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11.-TABLE shewing the ANNUAL MEAN STATE of the ATMOSPHERE during the Year 1862 as recorded at the CIVIL HOSPITAL.
MONTH BAROMETER FAHRENHEIT THERMOMETER HYGROMETER STATE OF THE WEATHER Rain in Inches 9 A.M. 3 P.M. Max. Min. 9 A.M. 3 P.M. 9 A.M. 3 P.M. January, 30.41 64 56 53 0.55 February, 30.31 30.11 57 40 0.72 March, 30.29 29.89 58 40 7.33 April, 30.16 30.10 29.87 29.79 52 62 0.67 May, 30.30 30.01 29.77 29.71 85 0.68 June, 29.94 29.94 29.11 20.09 85 73 78% 9.73 July, 29.92 79 78 73 11.63 August, 29.96 95 82 78 30.89 September, 85 78 77 23.01 October, 30.10 30.00 29.71 20.31 29.85 81 73 68 6.00 November, 29.90 29.58 29.54 29.58 | 29.50 73 68 60 2.85 December, 30.13 30.20 30.08 80.26 29.91 70 63 72 5.55 Annual Mean, 30.16 30.32 29.75 | 29.65 75 68 $16Average during the Month. Fine, overcast, drizzling rains, and misty. Fine and clear. Fine, overcast, cloudy, and misty. hazy. do. rain and misty. do. overcast and rain.
No. 31.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Report of the Board of Education for 1862, is published for general information.
W. H. ALEXANDER,
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 10th March, 1863.
Acting Colonial Secretary.
HONGKONG, 11th February, 1863.
1. The Board of Education beg leave to present to Your Excellency the following Annual Report of the state of the Government Free Day Schools in the Island of Hongkong.
2. The opportune arrival of Frederick Stewart, Esquire, M.A., immediately after the presentation of their last Annual Report enabled the Board to take early measures for carrying out the scheme recommended by them in the year 1861, That scheme, in addition to the previously existing general superintendence of all the Schools by an English Inspector, embraced also the twofold object of establishing a Central School in Victoria under an English Head Master in place of some three or four smaller Schools in its neighbourhood; and of introducing into the Central School thus constituted a higher order of instruction in the English language.
3. Mr. Stewart's attention has been mainly directed to English instruction in the Central School, and to visits of Superintendence to the other Schools in the City and the outlying Villages. He has also given a large portion of his time to the study of the Chinese language as a necessary pre-requisite to the due fulfilment of his office. The manner in which he has discharged his duties has given great satisfaction to the Board, and has fully justified the favorable judgment of their Right Reverend Chairman in selecting him for the appointment.
4. The number of Schools under the supervision of the Board amounted in the beginning of 1862 to twenty; which number has been reduced to sixteen by the absorption of the Taipingshan, Sheong-wan and Chungwan Schools into the Central School, and the abolition of a School in the Village of Tytam-took.
5. The number of Scholars enrolled in the School-registers amounts to a total of 889, including 34 female Scholars in the Girls' School in Sheong-wan. From this total a considerable deduction must be made as to the number of actual attendants in the Schools through the irregularity of the Scholars.
6. With respect to the generality of Village Schools, the Board regret that it is not in their power to report any just and adequate appreciation by the people of the benevolent efforts of the local Government in placing the means of an ordinary Chinese education within their reach. The prevailing poverty of the parents, chiefly engaged in fishing and agricultural pursuits, and the consequent necessity of employing their children at an early age in labour for their subsistence, operate as a serious difficulty against securing a regular attendance. The low moral principle and careless indolence perceptible in most of the native School-masters, the existence of local intrigues and jealousies, and the difficulty of Mr. Stewart amid his other duties in the Central School exercising an effective superintendence over the Schools in the more remote parts of the island,-- have also formed a great disadvantage in giving due effect to the measures of the Board.
7. The highly efficient condition of the Schools at West Point and Tanglungchow is sufficient to show the large number of Scholars and the satisfactory educational results which may be expected from the employment of competent Chinese School-masters and a regular system of visits from the English Superintendent.
8. These various considerations have therefore convinced the Board of the expediency of discontinuing for the present the Government Schools in the Villages of Saiwan, Showkewan, Shek-'O and Little Hongkong; and of employing the pecuniary means thus placed at their disposal in giving increased efficiency to the Schools in Victoria and its immediate vicinity, thus leaving only the two large and populous Villages of Stanley and Aberdeen among the distant stations with their present School-establishment untouched.
9. With this object in view they would consider it a desirable arrangement that the existing School-houses in the four above-named smaller Villages be handed over, under certain conditions, free of rent to the inhabitants, and that the Villagers themselves be left at liberty (if so disposed) to elect and support their own School-masters. They are led to suppose that the villagers may learn to set a higher value on the advantages of an education for which they have to make a payment; and that a greater dependence of the master upon the favourable estimate of the people may excite greater exertions to promote the improvement of his pupils.
10. The existence of three Hakka and two Punte Schools supported by the payments of pupils and apparently in a tolerably thriving condition, in close vicinity to the Government School in Showkewan, which, although free of all charge, is nearly destitute of Scholars, suggests grounds of expectation that the principle of self-support may in some Villages be made the subject of hopeful experiment.
11. A measure upon which the Board would lay great stress is that of rendering the situation of Government School-masters one of greater attraction to competent Chinese Scholars. With this view they would be glad to possess the means of giving increased stipends and holding out the prospect of further advancement to well-conducted and efficient native teachers.
12. The Board anticipate advantage in this point of view from their recently-adopted special minute establishing a gradation of rank and pay among the Chinese School-masters. Their minute comprised also the introduction of a system of primary and secondary examinations in Chinese regulating the admission of pupils into the Chinese and English departments respectively of the Central School.
13. In the prospect of enlarging the means of education in the Central School and extending to a larger proportion of Chinese youths the eagerly-sought advantages of English instruction, the Board would again beg to call the attention of Your Excellency to the overtasked energies of the Headmaster, and the necessity of engaging as soon as possible the services of an Assistant-master from England. Native teachers labour under great disadvantages through their defective pronunciation of English words and their universal ignorance of method or system in the management of classes. By relieving Mr. Stewart of the unfruitful work of distant visits to the Village Schools now proposed to be discontinued, they hope not only to leave him more at liberty for superintending the Schools within easy reach, but also to enable him to give a more undivided amount of his valuable labour and time to the duties of the Central School.
In order to secure a greater efficiency in the working of the English department of the Central School the Board have to rely mainly on the adoption of their recommendation for securing the services of a second English master.
On behalf of the Board,
G. VICTORIA,
To His Excellency W. T. MERCER, Esquire,
Acting Governor of Hongkong.
Chairman.
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