assistant with them from Singapore. This gentleman left the house after the lapse of a few months, thus constraining the firm in question to again import another young man from Penang. When I commenced business operations on my own account, I engaged a Portuguese clerk at $75 per month. This young man was a copyist, a mere drawer of figures and letters. He was more a nuisance than a help to me. In the busiest of times, whenever it was found necessary to put a few words of English together, he would come to me and ask me to draft them out for him. He did nothing but copy and some landing and shipping for me. Of course the older houses had their staff of Englishmen from Oxford and Cambridge, drawing large salaries, but the minor ones had to content themselves by having an hour or two of attendance from two old gentlemen, who made a living by going about distributing the leisure hours at their disposal on several small houses here. Times have altered now, and competent young men may be found, who are prepared to occupy berths at small salaries; consequently almost every merchant's establishment and every store can boast of a clerk. I have a staff of Portuguese clerks, and I am very much pleased with them. They are steady, attentive, and painstaking, and I suppose I cannot replace them by a set of better men.
I cannot replace them by a set of better men. To whom is all this due? I maintain it is owing to the exertions of the Christian Brothers and to the existence of the St. Joseph's College. The older firms are commencing to employ them, and they are finding situations in banks. I have no doubt that the time is not far distant when it will be found necessary to employ them generally. In lauding this place of learning, I do not mean to detract one single iota from the importance of the sister institution, the Central. On the contrary, I contend that if this has done much, the other is destined to do still more for the island. This school deals with a section of the community, whilst the other deals with the mass of the population. I dare say the time will come when a staff of Portuguese clerks and a European at their head, and, later on, a staff of Chinese clerks and a Portuguese at their head, will be capable of conducting large business establishments satisfactorily. When commerce and trade fail to afford large profits, it becomes imperative to retrench expenditure. In the principal cities of India, if you were to walk into large establishments you will see nothing but swarthy faces and turbaned heads hard at work, with perhaps one Englishman or one Eurasian to direct them. On inquiry as to salaries, you will be told that they range in rupees between the equivalents of ten to a hundred dollars. Education has done this for India, and education is certain to do the same for China. Men of business in future will have to be grateful to the managers of these two institutions for the benefits they will then enjoy.—(Applause).
The National Anthem was then played, and the proceedings terminated.
[No. 21.]
V. RESULTS OF THE EXAMINATION OF THE GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS.
INSPECTORATE OF SCHOOLS, HONGKONG, 25th February, 1880.
SIR, I have the honour to forward under this enclosure the annual table showing the results of the examinations I conducted under the Grant-in-aid system.
Apart from the Government Schools and Government Aided Schools, 29 in number, the total number of Schools examined by me under the provisions of the Grant-in-aid Schedule last year amounted to 19, as against 17 in 1878 and 14 in 1877. The total number of children presented for examination amounted to 755, as against 557 in 1878 and 459 in 1877. In one School some boys were, for the first time, examined in the subjects of a higher class of education, as provided for by Rule No. 22 of the Schedule. The passes in the whole of the subjects included in the Schedule amounted to 86 per cent., as against 95 per cent. in 1878 and 86 per cent. in 1877. The reason of this decrease in the percentage of passes, as compared with the previous year, does not lie in any decrease in the effectiveness of the teaching given in 1879, but is to be found in the fact that, at the last examination, I increased the strictness of the test applied in Schools under Class I, allowing only one mistake where two mistakes were allowed formerly. In the case of one School a cumulative reduction of five per cent. on the whole earnings had to be made under Rule No. 3 of the Grant-in-aid Schedule. In the case of another School, opened on 1st March, 1879, payment has been calculated pro rata, this being the condition under which the School was accepted by the Government. As regards St. JOSEPH's College, I have to state that the figures in the enclosed table refer only to the results of the examination of those boys who, from 1st January, 1879, up to the day of examination, 29th January, 1880, had completed the 200 attendances required by the Schedule, but that I have kept a Memorandum regarding the results of the examination of those boys whose attendance was insufficient, which Memorandum can hereafter be referred to, if required.
The sum total earned by the Grant-in-aid Schools amounts for last year to $6,124.54, as against $4,811.53 in 1878 and $3,752.90 in 1877. Out of this sum the grant earned by the Victoria School, amounting to $370.74, has already been paid under an advance warrant, leaving a balance still due of $5,753.80.