1904-1919.
HONG KONG, 1911.
219
25
The preparation of a revised edition of the Ordinances of Hong Kong to the end of the year 1911 was considered necessary, and the revision was entrusted to the Chief Justice, Sir F. T. Piggott, who commenced work in March, 1911. At the close of the year the revision work was still in progress.
On the 7th September, 1911, a Board of Chinese Vernacular Primary Education was constituted by the Governor-in-Council with the following duties:
(1) to promote efficient Chinese vernacular education in the Colony;
(2) to collect funds to supplement a Government subsidy made to the Board.
The Board consists of the Registrar-General and the Director of Education (ex officio) and of five Chinese gentlemen nominated by the Governor. The Government subsidy to the Board for the year 1912 will be $4,100.00, which the Board intend to distribute after a survey of the general situation and after inspection in the month of December of schools selected from the list of applicants for assistance. The Board is giving attention in the first instance to boys' schools in the city of Victoria and other parts of the old Colony. Its operations do not extend to the New Territories. Girls' schools are also for the present not placed under the supervision of the Board.
The Grant Code was amended in September in certain particulars. The amendments, which took effect on the 1st January, 1912, reduced the rates of capitation grants for such Vernacular Schools as are without immediate English supervision. The practice of giving grants in aid of rent to vernacular boys' schools occupying leased premises is being discontinued. The reason for this restriction of expenditure is that the grant hitherto offered to vernacular schools was too high for the standard of work attained.
On 4th October, the Chinese section of the Kowloon-Canton railway was opened for through traffic, thus completing direct communication by rail between Kowloon and Canton.
The revolutionary movement in China was reflected in the Colony on 6th November by an ebullition among the Chinese community, which for some days was in a state of great excitement. A proclamation under the Peace Preservation Ordinance, 1886, as amended by Ordinance No. 52 of 1911, was issued on 29th November and was still in force at the end of the year. The police succeeded in preventing any serious outbreak of lawlessness, though the influx of undesirable characters from Canton and other parts of China was disagreeably apparent and many cases of disorderliness, assaults, and petty thieving were reported. Military assistance was provided in the form of armed patrols, and the police force was temporarily augmented by enlisting 20 special constables.
On 21st January, Sir Henry May vacated the office of Colonial Secretary to take up the office of Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Southern Pacific. His place was filled by the appointment of Mr. W. D. Barnes from the Federated Malay States.