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174
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
with was 659; floors fumigated, 1,615; and floors Colony by strengthening this vitally important cleansed, 2,067.
MORTALITY. STATISTICS.
The mortality statistics for the week ended 15th February show the death-rate per 1,000 per annum to have been 15, against 18.9 in
previous week and 24.6 during the corres ponding week oflast year.
THE PLAGUE DOCTORS.
Mr. OSBORNE-I beg to ask you, sir, if there is any information with regard to the doctors that were asked by the Board on 28th January coming from Indis ?
LIMEWASHING RETURNS.
class. To justify its creation, such a school must show itself an addition to the local and imperial armoury: it is no question of granting a compassionate allowance to one section of the community, however deserving.
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[March 10, 1902.
Chinese residents asking that a suitable English School may be established, with the assistance of Government, for the education of the boys and girls of the Chinese upper classes.
2. In view of your strong recommendation. and the arguments with which it is supported, I am prepared generally to approve of the adop. tion of both these proposals.
3. Before however, any defluite steps are taken towards the establishment of either school, I shall be glad to be furnished with further and fuller details of the initial and the annual cost of each school, so far as they can be foreseen at present.
B. There are in the Colony, according to the recent Census, 175 boys and 202 girls be- tween the ages of 5 and 16. Few of those are children of the comparatively wealthy classes who can afford to live at the Peak. Most of them have parents of the professions above enumerated. To such parents there are three The PRESIDENT-There have been several courses open. Either they can send their child telegrams to my knowledgo passed between the ren home to be educated; or they can avail 4. I think that it will be necessary for the Government here and the Government of India themselves of the existing schools; or they can Colonial Government to limit the amount of its with reference to this matter, but no definite inlet their children grow up without instruction. building_grant in the case of the proposed formation has yet been received by this Govern- As regards the first alternative, it is simply out Chinese Higher School. I am very doubtful ment. The doctors have not been selected yet. of the question on the score of expense in most whether Government could afford to contribute They wished to know whether native doctors cases, the expense not only of sending them a sum equal to or not much below $10,000, if will do if we cannot get Europeans, and the home but of the maintenance of two establish- so much were raised by private comtributions. 5. You will doubtless also consider and report second telegram was to the effect that five extra ments out of one income. But in the few cases dootors would be required in addition to the where they can be so sent home, they are probab-in due course how the establishment of these three we first asked for.
ly lost to the Colony; it is at least as likely as two new schools will affect the Queen's College, not they will never return. The second alter- and whether it will be possible to effect any native before them is to send their children to reduction of the expenditure on the latter Queen's College or some other of the local school. schools. Apart from the educational question, and speaking of the climate, there seems no particular reason why children should not grow up in Hongkong. And it is hard to exaggerate the value to the Colony and the Empire's Far Eastern interests which there would be in a thoroughly acclimatised, technically trained, well educated nucleus of mechanicians and engineers, who having lost nothing of the national characteristics added thereto a know- ledge of the Chinese language (such as they could hardly fail to pick up) and a full understanding of Chinese methods of business. At present this dream is unrealisable in part. One of two essentials must be absent: the education must go or the character must suffer, though probably the requisite education is not attainable by any existing means.
The limewashing returns for the fortnight ended 1st inst. gire 1,310 houses whitewashed out of a total in the eastern district of 2,032 houses, of which 1,944 are tenement houses. There were no prosecutions.
ANALYSES OF PUBLIC WATER.
The reports of Mr. F. Browne, Government Analyst, for the month of February, show that the public water of the Colony of excellent quality.
This was all the public business
EDUCATION IN HONGKONG. Among the papers laid before the Legislative Council on the 27th ult. were a number of letters, etc., relating to the school for European children and English school for Chinese of the upper classes in Hongkong. These letters comprised:
(1). Letter from H. E. the Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, covering (2) and (3).
(2). Petition to H. E. the Governor on the subject of the education of European children in Hongkong.
(3). Notes by Mr. E. A. Irving, Inspector of Schools, on (2).
(4). Letter from H. E. the Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, covering (5). (5). Petition to the Colonial Secretary from leading Chinese gentlemen of the Colony for an English school for the education of the children of the Chinese upper classes.
(6). Letter from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to H. E. the Governor in answer to (1).
Of these we have already published (1) and (2). We now produc● (3), (6) and (5), which will be read with interest.
MR. IRVING'S NOTES,
With reference to the question whether such a school should be established by the Govern- ment of Hongkong, the following three points must be settled :
A. Is there any inherent objections to such a school on the ground that, while supported by general taxation, it would be for the benefit of one class only?
B. If justifiable in principle, is it necessary? C. If necessary, what kind of school should it be ?
A.-As I understand the matter, public funds may be devoted to any object that will add to the strength or wealth of the Colony; such are the erection of batteries and forts, and the forts, public works, and the equipment of the rising generation with knowledge and character enabling them to subserve the general welfare, Now, as to this last object there is one section of the community perhaps of more vital im- portance than any other, and that is the members of the mechanical and engineering trades, the skilled British labour in the dock- yards and manufactories, the engineers on local steamers and steam-tramways. They are the backbone of the Colony in time of peace, and their professional knowledge would be a potent factor in its defence in war time! Many of them are already members of the Engineer and other Companies of the Volunteer Force.
&
I base my justification of such a school as is proposed principally on the good it would do the
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say
The character must suffer. I hav the greatest respect for the many good qualities of the Chinese, and I feel that I can without offence, that I should strongly object to send children of my own to attend a mixed school. The Right Reverend the Bishop of Victoria, who was for 10 years (I believe) Head of a Chinese Missionary College in Ning Po, and should know, if anyone does, is a signatory of the Petition, para, 2 of which expresses my meaning very clearly.
So universally is this opiniog held that the second alternative is in practice hardly an alternative at all. They are brought up, or allowed to grow up, ignorant. Their sons will be more ignorant still. When we might have had a strong full-blooded British community born to the soil, to carry on against American, German, and French com petition in the Far East, we are laying up for ourselves an unlearned, unskilful, unpatriotic generation of "mean whites" to be the standing, disgrace of the Colony.
our commerce
C-Assuming the school to be nnobjection- able and necessary, it remains to consider what its nature should be. The Petition asks for both Primary and Secondary Education. The necessity for the latter must be conceded if my view of the matter is a correct one, and it should be carefully arranged to suit the practical requirements of the Colony,
What the cost to the Colony would be can hardly be estimated at present.
There would be considerable difficulty in find. ing a site. Unless it develops into a success, perhaps the Belilios Reformatory might be adapted to this ass.
EDWARD A. IRVING,
Inspector of Schools. P.S.-I should add that Î am in agreement with those points raised in the Petition to which I have not alluded except the matter of religious instruction. I hold that if this is given at all it should be before or after school hours.
REPLY OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
6. I observe from the account of the system of education in Hongkong, which has been drawn up by Mr. Irving for the Board of Education, that there is a school for sons of the troops in the Colony. If this is in any way controlled or supported by the military authori- ties, I presume that it will cease to exist on the opening of a Government School for Europeau children. I also assume that the British and American pupils at the Blilios Public School are likely to be transferred to the new school.
7. It is of course understood that the new schools will be placed under the supervision of the Inspector of Schools.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient, humble Servant,
J. CHAMBERLAIN. Governor Sir HENRY A. BLAKE, G.C.M.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
HIGHER EDUCATION FOR CHINESE.
The Chinese petition, which is addressed to the Colonial Secretary, rans:-
On behalf of an important and influential section of the Chinese Community we desire respectfully to draw the attention of His Excel- lency the Governor to the urgent need for a suitable English School for the education of the children-both boys and girls-of the upper classes of the Chinese resident in this Colony.
2. The efforts of the Government have hitherto beeu directed almost exclusively to the spreid of an elementary education among what may be called the lower and lower middle classes, both Chinese and non-Chinese. But the higher and more thorough raining of the children of the more well-to-do classes has never been provided for.
3. The Queen's College and the Belilios Public School are excellent Government in- stitutions in their way, but the exceedingly large number of pupils attending these schools and the paucity of English teachers, and the indiscriminate and intimate intermingling of children from families of the most varions social and moral standing, render them absolutely undesirable as well as unsuitable for sons and daughters of respectable Chinese families.
4. As Government Board Schools, the above institutions answer their purposes admirably, bat, we submit that, in view of the large in- crease to the Chinese population of a higher social status and permanently residing in this Colony, it is time that some provision should be made for a secondary education for their children.
5. At present, Chinese, who wish to give their sons a good English education, have either to send then to England or the United States f ra long period or to engage at great expense a private tutor, who after all may not be a trained teacher. In the first cas the children are parted from their parents at most impressionable age and incur a very great risk of finding themselves unable on their return to esume their proper position in the family.
Downing Street, 6th December, 1901. SIR,-I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 343 of the 3rd September,
6. The want is now increasingly felt of a enclosing a memorial from certain British inhabitants of Hongkong, asking that a Govern-schol at which such a thorough knowledge of ment School may be established for European English could be obtained as would enable boys children, and of your despatch No. 330 of the to leave school at a suitable age, and on pro 24th September, enclosing a letter from certain ceeding to England to at once enter on the special
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