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Medical and Sanitary.
A European medical officer should be appointed to look after the officers of the Government, and superintend generally sanitary matters throughout the territory. He should have under him a staff consisting of two Chinese assistants trained in Western medical science, who would aid him in the work of supervising medical and sanitary matters throughout the villages. A small hospital should be erected at headquarters, and in course of time dispensaries should be established at different points in the territory.
For purposes of sanitation the council and head constable in each village should co- operate with the medical authority, and should be encouraged to keep their villages in a cleanly condition.
Education.
At present every village of any size in the territory has at least one school, in which the Chinese Classics are taught. The schoolmaster's salary is paid by the villagers. In addition to these schools there is at Namt'au, the chief city of the district, a college or Shü Ün, under a Director and Assistant Director of Studies, in which candidates for the first and higher degrees may study. These candidates, who are commonly known as T'ung Shang, have already passed two examinations--one, held by the magistrate of the district, and one by the prefect of the Kwong Chau Prefecture, the Prefecture being made up of a number of districts, of which San On is one. It is estimated that there are in the district of San On 300 Tung Shang studying for the first degree, for which an examination is held yearly at Canton. The number of vacancies allotted to the district is eleven. There are said to be 150 graduates of the first degree resident in the whole district.
I recommend that the present village schools be retained, but that at the same time the study of English be encouraged. This could be done in the first instance by the establishment at the headquarters of the government of a school for the teaching of English under a master well acquainted with both Chinese and English. When a desire for a knowledge of English spreads, as is almost certain to be the case, other schools can be established at different places throughout the area. As an inducement to learn English free scholarships at Queen's College should be offered to the best students in the new territory, and the appointments of interpreters should be, so far as possible, given to natives of the district who are qualified to fill them.
Revenue.
وو
It is notorious that in China the officers of Government are so inadequately paid that it is impossible for them to live on their official emoluments. The result of under- paying the mandarins is that, in order to make both ends meet, the officials are con- strained to resort to methods which in most other countries would not be tolerated, but which in China have come to be regarded as part of the official system. This "squeeze system is in existence throughout the length and breadth of China, and the officials of the San On district, in which the new territory is contained, are driven, like their con- frères in other parts of the Empire, to supplement their insufficient salaries by appro- priating to their own use moneys which should find their way into the public purse.
In fact, two distinct revenues are collected in the San On district. One, the public revenue, is collected by the district magistrate. A careful account of it is rendered to his superiors, who have to forward a portion of it to Peking as the contri- bution of the district towards the Imperial Government. It has been an easy matter to obtain information regarding this revenue, which practically never varies from year to year, as any increase shown would not benefit those responsible for its collection. Appendix 7 contains a statement of this revenue, drawn up by the district magistrate, from which it appears that the total annual revenue for the entire district of San On amounts to taels 37,589, or $52,220, or, say, £5,000.
The other class of revenue is also collected by the district magistrate and his under- lings, but as it goes into his own pocket and that of his friends and relations, and as he is liable at any moment to be impeached for extorting it from the people under his jurisdiction, he naturally takes every precaution to prevent, so far as he can, any in- formation regarding it being made public. It has, therefore, been extremely difficult
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