by the Hon. F. H. May at one of the Sanitary Board meetings, that an official report should be a bald enumeration of facts, unaccom pianed by any except the most essentially relevant critical remarks. In other words, it homely plain-stitch of fact, embellished with the should be a document worked up with the very minimum embroidery of decorative com. ment. Judged by this safe standard, we cannot but think that much of the matter embodied in the joint report of Messrs. Clementi and Ross might have been legitimately suppressed, or at least omitted in print, but forwarded to the note that Queen's College is divided into Upper, Acting Head Master for explanation. Lower and Preparatory Departments. It would be interesting to learn what determines a scholar's promotion from one section to the one immediately above. As far as we have been able to discover, promotion is largely automat c Thus a sudden influx of boys would entail the forced mechanical promotion, irrespective of fitness, of a big number of students. This we hold is a most vicious practice, and should not only be dis- couraged, but absolutely forbidden. The native youth looks upon the acquisition of English from a strictly utilitarian point of view. A knowledge, even a smattering, of Geography, History, Euclid, Algebra and Theoretical Grammar will not help him în
+
[May 11, 1901
ordinary office routine: he regulates his conduct accordingly, and if tied down by syllabus or time-table to such work, will do it in the mest perfunctory manner possible (you cannot make an unwilling horse drink, though you may lead it to the trough) with, naturally, only one possible result inevitable and irremediable disaster at examination time. It is this, with- out the slightest shadow of a doubt, which is the real root-cause of the woeful and shameful collapse of the entire Upper School, under the searching tests set by Messrs. Clementi and Ross. The immediate revival of the com- petitive Government Scholarships, such as were in existence ten years ago, would unques-- tionably do something to encourage systematic work on the part of students, not merely at Queen's College, but at other scholas- tic establishments in the Colony. We would matters, as has been proved time and again, is point out that parsimony educational
more
one of the most fallacious of economical doc- trines. If the two Reports mentioned in our opening sentence awaken the Government, even at this late hour, to a fitting sense of its responsibility with respect to Queen's College, they will not have been drawn up wholly in vain.
THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.]
SHANGHAI, 3rd May, 8 p.m. Famine having rendered impossible the
are proceeding promptly to Kaifeng-fu, the Imperial Court's remaining in Shansi, they
Honan. ancient capital of the Sung dynasty in
A letter is published from General Tung Fuhsiang to Yung Lu, in which the former states that he acted entirely under the latter's order. He now contrasts his own
KING'S MESSAGE TO HONGKONG. The following circular despatch is published in the Gazette:~
Downing Street,
20th March 1901. Sir, I had the honour to lay before His Majesty the King your despatch No. 53 of the 11th ultimo, enclosing an account of the pro- ceedings of the Legislative Council of Hougkong held on the 31st of January last.
2. His Majesty has commanded me to request you to assure the Legislative Council that he highly appreciates their assurances of the loyalty of the Colony.
financier to arrange these burdens necessarily Head Master has been compelled to fall back disgrace with Yung Lu's honours. imposed so that they should be least oppres sive to the nation at large. Experience has proved that heavy burdens on trade are not only burdensome to the individual, but by removing the possibility of profitable trad- ing, are hurtful to the nation. This is what the apostles of free-trade sought to teach; not that the duties were in themselves sinful, as the doctrinaire of the day would fain have us believe. It is this latest phase of the doctrine that lately has been brought into prominence by men who, in their slavery to ery, would sap the foundations of the principle on which that cry was originally founded. Much of the opposition to the proposal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to place a tax on the export of coal really proceds from this claptrap of men unable to work out the problem for themselves. If we are to enture an opinion on the future of the question, it is that the duty on ex- ported coal has come to remain, and that instead of its being restricted to a shilling per tou, it will in the long run rise to a height which will place a real limit on the waste of the country's capital stock of energy Energy, unfortunately, cannot be manufactured. We have been favoured by. nature in possessing a large reserve stock admirably sitted for cheap winning. Why should we present to our neighbours these advantages, which once lost never can be replaced?
mere
Sir Robert Hart in a letter to M. Pichon, sent with a copy of the Fortnightly Review (containing Sir Robert's first article), says:-
My English friends tell me that I have gone wrong as a prophet, and they express anxiety about my state of health. Have I lost heart This is the question they ask. Perh ps I have gone too far in my statements as to what we shall see in the future; many things may happen to bring about entirely different results, and nobody would be happier than I to find the fati a relations (of foreigners with China) at once friendly and profitable.”
We
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient, humble Servant,
J. CHAMBERLAIN, Governor, Sir H. A. Blake, G.O.M.G.
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
A special meeting of the Sanitary Board was held on the 6th inst. at noon, to consider a report by the Medical Officer of Health regarding an Siege Train cattle at Kowloon. The Hon. W. outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease amongst the
Chatham (Acting Director of Public Works) presided, and there were also present Dr. J. Bell, Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer; Mr. A. W. Browin, Registrar General; F. W. Clark, Medical Officer of Health; and Mr. G. A. Woodcock, Secretary.
Dr.
from Dr. Clark:-"I have the honour to report The CHAIRMAN read the following report
the occurrence of two cases of foot-and-month disease in the Siege Train bullock lines at Gun Club Hill, Kowloon. There are 38 ballbeks in these lines, and the two infected animals were isolated as soon as the disease was re- cognised, and as the animals are all in the open it is possible that the disease may not spread. The remainder of the herd will be carefully examined daily, and any animals showing suspi- cious symptoms will be isolated at ones. I find that the animals are watered at trough beside the Briquette Works, and to reach this they have to traverse. Austin Road. I would suggest the the Govern. ment be asked to instruct the Public Works Department to at once lay a water pipe to within