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Dates and Events connected with the History of Education in Hongkong.
It is not often that the Europeau Coranunity of Hongkong, far removed as it is from the busy turaĞil of life at the great centres of civilization and immersed in tho cares mul auxietics of a purely commercial life, is agitated by the discussions that excite and divide Society at home. There, life, to the man of active mind, is a scene of con- stant warfare in which he finds himself ranged, almost in spite of himself, on the one side or the other, of the many questions social, political and religious, that are constant- Here we are ly cropping up and demanding an answer. near enough, thanks to the Shez Canal and the Electric telegraph to have prompt and ample information of all that is going on Europe; at the summo time we are far enough away to be beyond the influence of the passion and prejudice stirred up in the breasts of even the best men by actual participation in the fray. Party contests in the Commons only aimse ns. Home Rules is but an object of languid curiosity. The battle over the "Inflexible" and her capabilities sets uo partizans in hostile array. We stand indifferent between the Turks and the Russians, and judge the oue as capable as the other of the most atrocious "atrocities." The question of War or Pence causes little or no excitement. If we consider the matter at all it is only as it is likely to affect Bank shares. Darwinism has, perhaps, its disciples among us laut they are non-aggres- sive. Ritualism may have its secret admirers and prose- lytes but they are content to rest in obscurity. Of the navy questions that have agitated the mind of Europe during the last dozen years there is only one that has caused 3411y discussion, given rise to any pronounced expres- sion of opinion or excited any angry feeling anong us. That question is one of, undoubtedly, the greatest import- anec; one that comes to the front sooner or later in every civilized society; one that must have a definite answer given to it, for it has a practical application not only to-day but to-morrow and for all time.
How shall we best educate our children, and, to whom shall we entrust the work, are questions that every gene- ration has to answer not merely in words, by its writers, but in acts, by its rulers,
Hongkong with its large native population, and with the steady increase in its permanent European population
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