THE DIOCESAN BOYS' SCHOOL,
HONGKONG.
77
The Diocesan Boys' School and Orphanage, Hong Kong, was founded on the island of Hong Kong in 1869 when it took over the property of a Chinese Girls' School founded in 1860. The New Institution admitted English and Eurasian Orphans, boys and girls, from all over the Far East, free or at reduced fees. Chinese have always been admitted at full fees which are the highest charged at Schools in Hong Kong. In 1878 the School was one of the first Schools, if not the first school, to come under the new Grant-in-Aid Scheme. It had received small grants since the 'Sixties'.
Since 1892 the Girls have had their own School, which was later, in 1913, moved to Kowloon on the mainland.
In 1924 the Boys' School sold its old site on the island of Hong Kong for approximately 486,000.00 for delivery in February 1926, and began to build a new School at Kowloon on the mainland on a site of twenty three acres given by the Government, which has no Secondary School for Chinese on the mainland.
The population in the Kowloon district has doubled since 1921; according to the 1931 census there are over 220,000 people.
Nearly $150,000.00 have been collected in donations, etc.
In 1925 the Strike-Boycott caused the syndicate which bought the old site, and which had paid $90,000.00 bargain money, to go bankrupt; the new school was then half built. Plans were cut down.
On the re-sale of the old site in 1927 the school lost approximately 173,000.00 including interest on loans, which were raised in 1926-7 to pay the contractor. On this loan the school pays the Government $14,000.00 per annum interest, of which interest the sum of $3,500.00 p.a. is Sinking Fund, which will wipe off the loan in approximately twenty three years.
The school also lost promised and possible donations as a result of the Strike Boycott in 1925; this loss is estimated, roughly, at about $75,000.00 to $100.000.00.
The school moved into the new buildings in February 1926.
In January 1927 the Shanghai Defence Force took over the buildings, at about three weeks notice, as a hospital. In three months the Military Authorities put on the top storey, built The operating theatres etc. and had 450 beds for patients. school thus did a public service in the Far East for the Empire and for the Colony.
The school had to move into ten houses, and numbers dropped from over 300 to about 200 boys. Most of the wealthy Chinese Boarders left. The Military Authorities paid rent and about $17,000.00 Compensation, which did not cover losses.
The school moved into its buildings again in February 1928 and has, only this year, recovered to 300 boys, of whom 25 are
1.