1868 — Page 159

PUBLIC RECORD

Reference

133

25

COPYDUKT PRESIOGRAPH **

BE R¿PADUCED PHOTOSEA ALLY WITHOUT ARMISSION

PUBES

WHORE GREVA 1

[268]

[289]

146

When to

12.-When the Third Master arrives Euclid will be attempted, and so doubt with a certain measure of success. Ithis has been added instruction in Natural Science nothing can be said as to a narrow field of study whatever may be thought of over-coufident expectations.

13. The examination of the school, which extends over the last eight days of the year, while very meful for enabling the teachers to ascertain what both they and their scholars have done, is greatly appreciated by the boys, nad there is reason to believe that it is regarded with some interest by their relatives. Examinations in themselves need no recommendation to the Chinese. In fact, a recognition of their importance is a great step made towards securing their confidence. beard a whisper of any unfairness in the mode of conducting those at this school; and, next to a desire to get one of the va- luable prizes which Government as wisely as liberally offers for success, comes anxiety to know the exact number of marks I have never which each scholar has obtained in each subject. These are carefully noted and taken as they are intended to be—a guide to future diligence.

14.-A favourable opportunity here offers itself for expressing my acknowledgements to Mr. Smith, Registrar General, and to Mr. Gerrard of his Office for their annual prizes. To His Excellency The Governor, also, and to Dr. Murray, Coloniul Surgeon, similar acknowledgements are due for the valuable prizes they have offered for next year. I need not say how gra. tifying it would be to see others following their examplu undeterred by the rather severe criticism which has lately been passed upon the school,—criticism, it should be remembered, based not on experience, bat on a priori reasoning. It is true I regretted last year, and the feeling still remains undiminished, that the conduct of the elder boys when out of school was not what one could wish to see; but I was reporting on the Central School and not on Chinese clubs. Had the latter been my subject, it would bare been necessary to state that they contain also the baptizat nad the confirmed, and that these do even as their neighbours. The circumstances then referred to are not applicable to this school alone. They are characteristic of all the English-speaking Chinese in the place, whether educated at the Central School or at the Mission Schools.

15.-Making the Bible a class-book in the school would not remedy the present state of things. Time alone will do that. When the grand-children of the present occupiers of the school benches come to take their places on them, a different state of things may be expected. If common consent mify be taken as a guide, it is now, and has always been, the case that converts to Christianity even (to say nothing in the meantime of school children) do not give, in the first generation, the satisfaction which their tenchers would desire. days of the Corinthian Church, and I repeat the reference now to those who care to look at it. If further confirmation is I referred, last year, in confirmation of this, to the stute of things in the early needed, it is to be found in the fact that the Roman Catholic Church in China orduits no novice to the priesthood. Candidates ure selected solely from those families which have been Catholics for some generations.

10.The public may rest assured that the secular system of instruction given in the Central School was neither hastily adopted nor is it unthinkingly pursued; and, it will not be altered in any way till good cause has been shown to the contrary. Were the boys Christians, or the sons of Christian parents, there might be ground for objecting to purely secular instruction; but taking things us they are, it may well be asked-why should the Government lose an opportunity of diffusing useful knowledge by enforcing religious instruction, to which the Chinese mind is at present so repugnant? It will be time to super-add the Bible when the boys consider it their duty to read it; not, as at present, when their every feeling is opposed to it. Education may be within the province of Government, but certainly not conversion; and no good can ever come of using the accident of power to tamper with a people's convictions.

17. The present system is on its trial. Let it have a fair one. schools where the Bible is road and religious instruction given show better results in the future than they have done in the It is not yet the time to pronounce judgment. When past, ohjectors to secular education will receive a patient hearing. Till then they can scarcely expect it. The Government of this Colony is not wedded to secular education as such. It simply accepts the situation in which it finds itself, and tries to make the best of it. With a change of circumstances will no doubt come a change of policy; but, if in a professedly Christian institution, in existence for about fourteen years, the "prospects are discouraging," and "the results, in à Cbristian point of view, give little encouragement,” Government uced not be called upon to prosecute the experiment.

18.-Christina anıl secular education must for the present be accepted as two distinct fields of operation in Hongkong, and it is incumbent on those who have the care of schouls to decide which of the two is the more desirable for the purposes they have in view. The Missionary will make his choice, the Government its; and both, if it is permitted them, will work harmoniously for the same common object, for the object is none the less common that the one aims at it by direct and the uther by indirect means.

19. Within the last few days, the question has been prominently put and with hyperbole which must have startled not a few,--Will the boys at the Central School become the " Nana Sahibs" of their day? I confess the subject causes me to disquietude. I do not assert that Secular Education is an unmitigated good, any more than many of the other blessings which we enjoy, but I will assert this that if anything untoward does happen with these boys, it may be in connexion with, but it will not be in consequence of, the education which they are now receiving. No question of right or wrong is ever shirked; no countenance is given to deceit or to immorality in any of its phases, and I am sure of this that neither the Government which supports the school, nor the teachers who labour in it, will ever regret the work which they have done. Moreover, if these boys do ever become the "Nana Sahibs" of their day, it will be in opposition-shall I sey in greater oppo- sition to the principles of Confucianism than to those of Christianity. At any rate, it will scarcely be too late to reconsider our position when the existence of " British Rule in China" has become a fact and not a fancy.

20.-The Village Schools remain in very much the same condition as formerly. The Tables appeaded to this Report give all necessary statistical information concerning then. From these it will be seen that the numbers are gradually increasing, and that regularity in attendance is becoming more and more marked.

21. Three new schools, those namely at Ma-t'an and Mong-kok on the Kow-loon Peninsula, and at Little Hongkong, demand special notice. These differ from the others in being aided only, and not supported,-a plan which I hope to see extended to all the schools as rapidly as it is practicable to do so. dollars a month, and the villagers make up the amount of his salary principally in kind, which seems to be the ordinary way At present, each of the three masters is allowed five of paying school-masters in China.

The proposal of a grant in nid came from the villagers themselves, and was at once acceded to method of overcoming a difficulty which seems to have existed to a greater extent ten years ago than it does now. The It is an admirable Chinese like to have a school-master of their own choice. So much is this the case that the villagers of Td-kwá win for three successive years declined to have a Government School in the village although they bad petitioned for one, unless the appoint- ment of the school-master was left entirely in their own hands. Their request was of course refused. ask the entire support of the school from Government and to refuse it any control over the master.

It was too much to 23-The late Board of Education decided on refusing all such applications, and very properly so. them, being glad to do anything which would be the means of getting children to go to school, but they ultimately discovered At first, they granted that such proposals really originated with some school-master in want of employment, and not with the people themselves. Soine adventurer, possibly a fortune-teller, visited the village, got the heads of it together, expatiated on the advantages of having a school and on his own special qualifications for the post of school-master, and concluded by saying that it would not only not cost them anything if they would petition Goverment in his favour, but he would undertake to allow them so much a month out of his salary. Matters went on smoothly for a few months till the school-imaster, thinking himself in panion, forgot his promise. Gradually the children were withdrawn, and the following year the Board was petitioned for his dismissal on the ground of general incompetence if not of something more serious, and another who had made liberul promises was recommended in his place.

24.—It was for such reasons as these that the Government was recommended to refuse the petition from Tàỏ-kwá ván. The village does not cajoy an enviable reputation, and it was more than suspected that the people were afraid of the doings of the place coming to light, if a Government nominee was appointed to the school.

-Matters stand on a different footing when aid anif not support is asked for. There can be little doubt then that a desire to have the children educated is paramount to all other considerations. The master, ton, feeling his dependence on the villagers for half bis income, has an inducement to diligence which one could wish to see introduced into some of the other schools, that at Shiu-ki win for example, where the whole state of things is very unsatisfactory. It is really a question whether that school should not be shut up once more. The people have already forgotten all their promises to send their children regularly to school. Their zeal inny be measured by the fact that in 1860 hen offered the use of the school-room, which is Government property, at a rental of one dollar per quarter they refused to accept it on each terms. And yet there must be nearly two hundred children in the village who ought to be at school,

20.-The school-house at Little Hongkong belongs to the Government, and was put in thorough repair in the early part of the year. In this respect, the villagers have a great advantage over those at Mong-kok sad Ma-t'an where the school-foses lelong to the people. Miserable hovels they are. That at Mong-kok is about fifteen feet long, by seven and a half wide. The light is about ten feet. To make all the floor-space available for school purposes, the master's bed is suspended from the ceiling after the manner of a hammock. There is no window. I therefore conclude that there can be no school when it rains. The school-room at Ma-t'au is considerably larger, but as the number of scholars in twice that at Mong-kok, matiera are not mended in consequence,

In spite of all this, the schools aro well attended, and every body seems entisfied. The villagers express themselves under great obligations to the Government, and ask for nothing more. Island itself, where, with one exception, the school-houses are substantial and commodious, and yet remain anything but over- This is in great contrast to the state of things on the crowded.

I have, as usual, drawn attention, in Table VI, to the number of uneducated children in the Colony, which I estimate this year at 10,097. This is a fact worthy of all notice, but it must be taken as a messure of the to education, and not of the niggardliness of the Government. Nothing short of absolute compulsion will bring this neglected multitude under happier influences, and after much anxious thought on the matter, I am unable to suggest anything but people's indiference compulsion as a remedy for the existing evil. Such a procedure, however, is not to be adopted without serious consideration, especially among such a migratory population as we have in this Colony. Were those ten thousand six hundred and ninety- seven children to remain here permanently, a bold measure might, anil perhaps should, be attempted. It may be otherwise when a great proportion of them may not be in Hongkong two or thave years lience.

28-Without reporting specially on each of the schools, which is us unnecessary as it would be tedious, it will be suffi cient to arrange them in the order of their efficiency,

1st, Stanley.

2nd, Tang-lung chau, (Punti).

3rd, Webster's Crescent,

4th, Bowrington.

5th, West Paint, (Punti).

6th, Tang-lung chnu, (Hakka).

7th, Girls' School.

8th, West Point, (Hakka).

9th, West End.

10th, Wong-nai ch'ung.

11th, Little Hongkong.

12th, Ma-tau te'őn.

13th, Aberdeen.

14th, Mong-kok ta'ila. 13th, Sun-ki sa

-It is much to be regretted that no suitable accommodation can be found in the neighbourhood for the school st Bowrington. It is at present accommodated in the upper stories of two contiguous Chinese houses, but when it is considered that the average attendance is fifty-air, there is no necessity for any details as to the unsuitability of its location. May I suggest the appropriation of a piece of land just below the Seamen's Hospital, aud on the opposite side of Queen's Road," an the most convenient place for the site of a new school-house, which is most urgently required?

30.-Thirty two of the scholars at this school are girls. The school-master's wife has them specially under her own care. They are taught needle-work, in addition to reading and writing. It will be seen from the annexed Tables that the indifference of the Chinese to female education is beginning to give way, there being now no fewer than six of the schools in which girls are enrolled as scholars.

31-I think it necessary to repeat in this Report what has been stated in all previous ones that the girls in the Gotern- ment Schools are not taught English. They are simply receiving a Chinese education in a Chinese school, the object being not to give them a distaste for their own humble sphere of life, but to make them as useful as possible in it. On no point is it necessary to lay greater stress then on this, that no room may be left for misapprehension.

32-But for the manner in which these schools have been lately spoken of, this Report might have now been concluded. As it is, explanation is required; and it will sare anch circumlocution, as well as enable me to be more explicit, if I say #t once that I refer to the Charge of the Lord Bishop (pp. 50-64), delivered in the Cathedral, on the 2nd February last, and since published. In noticing the points there discussed, it may appear to some that I lay inyself open to the charge of claim- ing the exclusive right of commenting strongly on the schools, and of allowing that an unreserved statement of the actual facts of the case is imperatively called for to enable the Government to know in no one else to do so. If such will consider what state the education of the Colony really is, it will occur to them that a great deal which is bad may be found in connexion with not a little that is good, and that if the schools, when tried by a European standard, prove to be almost failures, they may not on that account be the less worthy either of notice or of mpport.

33.—It is assumed in the Charge

1 That, previously to 1882, the Bible was rend in all the schools, but that the reading of it has since been abolished 2 That the schools were then, but afterwards ceased to be, under the care of the Board of Education.

8 That the attendance was greater thea than it is now.

That their mornl tone was then good.

5 That it is now not moral, that is, in plain English, immoral,—all owing to the reading of the Bible having been "abolished."

This seems a fair saminary of the objections which have been taken, and which have now to be considered. 34.-Instead of replying to them seriation, or of meeting assertion by counter assertion, which in the present case might easily be done, the purpose in view may be best accomplished by giving a short account of my own personal connexion with the schools. This method will answer all necessary purposes and remove the appearance of antagonism which I should like, if possible, to avoid.

35.-I arrived in the Colony early in 1802. During the two previous years the schools had been under no regular supervision. Only occasional visits were paid to them by members of the Board of Education.

36.-On the 10th March, 1862, the Central School was opened for the first time. I found myself on that day among a crowd of nearly three hundred boys, who could not speak English to me, and to whom I could not speak Chinese. Two Chinese assistant-masters were present, but they had almost forgotten any English they ever knew, and I could scarcely make myself intelligible to them.

37.-The original intention of the Board was to make the Central School a kind of modd Chinese school, in connexion with which classes composed of the more intelligent of the boys were to be taught English. A fortnight's experience proveri the impracticability of the scheme, under the very disadvantageous circumstances in which matters then stood. J.J. Mackenzie,