08
381
24
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
form classes to receive a thorough English training from himself; (4) that other Chi- nese youths who had not been in any of the Government Schools but wished to learn English should be admissible on payment of fees to the leadmaster's classes; and (5) that the superintendence of the other Schools, not concentrated in the proposed Institution, be continued as heretofore, the Headmaster (as Inspector) to be assisted in it by the Board of Education, This plan, admirable in its conception of a Model School to form the centre of the educational system of Hongkong, placed the Headmaster and Inspector of Schools, who was at the same time a Government Officer, in the same hybrid relation to the Government and to a fluctuating and internally dissentient Board of private educationists, which had made Mr. Ibscheid's position one of constant friction and which, in this ease also, was bound to come to a speedy termination. The announcement of Dr. Legge's plan was the death-kuell of St. Andrew's School, It was closed at the end of the year 1860, during which it had been taught by Mr. J. Kemp and attended by 70 boys. Mr. Kemp had adopted the Madras system of moui- torial teaching and obtained good results. He reported the School to be increasing in favour among the Chinese population.' Nevertheless Dr. Legge's popular plan put the extinguisher on St. Andrew's School. Out of its ashes arose that phoenix of the Government Central School which now bears the prouder name of Victoria College.
In reporting on the Government Schools for the year 1860, the Committee announced the sanguine expectation, which has ever since been connected with the Central School and Victoria College, that some day the Schools of Hongkong will exer- cise an important influence on the eys- tem of education pursued in the Schools of China itself. Meanwhile these Hong- kong Government Schools, now 30 in num- ber, and attended by 902 boys and 46 girls, had but an imperfect organization,
and the method of teaching followed in the Schools was a strange medley of Chi- nese and European and latterly of religious and secular principles. The Committee actually reported that the monitorial system had been adopted in the smaller Schoole !' Even the sphere to be allotted to English instruction, in relation to Chinese studies, with a view of obtaining decent results in both languages-which is the real crus, still unsolved, of the educational problem of Tiongkong-was not defined yet. The Committee expressed in this re- port a vague desire that education in Eng- lish should enter more largely into the con- duct of the principal Schools than it has yet done. The Government spent, during the year 1860, a total of $6725 on educa- tion.
1861. The revival of Voluntary Schools, which had so suddenly set in with the year 1860, continued during the year 1861. St. Paul's College received a new lease of life, as a School, by the arrival of a new tutor, Mr. J. Fryer, now the well-kuown Trans- lator of scientific works at Kiangnan Ar- senal. He had 4 Chinese assistant teachers under him and 44 boys under instruc- tion. The expenses of the School amounted to $4000. The Girls School, opened by Bishop Smith in 1860, wae now, on the arrival of the instructress, Miss Eaton, re-organized under the name of the Diocesan Native Female Training School,' beginning with 17 Chinese girls, temporarily located at the Albany. The Government having granted a building site (that of the present Diocesan Schoul) a local Ladies Committee, under the presidency of Mrs. Smith, raised funds by local subscrip- tions and a good-sized building was erected, As the instructress was sent out and main- tained, independently of the local Com- mittee, by the London Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East, which now for the first time entered upon its long-continued educational labours in Hongkong, there was a divided control
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
which naturally did oot angur much success. Another new educational agency, unfor- tunately but of a few years' duration but to the present day living in the memory of many, appeared on the scene in the person of Miss Baxter. Being possessed of inde- pendent means, Miss Baxter started on her own account, but in connection with the above-mentioned Female Education Society, most useful Christian work among the wo- men and children of Hongkong. No clase of people in need of education, help or com- fort, escaped Miss Baxter's observation and energetic helpfulness. The wives and ebild- ren of the soldiers of the garrison in town and at Stanley (where they were ruthlessly decimated by malarial fever), Chinese women and girls of all classes, and most especially the Eurasian children of the Colony, then more numerous and more neglected than at present, were the principal objects of Miss Baxter's unwearied ministra- tions, by regular house-to-honse visits, ou the principle of Indian Zenata work. In addition to these labours, Miss Baxter started in 1861, at Ashton Buildings, a Chinese Day School with 2 Chinese teachers, and a Boarding School for Chiness and Eurasian girls (commencing with 8 Chinese girls and 5 Eurasian orphana). At the same time Mies Magrath, unconnected with any Society, started, with the aid of local dona- tions, an Anglo-Chinese Boarding School, with 6 boys and 10 girls, at Mosque Terrace. Miss Legge continued the re-opened Anglo- Chinese Girls School of the London Mission, under Mrs. Kwan Amni and a Chinese tea- cher, the School being reported as intended for the daughters of native church members. It cost $205. Finally, two German Ladies of the Berlin Foundling House commenced, in their institution, a School with 13 children costing $144.
As to the E. C. Mission Schools, the work re-commenced in 1860 was continued in the year 1881. Mr. Rowland gave an English education to 30 boys in the R. C. Boys School in Wellington Street, which cost the
25
Propaganda Society $900. In the same Street, Mr. Vincento Pereira gave a Ecro- pean education in the Portuguese language to 25 boys, also at a cost of $960, and Mr. Leung gave to 90 boys an ordinary Chinese education at a cost of $141. At Spring Gardens, Mr. Vincent Uen (under the direa- tion of the Propaganda Society) taught a Chinese School of 35 boys at a cost of $192, and at Aberdeen Mr. Stephanus Chú, of the same Society, taught 18 Chinese boys at a cost of $144. In the Seminary in Pottinger Street eleven students of theology were under the instruction of Fathers G. Favini, J. Borgozzi and Peter Leang, at a cost of $600. The Sookonpoo Theological School under Father J. Jaquemin had 10 students and cost $480. The Sisters of the Italian Con- vent, continuing the good work which they had commenced in 1860, had 20 girls rs- ceiving an English education under Sister Aloysia, 28 girls receiving a European edu- cation in the Portuguese language under Sister Giovannina and 35 girls receiving a Chinese education under Sister Giuseppina. At Spring Gardens, the Italian Sisters con- tinued their Chinese Girls-School, attended by 30 children under Sister Cecilia Leang, at a cost of $144. The Sisters of the Asile de la Sainte Enfance, had, at Spring Gar- dens, a Chinese Girls School, attended by 34 children, under Sister Benjamin. This School cost $240. There was also a Boys School, attended by 15 Chinese boys under Mr. Joseph Lee, which cost the French Sisters $120.
Early in the year (9th January, 1861) the Government informed the Board of Education that the Governor (Sir Hercules Robinson) approved of Dr. Legge's Plan and acceded to the recommendation, agreed to by the Board, to place all the Government Schools under the superintendence and in- spection of the Headmaster to be placed in charge of the proposed Central School. At the same time, the Government authorized the Board to find a gentleman suited to the post. Dr. Bridges and Dr. Irwin having
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