only, are gone their usual course in previous years, and do not call for any special remark. But it is necessary to advert briefly to those Government schools, outside the Central School, which teach both English and Chinese. Among these schools, the Government school at Stanley was the least satisfactory, as the number of boys learning English there gradually dwindled down, through various causes, till there were at the end of the year but 4 boys learning English in addition to Chinese, all the others studying Chinese only. At the Shaukiwan Government school the state of affairs was hardly better. In both of these villages the people appear to prefer a purely Chinese education to the teaching now given in both the English and Chinese languages by one Master in each place. To please these people, the Government would have to appoint one Master to teach Chinese exclusively and another to teach English. But as the number of those who wish to learn English is small in these two places, it is hardly to be expected that the Government should incur the large additional expenses. There is, in Shaukiwan, the further difficulty that some of the boat-people and villagers there wish the Chinese teaching to be given in the Hakka dialect, others in the Punti and others in the Hoklo dialect, whilst no teacher can be found able to teach in any two of these dialects. In the Anglo-Chinese Government school at Yaumati things were comparatively more satisfactory. But here also the number of boys studying English is very small. At Wongnaich'ung the combined teaching of English and Chinese, both of which subjects are equally appreciated by the villagers, gave good results and this Anglo-Chinese school appears to be in a satisfactory condition. The best schools of this class, however, are the two Anglo-Chinese Government schools at Saiyingpún and Wántsai. At Saiyingpún there is a native Master, educated at Howard University, Washington, U.S.A., teaching English, whilst there is another Government school in the same building teaching only Chinese, so that those who wish to learn Chinese in addition to English, have an opportunity of doing so. But few, however, avail themselves of it, and the majority devote the whole of each day to learning here English only, having private opportunities to keep up their Chinese knowledge. At the Wántsai Government school we have two Masters, one an Indian, educated at the Government Central School, who teaches English, and a native Master teaching Chinese. Only very few of the boys in this school omit studying Chinese in addition to English. This school was in September 1881 attached to the Normal School, to give the students of the Normal School opportunity for practical exercises in the art of teaching. The examination of both the Saiyingpún and the Wántsai schools exhibited good results, such indeed as can fairly be compared with the results of the corresponding classes in the Central School.
17. As regards the Grant-in-Aid schools, the same details as those which I have given above with reference to the Central School, will be found collected in the tables accompanying this report, viz., in Table XIII, shewing the number of scholars who passed and failed in each standard as well as the amount of grant earned in each case, in Table XIV, which exhibits the percentage of scholars who passed in each school, and in Table XV, which shews the percentage of passes obtained by each of these schools in reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, repetition, explanation, and composition. But further details regarding these Grant-in-Aid schools having been called for, I proceed to add some remarks regarding the working and results of these schools in 1881, taking these schools in order according to the class of teaching given in each.
18. None of the Grant-in-Aid schools has been placed in that highest class of schools for which the Grant-in-Aid Scheme has made provision in Rule No. 20, viz., Class V, "schools in which a European education is given in any European language with Chinese in addition." The Government Central School is almost the only school of this class in the Colony. But in Class IV of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, viz., for "schools in which a European education is given in any European language," we have Grant-in-Aid schools, 6 of which use the English language, and 3 use the Portuguese language as the medium of education. Those of these schools which teach English, may be divided into Roman Catholic and Protestant schools. Those which use the Portuguese language, in place of English, are exclusively Roman Catholic.
19. As regards those Roman Catholic Schools which teach English, I have to refer in the first instance to St. Joseph's College, under the charge of the Christian Brothers. This institution is divided into two distinct schools, one being specially for Chinese boys who, however, are taught English exclusively, and the other for Portuguese boys. Neither the Chinese nor the Portuguese language is taught in this institution or even used by way of explanation. The result of the examination was, in both divisions, highly satisfactory, as, out of 140 boys examined, 11 failed in one subject each, and only 4 failed to pass. A reference, however, to Table XV, shewing the results gained in 1880 and 1881 by a comparison of the percentage of passes obtained in reading, dictation, arithmetic, grammar, geography and history, indicates that there was, in 1881, a slight falling off in the results of teaching of the Chinese division, whilst there was a considerable improvement in the teaching of the Portuguese division, as compared with the results of the year 1880. It must also be taken into consideration that this highly satisfactory result was obtained by examining only those boys who had made up the requisite number of 200 daily attendances. Out of a total of 281 boys on the roll of St. Joseph's College, only 140 had fulfilled this preliminary requirement of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme. There were, therefore, excluded from examination and grant 141 boys, or one half of the whole number enrolled, the natural consequence of the fact that the school was taught only 203 days in the year which left too small a margin for detention by sickness or accidents. As the repeated applications addressed to the Secretary of State, for a reduction of the number of 200 daily attendances, have been...