17
10. What bas just been said, has been said, of course, judging the schools by a European standard. Looking at them, however, from another point of view, as schools, namely, where a Chinese education is given to Chinese children, there are one or two things to which more particular reference may be made. I stated last year why I thought these schools should be continued and encouraged, poor, in our estimation, though the education given in them be. It is painful to see the amb of children in the Colony who seem to spend their whole time in the streets, generally at play, frequently at mischief, always Could these children be made to watching for opportunities to pilfer, and thus commencing a career of idleness and crime." attend school, the opportunity at least of doing evil would, so far, be removed. It were much better that they should be con- fined for the greater portion of the day in school, than that they should spend, as it is to be feared many of them do, the best part of their days in prison. Even on this ground, low though it be, the schools, well attended, would be of no mean ad- vantage to the well being of the Colony.
11. If it could be possible to make the Chinese here feel a greater interest in the education of their children, and if they could be induced to send them regularly to school, the work of reformation would be more than begun. It would be much easier than to prevail on them to allow changes to be introduced than it is now when there is nothing but stolid indifference to appeal to. In many cases, the people do not conceal that they consider they are doing Government a favour by sending their children to its schools. It does not seem to occur to them that the advantage is at least mutual.
I have had cases where a father has urged as a reason why some request of his should be granted that he sent his son to the Government school, and was therefore, doubtless, entitled to a favourable hearing,
19. As regards particular schools, I am sorry to find such a falling off at Tang-lung-chau. Two years ago, the attend- ance at this school was upwards of fifty. Now it is scarcely twenty. This state of things is not due entirely to the removal of of the inhabitants from the neighbourhood but to a cause with which it is more difficult to deal. In the early part
many of last year, it was discovered that the Moster was appropriating money which should have been spent in the payment of a Monitor to assist him in school, to the payment of his own servant. The case was a clear one against him and he was dis- missed. A petition, sigued by many of the people, was then brought to me praying that the Master might be re-instated because he was a good teacher. The cause of his dismissal was completely ignored. When their request was refused, the scholars were sent to me in a lody to ask that he should be allowed to return, No reasoning as to the flagrancy of his fault and his consequent unsuitability for such a trust as that of teaching the young had the slightest effect. They admitted most willingly that his conduct had been bad, but he is a good tracher. Another and undoubtedly the best native Master we have, was sent to the school but one half of the children were withdrawn. Such are the people with whom we have to deal.
13. The most gratifying circumstance connected with the schools is the increasing interest that is now taken in female education. In addition to the Girls' School in Sheung-win with upwards of forty scholars, there is now another at Bowrington with upwards of seventeen. In several of the others, also, there are from two to six girls. To whatever cause it is to be attributed, it is curious to find that the girls make much more satisfactory progress than the boys. Neatness characterizes everything they do, and their handwriting, especially, attracts the admiration of those Chinese who have been shown it. In the school at Bowrington alone is needle-work taught, in addition to the ordinary routine of reading, writing and committing to memory, but I hope that it may soon be introduced into the other school also.
14. It is unnecessary, I trust, for me to state that English is carefully excluded from these schools. To the melancholy results which, in nearly every instance, have followed from teaching Chinese girls English I need not more particularly allude. Its effect on the character of the boys is not, I am sorry to find, what one could wish, but on the character of the girls it has proved to be fatal.
And the reason seems to be this, that coming, as they nearly all do, from the poorer classes, the care, such as they have never experienced before, which is taken of them, the comforts, to thero luxuries, which they enjoy, and the so called accomplishments, which they are taught, totally unfit them for the sphere of life in which they would otherwise naturally remain, and out of which it is impossible for them to rise.
15. The only aim which is attempted to be reached in the Girls' schools, which are under Government control, is that of making them honest and useful in their own humble sphere, and I am happy to say, from enquiries which I have made, that the effort to do this has not been unsuccessful. The Master of the school in Sheng-win tells me that the scholars who have left him, during the ten years in which it has been in existence, have, as a rule been respectably married in their own native Districts of Nám-hoi and Pú'n-ü.
16. Further than stating that the Stanley school is, in the meantime, the most regularly attended and that a Girls' school may be established as soon as there is a suitable school-house, I do not think it necessary to do more at present in connection with the Village Schools than refer you to the statistics which are appended to this Report.
17. I have now, in conclusion, only to refer to the Central School, and, in doing so, I shall be very brief, as no important changes have been made or results reached beyond those previously reported.
18. The attendance was well sustained during the year. It is a matter of some surprise to me that it was so; for, in the first place, the chances of obtaining situations have lately been rapidly diminishing, and in the second, it is not to be concealed that the classes are by far too large for only two English Masters, with the additional duty of inspecting the Village Schools devolving on one of them. The progress of the boys is certainly not what it ought to be, or what I should like to see it. Strangers who pay a casual visit may find some cause for commendation, but those who are daily engaged in the actual working of the school find much that is unsatisfactory, and which either an additional Master or decreased attendance would materially remedy.
19. In previous Reports I have referred to this difficulty. I had hoped that ere this time the Revenue of the Colony would be in a condition to admit of the appointment of another English Master but I fear such a proposition cannot, in the meantime, be entertained. I content myself therefore, under the circumstances, with saying that nothing could more contribute to the efficiency of the school, and that it will not be efficient without it.
20. Allusion has already been made to the main source of the apparent popularity of the school-the means of money- making which are derived from a knowledge of English. In another respects, I was sorry to be told lately by one who has opportunities of knowing that those Chinese who have no sons at the school look upon the boys in anything but a favourable light. By giving themselves airs, by affecting a superiority they do not possess, by forming clubs, to the exclusion of those who do not know English, where all sorts of dissipation exist, the boys do not place the character of the school or the results of the training which is attempted to be given them in the light which those, whose time and energy are spent in their behalf, have perhaps a right to expect. When one thinks, however, of even the effects of Christianity itself, in its earlier stages, and that one Church in particular which had much to commend it had to be seriously cautioned, among other things, against - propensity to steal, one needs not despair at finding many things to annoy and disappoint in the promotion of Education in Hongkong. Like civilization, or any other moral and intellectual change, education is a comparative term which bears a relation not to this arbitrary standard or to that, but to the particular mental condition of the people among whom it is being disseminated. From the six years' experience I have now had of the work, I do not expect to find any great or lasting results in my time. My only hope is that, at the close of my connection with the schools, I may have done something which my successor will not have to undo.-I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient Servant,
The Honourable CECIL C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
Fo., &c., fc.
FREDERICK STEWART, Inspector of Government Schools.
1. Aberdeen
2. Bowrington
3. Central School 4. Girl's School
5. Shau-ki-wan 6. Stanley
NUMBERS and ATTENDANCE at the Government Schools during 1867.
7. Tang-lung-chau (Hakka). 8. Tang-lung-chau (Punti) 9. Webster's Crescent 10. West End
11. West Point (Hakka).
12. West Point (Punti) 13. Wong-nai-chung
Maximum Minimum Enrolment. Enrolment.
Maximum Attendance.
Minimum Attendance.
266
28 8 9 9 9 888$22
24
17
55
47
205
221
48
37
45
84
37
20
14
20
14
11
39
30
44
28
38
15
15
88579838=3832
178
44
40
20
323882*
29
11
8
34
19
21
48
34
14
8
700
533
010
408
SUMMARY of ENROLMENT and ATTENDANCE at the Government Schools for the last Six Years.
1862.
1863.
1864.
1805,
1800.
1867.
733.
535
502
597
623
700
621
469
417
535
572
610
505
414
434
418
435
533
209
301
324
830
337
408
Number of Children in the Colony, under 16 years of age, as per last Census,
..19,349
Deduct, as being under 6 years of age,
.6,949
Deduct, as attending schools of all denominations,
..1,600
8,549
Total Number of Uneducated Children in Hongkong,.
.10,800
Head Master's Classes,
Assistant Master's Classes,
Preparatory Class,
89
37
28
204
Maximum Enrolment Maximum Attendance Minimum Enrolment
Minimum Attendance
ATTENDANCE at the Central School for the Half-year commencing 4th March, 1867.
Total,.
Number rejected at Preliminary Examination,
34
For the Half-year commencing 3rd September, 1867.
Head Master's Classes, Assistant Master's Classes, Preparatory Class,
103
38%
88
30
Total,.
221
Number rejected at Preliminary Examination,
Number who left school during the year,
4
75
FREDERICK STEWART, Inspector of Government Schools.