CO129-306 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [8-9]

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For a great thing for well-to-do Chinese to give their daughters a good education in English. Then this time arrives the fee may perhaps be raised to $60.00 a year, but in the meantime to charge such a high fee will imperil the success of the school. It must be remembered too that the girls who it is hoped, will attend the school will belong to a class that cannot be expected to walk through the streets, and chair and ricksha hire will add 3 or 4 dollars a month and in some cases double that amount to the expense of going to school.

It is of the utmost importance that the teaching staff should be well paid and a high standard of quality as well as of quantity maintained. Manners makyth man and considering the high place that manners hold in the estimation of the educated Chinese it is necessary that the teachers of the girls school should be ladies and those of the boys school men who have had a liberal education.

A rough estimate of the probable annual expenditure at the outset is given below. The attendance at each school is estimated at 40 pupils.

Boys School Girls School Headmaster at $3,800 rising to $4,300 plus Exchange Compensation with a House $4,500 Headmistress at $1,800 rising to $2,400 plus Exchange Compensation with a House $2,400 1 Chinese Assistant at $980 rising to $1,200 $960 1 Chinese Teacher at $480 rising to $720 $480 Incidental Expenses 250 Incidentals 250 1 Office Boy 132 Office Boy and coolie 240 1 Coolie 108 40 pupils at $24 each $960 40 pupils at $120 each $4,800 Annual cost to Government $5,950 Annual cost to Government $3,360 (corrected to $3,320 + 40) $3,320

It is impossible to say what the actual attendance at the two schools will be but we are satisfied that the Government may safely count on the attendance of 40 pupils at each school from the time that the schools are opened, and we think there are very good grounds for anticipating that the attendance at the boys school will be as high as 80.

(Sd.) A. T. Browne,
Registrar-General.

(Sd.) Edward A. Irving,
Inspector of Schools.

21st September, 1901.