SUPPLEMENT TO THE ANNUAL REPORT ON
GOVERNMENT EDUCATION.
ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR POPE HENNESSY, AT THE CENTRAL SCHOOL, 25TH JANUARY, 1878, AT THE ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION OF PRIZES.
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.
Perhaps I may take this opportunity of saying a word or two to the students who are present on a subject which at one time attracted a good deal of my attention and which, close as we are to China, is not an inappropriate subject in addressing an audience such as this. You are all aware that the Government of the Great Empire close to us relies for obtaining its official clement upon a system of open competitive examination, established now for many centuries in China, and you are also aware that some of the countries in Europe-I will not say following the example of China, but certainly trending in the footsteps of China-have established also a system of open competitive examination for appointments in the civil service. And at this moment, if a clerkship is vacant in the Colonial Office, in the Board of Admiralty, in any of the great departments of the State (with one exception), any young man in England, Ireland, or Scotland, without any favour or patronage, can compete for the appointment. And what is the result? I am told by the heads of the departments in England-the Secretary of the Treasury has told me so, many of the leading officials in the public service have told. me, that since this system was established they find the tone of the service has improved and they have now an admirable staff of clerks. I may add that in India a similar result has occurred. The system was, to a great extent, brought into operation in the time of Lord LAWRENCE, and his present brilliant, successor, Lord LYTTON, has borne testimony to the fact that the system of open competitions for the appointments in India has been most beneficial to the administration of that great Empire. Under, these circumstances I thought it possible, perhaps, to introduce the system into this Colony, and accordingly we have had already one or two examinations. On one occasion there was a clerkship worth £200 per annum to be given away. It was a Chinese clerkship, and usually such a post was given by the Governor of the Colony, who looked over his list of applicants, and gave the appointment as he might think hest, but I thought it well to try the experiment of an open competition. Accordingly, I asked the head of the department (it was in the Magistracy) to become an examiner, and Mr. MAY was good enough to undertake the duty. I also asked a Chinese scholar, Bishop BURDON, and my Right Reverend friendl consented, and to these two, I added Mr. NG CHOY, a Chinese gentleman who is now a member of the English bar. Well, these three examiners were good enough to prepare the "Xumination papers, and they male their report to me in course of time. I was disappointed, undoubtedly, at the result of that examination. The examiners reported that none of the candidates passed the examination sufficiently well to entitle them to the appointment. The examination consisted of translating a document which had come to the Magistracy in the ordinary course of business, a Chinese document, into English, and of translating the deposition of a witness taken at the Magistracy some weeks before into Chinese, and in reading and writing from dictation. That was a simple test, and; nevertheless, cleven candidates having presented themselves, I regretted to find that the examiners could not recommend to me any one of the cleven as having properly passed the examination. Now, it would be, I think, very foolish for us to shut our eyes to a fact of that kind. The examination could hardly be simpler than it was. The clerkship to be given away was of some value, $80 a month, and the result was certainly somewhat disappointing. But, I venture to repeat what I at that time put na ininute, published in the Gazette, that looking at the report of the examiners, though I regretted the result, I felt the Chinese students who competed at that examination had shown great intelligence and industry, and I had every hope that at a subsequent examination some of them would be successful.
İNSUFFICIENT Teaching of English.
+
When I visited the Central School the other day and saw Mr. FALCONER and the other gentlemen going through the daily routine of their duties, I was struck by some incidents, which it is well for us to bear in mind, because they suggest the possibility of improvements which I know Mr. STEWART has at heart. I visited one large class-room, indeed a sort of double class-room, on the other side of that page. In that room I should think there must have been a hundred and fifty Chinese youths who were being instructed by three Chinese teachers. They were reading the Chinese classics. I found hint the three Chinese teachers who were instructing them in the Chinese classics had themselves no knowledge whatever of the English language. These three Chinese teachers spoke no English; and of the pupils in that particular class-room not one could speak English. During the whole of the year we have had six hundred and ten pupils attending the school. I asked Mr. STEWART this