7. With reference to the new buildings required for the Central School, I agree with paragraph 4 of the Report so far that I think a new and far more commodious build- ing is required for the Central School, on educational, sanitary and hygeian grounds of even greater urgency than in the case of the above mentioned five school-buildings, and I think a recommendation might well be added that the new building should be constructed on the basis of the purposes required by some definite educational system, such as the Prussian or any other approved system of organisation, and that the building should afford accommodation for 600 or 800 boys, with at least 15 or 20 class rooms, and house accommodation for the European Masters, making due allowance for the local climate. On the other hand I think the wording of paragraph 4 of the Re- port, which limits the development of the Central School to "its present basis" either obscure or objectionable, as a subsequent paragraph recommends a serious modification of the present basis of the Central School, and as another paragraph (6) proposes that the work of the Normal School should be carried on in connection with the Central School. The latter arrangement, which I think quite practicable if suitable accommodation is provided, requires, as I explained elsewhere (C.S.O., 2439 of 17th July 1882) that the monitorial system, at present supplying the native portion of the teaching power of the Central School, should be modified so as to approximate more closely to the system of apprenticeship, with regular systematic instruction in the theory and practice of education, with its periodic examinations, as it at present exists in England, on the Continent and in America.
8. As regards the remaining paragraphs, 7-9, of the above Report, I agree with the leading ideas embodied therein, with this reservation, that if Resolution No. 3 of the Educational Conference of 25th February, 1878--which proposed to make attendance at all English lessons obligatory and attendance at all Chinese lessons optional according to declaration on the part of the parents-is to be set aside, I am clearly of opinion that it would be more consistent, as a matter of organisation and method, and more beneficial to the public, to provitle regular instruction in the Chinese written language in all classes of the Central School without exception, in addition to the translation work referred to in paragraph 7 of the Report. On the other hand I think the time devoted to Chinese lessons in the Upper School might advantageously be lessened by uot more than one half of the time given to Chinese lessons in the Lower School.
12th September, 1882.
E. J. EITEL.
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