As regards the examination in Chemistry,
Mr. MACCALLUM set for the boys in Class I. a
series of 9 questions, of which 6 only were to be
answered. These questions comprised only the subjects actually taught during the past year. The following results were obtained :— Total examined,
23
Answers very good,
3
good,
4
fair,
12
Total passed,
10
Total failed,
13
Out of those who failed, only 3 were fit to be
presented at all in Chemistry. The others had
evidently not been long enough in the Class to be able to pass.
Mr. MACCALLUM specially mentioned that the
number of subjects taught seems small for the teaching of a whole year.
"Resolved that the above Minutes be presented to the Government as and in place of a Report." Agreed to unanimously.
25th January, 1881.
E. J. EITEL,
Chairman.
His EXCELLENCY then said-Ladies and gentlemen, I find from the papers put into my hands by the Acting Headmaster, Mr. Arthur, that the number of pupils on the roll now is three hundred and sixty-seven and at this time last year we had four hundred and sixteen. Now the reason why there is a smaller number of boys on the roll at the present time as compared with last year is this, that at the beginning of the year 1880, under instructions from Her Majesty's Government, we raised the ordinary fee of fifty cents a month to a dollar a month, and I have no doubt the decline in the number of boys is owing to that. Of course there is also a decline in the number of boys in actual attendance, and for the same reason. Now, I have never disguised, from the moment I first addressed the pupils of this school, my opinion that the Government system of education in this Colony should be mainly directed to the teaching of English to the youths educated here, and for the purposes of the Colony. It has come to my knowledge, and I referred to it last year, that about forty boys, the best pupils of the school, have been taken away each year, not to the merchants' offices or the Government offices in Hongkong, but to the Foochow Arsenal and the Chinese Customs service. I have never disguised my opinion that it is of service to the Foochow Arsenal to get boys educated in this school. They are taught mensuration; they are taught many things needed for the work of the Foochow Arsenal which would not be needed in the merchants' offices in Hongkong, but which are absolutely necessary for service under the Government of China. At the Foochow Arsenal the language spoken is the Chinese language, and hence, if we are to educate boys in this Colony for the benefit of the Chinese Government we must teach them Chinese in preference to English. But I am of opinion we ought to educate boys here for the British Government, for the Government of Hongkong, and not for the Government of China. I believe that this is the only British Colony in which there is a Government school of the importance of this school -with trained masters of the very highest class, and upon which the Government expends something like $14,000 a year--in which the boys are thus educated not for the purposes of the colony. That I believe to be the reason why I find in this Colony that the Chinese, though the Colony has been established about forty years, know little or nothing of English. I have been here nearly four years. During that time many trials have taken place in the Supreme Court, criminal trials and civil cases, both tried by juries, but though the majority of the inhabitants are Chinese, and though some of the largest rate-payers are Chinese-and the majority of the inhabitants being Chinese very naturally the vast majority of the prisoners tried are Chinese, and a considerable quantity of the property disposed of by the verdicts of juries is Chinese property-nevertheless I do not remember in the whole course of those four years to have seen one single Chinaman on the jury. Why? Because in the Ordinance under which juries are summoned it is provided no man can sit on a jury who has not a knowledge of English, and hence, when the Sheriff comes to strike the jury list to be submitted to the Governor and Legislative Council, out of several hundred names upon that list I suppose there are not more than half a dozen Chinese. And so it is through every department of the Government, whether the administration of the law or the various departments under my administration; I find this same difficulty in all. Soon after I came to the colony, in the year 1877, an appointment was vacant in the magistracy, a clerkship worth £200 per annum. For this clerkship knowledge of English and Chinese was necessary, that is, translation from English into Chinese and from Chinese into English was required. I gave that appointment by open competition. I had the good fortune to secure the services of his Lordship the Bishop of Victoria, of my lamented friend Mr. Charles May, who was at the head of the Magistracy, and of the Hon. Ng Choy as three independent examiners to conduct the examination for that appointment. They reported that eleven boys presented themselves as candidates for the examination.