542
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system of street — lighting but they are not matters of urgency and can wait till the really important matters dealt with above have been disposed of.
70.
EDUCATION.
The total annual expenditure on Education
is under 3,000. A small Government school with four
teachers is maintained in Port Edward; there are Chinese
schools of a very elementary type in the larger villages,
and there are three Mission Schools and one maintained by
the Anti-footbinding Society. The total number of pupils
at these schools, excluding the village schools, was in
1917 the latest year for which I have any figures - under
200. The total Chinese population is probably between
150,000 and 200,000.
71. Such a situation in a territory which has
been under British administration for over twenty years cannot but reflect discredit on Great Britain, especially in the eyes of a people who take so keen an interest in education as do the Chinese, and I submit that it is our plain duty to make some real attempt to provide educational facilities for those who desire them. The provision of
reasonable facilities should not be a very expensive matter as there is little doubt that school-fees of a fair amount would readily be paid by those who could afford to do so. It would probably be possible to find a graduate of the University of Hongkong, where there is a certain mmber of students from the North, to undertake the direction of education in Weihaiwei at a very moderate salary.
I suggest, therefore, that an officer of the Hongkong Education Department should be asked to devise an educational system suited to the requirements of Weihaiwei and to report as to the staff necessary to carry it out.
To sum up, the prime needs of Weiheiwei are two:- Certainty of tenure and a reasonable income. Given these two essentials the Territory, though it will never
be
72.