as those at Shaukiwán, whilst the Chinese Schools in the same places are crowded with eager scholars. The Headmaster of the Central School, who acted as my locum tenens during my absence on leave, examined three of these Government Schools which are doing the same work as the corresponding classes of the Central School, and the following is the result stated in his own words. "Saiyingpún. Out of 52 boys examined in Standards I, II and III, 49 passed, the three failures being in Standard I. Of the total number none failed in reading, 3 in dictation, 8 in arithmetic; of the 32 examined in geography 1 failed; while the 9 that presented grammar all passed with great credit. The whole School gave evidence of a very thorough education and obtained a remarkably high average of ‘very good' marks, which were in fact much in the majority. This, taken together with the excellent discipline maintained by Mr. FUNG FU throughout the year, places his school far ahead of the other Government District Schools; and it is much to be regretted that he has not a more commodious and healthy building in which to give his abilities freer scope.-Wántsai. Out of 63 boys examined in Standards I, II, III and IV, 56 passed, there being 4 failures in Standard I and 3 in Standard III. Out of the total number 4 failed in reading, 9 in dictation, 17 in arithmetic; of 20 who offered grammar, 2 failed, while 6, that presented geography, all passed. With the exception of arithmetic the above results are very good; and in comparing it with Saiyingp'ún, it must be borne in mind that all the scholars here devote half their time also to Chinese studies, while at Saiyingp'ún only about half a dozen do so.- Wongnaich'ung. This School consists of 26 boys. All were examined in Chinese and did very well; 17 were presented in English subjects, in Standards I, II and III, and all passed with the exception of one boy in Standard I. Of the total number (17) all passed well in reading, 3 failed in dictation, 7 in arithmetic; while of the 6 that presented grammar, only one failed. These results, arithmetic excepted, are good; the master, therefore, deserves great credit as his village boys are inferior in quality and sharpness to town lads."
21. The work of those Government Schools and Government Aided Schools, which give but a Chinese education in the Chinese language, has continued during the year 1883 its usual course. There is nothing in connection with these Schools that calls for special remarks except that these Schools, lacking the stimulus which the system of payment by results gives to the energy of the teacher who receives as a personal bonus one fourth of the grant earned by the School, have been left far behind in the race for efficiency of teaching by the Grant-in-Aid Schools. Nevertheless, the work done in these Government Schools and in some few of the Aided Schools is satisfactory in its way. But a few of the Aided Schools, and especially those at Táit'ámtuk and Wongmákok, have shown such poor results that, unless a considerable improvement takes place as regards the regularity of attendance in the course of next year, the grant will have to be withdrawn, as not sufficiently appreciated by the parents who frequently prefer to send their children out to work instead of leaving them to attend school.
22. With reference to the denominational Grant-in-Aid Schools, all the details, such as I have given above with regard to the Central School, will be found collected in the Tables accompanying this Report, viz., in Table XIII showing the number of scholars who passed or 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; also in Table XV, which shows the percentage of passes obtained by each of these Schools in specified subjects. There are but a few of these Schools, beside some general points connected with the Grant-in-Aid system, which call for special notice.
23. The work done by St. Joseph's College, in the year 1883, has been marked by considerable improvements achieved. A special class was formed of boys who had passed the highest Standard of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, and in this class the following additional subjects were taught, viz., geometry, algebra, mensuration, trigonometry. A Master teaching the Portuguese language was also provided, and arrangements were made to strengthen the staff of the College still further by the addition of some English-born masters. The results of the teaching given in this special class were not tested by me under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, as it does not provide grants for such higher education, in the case of scholars who have already passed the highest Standard of the Scheme. I had, however, an opportunity of testing the results obtained in the English branches of the education given in this special class, when some of the students in this class submitted to a competitive examination for the Belilios Scholarships. The results obtained by this examination were, on the whole, very creditable to teachers and pupils. As regards those classes of St. Joseph's College which were examined by myself in the usual way, the improvement exhibited by the results was very marked and extends, with a few slight exceptions, over the whole range of the education given in this School. There was in the first instance, renewed progress made as regards the number of days on which the School was at work during the year 1883, viz., 244 days, as compared with 234 days in 1882, and 203 days in 1881. Reference to Tables VII and XII will show that St. Joseph's College has done better, in this respect, in the year 1883, than the Government Central School, which was at work only 236 days in the year. Great efforts were also made by the Headmaster of St. Joseph's College, to improve the regularity of attendance on the part of the scholars, by refusing the scholars leave of absence except on urgent grounds and by reminding the parents frequently of their duties in this respect. The result was that, whilst in 1882 out of a total of 342 boys on the roll only 191 attained the prescribed number of daily