N
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"This is all a measure of the importance and urgency we attach
to this place of learning where many arts are taught for that is what
the word "polytechnic" means
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in this case the many arts which govern,
and provide for, and enrich our city.
"It is our hope that the Polytechnic will cause these arts to
be honoured in Hong Kong and knowledge of them spread widely, so that
the young people of this many-sided society will have the quality, the
knowledge and the education to serve it and contribute to its future.
"For the Polytechnic to fulfill our hopes, it must maintain
the closest contact with the industry, the commerce and the Government
of Hong Kong, so that its academic feet will be firmly on the ground
its students must one day tread.
"Indeed a diligent student at the Polytechnic is unlikely to
lack for employment.
But I would stress that the most important object
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of the Polytechnic is simply education itself to train the minds of
its students so that they may master the problems they face in after
life.
"For the form of education in modern sciences offered here is
of the finest. as an American wrote 50 years ago: Modern science,
as training the dind to an exact and impartial analysis of facts, is
an education specially fitted to promote sound citizenship.
"So now, the first phase of the Polytechnic is built and
occupied and the second phase will be completed next year; Hong Kong
places high hopes on its Polytechnic; and it now falls to Dr. Legg
and his staff to direct its activities and further expansion in these
new buildings.
"They could
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