... effect proposals which were adopted not one day too soon so far back I believe as in 1876. (Applause). Sir, as far as I can understand the pressing wants of the school are more accommodation for the scholars and a larger staff of masters. Two facts came out prominently in the Commission, of which I was a member, first, that the class rooms are inadequate to the average attendance of to-day, which is 420, and, secondly, that in consequence of the too small staff of masters the classes are too large. Another prominent fact appeared, and that was that the number of 420 which can now be taught here might be increased to seven or eight hundred if the accommodation was sufficient for them. (Applause). I had hoped, sir, that in your eloquent speech, in which you said not one word too much of our friend Dr. Stewart, that you would have assured the old scholars who have so hospitably entertained us, that we shall soon have a school worthy of the Colony in our midst, but I trust you will give that assurance to the new Legislative Council you are about to summon. (Applause). The GOVERNOR—You must vote the money. (Laughter).
I will not weary you with any detail of the progress the Central School is now making. I am, I believe, to be followed by the Head Master, who will satisfy you on this point, but I am glad to hear from him that great progress has been made under him in English grammar and that the classes show a much greater general proficiency than formerly in the English language. I have also heard from him, what we know otherwise to be the case, that those who leave are in great demand for the mercantile establishments of the place, and during the last year five or six pupils qualified themselves also for engineering practice. (Applause).
I know there are many persons in this Colony who think this institution should be expanded into a college which should introduce higher branches of study. I have no doubt in course of time that will come, I think we may look forward to the time when professorial chairs of science and philosophy will be held here and when possibly some Chinese Tyndall or Huxley will lecture on the conservation of energy and the properties of molecules, and perhaps assist in solving that problem which perplexes us all in the Western world, the relation of spirit and mind to matter (Hear, hear). In the meantime we have, in my opinion, a much humbler and a less ambitious task to fulfil, which is to provide the ordinary Chinese youth of the Colony with an education that shall fit them for ordinary work in the colony and on the mainland. (Applause).
We know that among the foremost men who are engaged in pushing China forward there are those who have been educated in the schools of this colony, and I believe that in the future the pupils of this Central School will play no inconsiderable part in organising that great mass of unorganised labour in the contiguous Empire which under the headship of Western training and Western knowledge would revolutionise industry in the East.
I have great pleasure in proposing prosperity to the Central School coupled with the name of Mr. Bateson Wright, the Head Master. (Loud applause).
Mr. WRIGHT, in responding, said—Your Excellency and gentlemen, in the name of the present staff of masters I must thank the hon. gentleman who has just proposed the health of the Central School in such kind terms. It is very gratifying to have his public assurance that the public generally are satisfied with the nature of the instruction imparted in this school, for it is within the recollection of you all, though not within my own knowledge, that the question was raised whether this school was fulfilling its object.
No one who is unacquainted with the labour of teaching the Chinese English can fully realise the immense attending difficulties. These difficulties consist not only in the well-known disparity of grammatical structure in the two languages, but also in the absence in the Chinese mind of abstract ideas and the power of deductive reasoning; so that the students here not only have to learn a foreign tongue but require to be instructed in ideas entirely new and alien to their native conceptions.
If these things strike me, supported as I am by an efficient staff of English masters and Chinese assistants, how immense must have been the difficulties with which Dr. Stewart had to contend single-handed, some twenty years ago? (Applause). I feel, and every succeeding Head Master must feel, that Dr. Stewart has laboured in this old and we have entered into the fruits of his labours. (Applause). I again thank you all for your kind reception of this toast.
Sir GEORGE PHILLIPPO proposed the next toast, "The Founders of the Scholarship." He said—Your Excellency and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to be present on this occasion, because, as your Excellency has said, the compliment which has been tendered to Dr. Stewart to-day is honourable alike to those who have paid it and to the gentleman who has received it.
It is not always that a head master and his pupils part on such terms—(a laugh) that a master's old scholars invite him to an entertainment like this in order to show their gratitude to him and their pleasure in testifying to the great good he has done. (Applause). I have very great pleasure in being present on this occasion because I think this is a new departure in the colony. (Applause).
It seems to me to show not only that the old pupils have a reverential affection for their old master, but also that they are desirous that the advantages they have received should be handed down to future generations → (applause) and it is in this I see before me the promise of what I hope will be a great advantage not only to the community of Hongkong but to the great empire which lies near us. (Applause).
Gentlemen, the founding of the scholarship which has this day been presented to the school seems to me to be not only an acknowledgment, a graceful acknowledgment, on the part of the old pupils of the great benefits they have received from their former head master, but also an acknowledgment of the duties they owe, and the feelings they ought to show, to those who come after them, and in that, I think, is the great point of the present occasion.
I see what the Central School is: I have heard what it has done in the past, but I look upon this departure as the commencement of a new era, when the Chinese pupils acknowledge the duties belonging to themselves as regards the promotion and extension of education. I look upon it as showing they have appreciated the advantages they have received here and that they look forward to securing greater advantages for those who come after them.
These may be small things, but small things invariably lead up to something more, and I look forward from the present moment to a higher education in Hongkong and to seeing Chinese take their part, as my friend Mr. Johnson has said—and I say it seriously—taking their part among the savants of the Western world and showing that they can appreciate Western science; that they, with their faculties of perseverance and industry can advance throughout the whole of the civilized world some of those problems we are at present trying to solve. (Applause).
I look forward to the old scholars, recruited year by year as they will be, endeavouring to confer upon the whole community the benefits of a higher education. (Hear, hear). I don't think they will be satisfied till we have a University in Hongkong, and a University ranking with Universities in other parts of the civilized world. (Applause).
When I see the old scholars of the Central School coming forward and saying that not only in appreciation of their old master, but also in order to associate his name with future progress, they found a scholarship, I hope when their ranks are recruited by the numbers turned out year by year from the Central School they will not be satisfied with less than a University. (Hear, hear).
I also look forward to seeing, and that within a measurable space of time, the pupils of the Central School establishing something which all the old pupils can immediately avail themselves of. I say, and I submit it to the old pupils of the Central School, that when a man has completed his studies at school he has not completed his studies for life, he has something also to look forward to, and I am gratified by the assurance that there is something being thought of by the pupils which shows they recognise their education does not leave off when they leave the Central School.
I hope, and I have been somewhat instrumental in giving effect to that hope in the Straits Settlements, that the scholars of the Central School will associate themselves together and endeavour to form a kind of what we should call esprit de corps that they will stick together and endeavour—and I hope they will excuse me for saying so—to promote association amongst themselves. And for that purpose nothing could be more useful than the establishment of a library of good useful works amongst them. (Applause).
Having subscribed in order to found a scholarship, in the name of their late head master, I entertain the hope that they may recognise the advantage of associating together and "educating themselves far beyond the amount of ...
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