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The settlement of the remaining claims of Squatters in the Island of Hongkong and Kowloon was completed during the year and Crown Leases granted to those whose titles had been approved by the Squatters Board.
III. LEGISLATION.
Thirty-four Ordinances were passed during 1910, twenty-four of which were Amendment Ordinances. The principal matters dealt with were the consolidation of the New Territories Ordinances, the laws of Copyright, the law re Crown Suits, the segregation of lepers, the training of midwives, and the Hongkong Volunteer Reserve.
IV.--EDUCATION.
There are 70 Government and Grant Schools, the most important of which is Queen's College. Of these 21 are Upper Grade Schools with a staff competent to give instruction on all subjects of the 7th Standard, and above. These latter schools have an average attendance of 4,102, and the medium of instruction in all of them with the exception of five girls' schools, is English. The 49 remaining schools are all Lower Grade. They comprise one school for British Indians where English and Urdu are taught; six Government Schools and one Grant English School for Chinese; and 41 Grant Vernacular Schools. The average attendance at all these Lower Grade Schools is 2,257. The total average attendance, at both Grades of School, is 6,359.
The revenue derived from school fees is $75,448.50 (of which $39,212 is from Queen's College) and is rapidly increasing: this is mainly to be accounted for by the increasing numbers of Chinese desirous of an English education.
Two schools are limited to children of British parentage. Both these schools (one for boys, the other for girls) are under the Government. In 1910 the combined average attendance at them was 78. The boys' school provides a small but efficient cadet corps.
Higher education is represented by the Technical Institute, where instruction is given in the evening in Mathematics, Machine Drawing, Building Construction, Field Surveying and allied subjects; in Chemistry and Physics; in the English and French languages, Book-keeping and Shorthand. There is also a Teachers' Class, at which the junior Chinese masters of Government and Grant Schools are expected to attend. A Kindergarten Class has also been started for teachers in Girls' Schools. The Institute is furnished with a well-equipped laboratory. The lecturers are chiefly Civil Servants recruited from the European staffs of Queen's College and the Public Works Department. These officers receive fees for their services.
The Hongkong University building, the gift of Sir Hormusjee Mody, is in course of construction, and will probably be open by the middle of 1912. The foundation stone was laid on the 16th March. The first chairs will be those of Medicine, Engineering and Arts.
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