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PHOICE ANY COPYRIGHET PERSIOGRAPHY ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION E RE ALPA LUCERY

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Esquire, of the firm of Messrs. Dent & Co., who was a member of the Board, and always took great interest in its proceedings, proposed the scheme which is at present being carried out. The mixed character of the school was altered. Only those boys who were to be taught English and Chinese,—not Chinese only, were to be admitted; and, to secure competence, the Proli- minary Examination in Chinese was instituted. This radical change in the constitution of the school reduced the numbers by nearly one-half, and in this way it became more manageable.

38. Not only to the Central School but also to all the Village Schools was there a rush of scholars at the commencement. A vague ides had apparently got into their minds that a royal road to learning would be discovered on the arrival of the "new foreign teacher." This expectation soon censed to be entertained, and by the month of June of the same year the attendance had fallen off very considerably. The numbers kept on diminishing till the end of the year, when the actual attendance was only 990, as computed with 621 in April, the first month in which I visited the schools. If from 200 we subtract 108, which was the attendance at the Central School for the month of December of that year, we leate an average of only twelve to each of the Village Schools. There is not, therefore, much to be said on the subject of attendance in 1802

30-The first striking incident that occurred during the year was the trial of the school-master, and three of the villagers, of Tai-t'hi tuk for highway robbery. This did not tend in those early days to make my monthly visits to the schools at all pleasant excursions. I was prepared to meet ordinary highway rolibers, who were then by on the Stanley and Shán-ki wún roads, but scarcely so to come into collision with a Government school-master and his allies at some convenient turn of the road.

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40.-On the school nt Sai-wán, I had to report as follows to the Doard of Education, after my first visit "The next "school, the Sai-win Hakka school, is certainly in a most primitive condition. To pronounce it a wretched place is to give "but a very imperfet idea of its claracter. The mom is a dirty hovel, the master is impassive and unintelligent; the boys are, with one or two exceptions, dirty and idle,there being in the school more materials for play than for work. Toys of "several kinds, a number of young puppies, and some live fish in bottles of water, seemned to receive more attention and "impart greater delight than the wisdom of the sages of China"

41.-Aboat the inonth of November, it was discovered that the school-master of Stanley was frequently in the habit of shutting up the school and going away, sometimes for ten days at a time, bis school-roll all the while showing a very full attendance. One day he was caught flagrante delicto. I had evidently not been expected that day, and the school was shut ap. Several boys who wanted to get in had been told to be off. After some difficulty, and no little confusion on the part of the master, who had thus unceremoniously been roused from a sound sleep at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, I got admittance, and found noneteen marked as the attendance for the day.

42-Although the people had been perfectly silent before, yet, Chinese-like. they had many faults to find with the master after he had thus been detectest in one." The Board of Education accordingly deputed its chairman The Bishop, and two other armbers to go to Stanley, along with myself, and hold an investigation. The master, thinking a bold step now necessary on his part, had previously sent in a petition, in which he stated that the people generally, and the bead-man of the village in particular, penscented him because he was a Christian, and forbade their children to go to school when the Inspector was seen coming, in order that he might be dismissed. Trusting to the sympathy which as a Christian be thought he was entitled to from Christians, he gave as the reasons for this persecution, (which from the soundness with which he enjoyed his sleep could not have been very violent), that he would not set up a tablet to Confucius; that he insisted on teach- ing the Bible; and that he would not break the Sabbath by teaching the ordinary lessons on that day.

43-Without detailing all that came out in the course of the investigation, it will be sufficient to give the conclusions at which the committee arrived. They were these:---

1 The teacher's accusations, made in his petition, are false.

He left his duties without leave.

3 The accusations made against him are general and unvarying.

1 The teacher must be changed.

All this, be it remembersl, with the Bible daily read in the school, and a Christian master to teach it 44.--Further details are unnecessary. Suffice it to say that, at the end of the year, five of the schools were discontinued. This, taken in connexion with the reduction of numbers at the Central School, accounts for the sudden falling off from 621 in 1862 to 409 in 1863. For all this, it will be seen by reference to Table V, that the Minimum Attendance, even in 1863, was better, both numerically and proportionally, than in the previous year; and the same Table will show that a steady improve- meat has been taking place all along since that time.

45.—The principal difficulties which I had to contend with at the commencement were :---

1 Absence of discipline and of cleanliness, on the part of both masters and scholars.

Falsification of the school-rolls.

Setting a watch to report my approach, and paying children, in some cases at the rate of seven cash a head, to

sit in the school, with books in their hands, daring my stay.

4 Intractability of the masters and neglect of their duties, coupled with all sorts of falsehood and deceit.

5 The grossest deception in the matter of teaching the Bible.

46—The last of these only needs any special remark. The Bible was in all the schools, but under what circumstances? On entering a school, which I had to do very much after the manner of a detective, I found all the other books being hur riedly put out of sight, and the Bible taken up,--the master's intention being that I should carry away the impression that it occupied the most prominent place in the teaching of the school. Even when in complete ignorance of the language, I was not to be deceived by this display; for, in comparison with the other books, the Bible was unsoiled, and evidently only used when the schools happened to be visited. Afterwards, when I was able to examine more minutely into the way in which this part of the school-work was done, I found that two or three chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, committed to memory without being understood, was all the progress that had been made or attempted.

47.-At that time nearly all the masters were professing Christians, and yet this was the state of things. Only one of them, the school-master at Tang-lung chas, seemed to take any pains to teach the Bible properly, and during his life-time be never evaded this part of his work. But even he was detected in the misappropriation of Government rooney, and was re- duced from the first to the second grade of masters, with the loss of half his salary. It was only his previous good conduct, and the comparatively effective discipline of his school, which saved him from dismissal.

48-Of the eighteen masters then in the schools three only remain. A few have died but must have been dismissed and not without the gravest reason. Toe rem ment three, were long a source of great trouble, and were frequently on the eve of dismissal. Latterly, when they found a determination to insist on their paring attention to their duties, they have begun to exert themselves and their schools are now, comparatively speaking, in a fair condition.

49.—Such then is a short account of the state of the Government Schools in 1882, with the Bible read in every one of them and a Board of Education to superintend them.

50-This is not meani as casting any impatation on the Board. They did all that could be done under the circumstances in which they were placed, and to them collectirely as well as individually, I an. nader the greatest obligations. At the same time, it is not unreasonable to conclude that if a Board of Education, daily instruction in the Bible, and Christian Masters, (I an obliged to use these terms) eñucted no mora in 1862 than has just been detailed, a new Board of Education, and the re-introduction of the Bible inte them all would not transform the schools into model ones in 1800. If Christian master were so untrustworthy, even in the mutter of teaching the Bible it cannot be expected that masters who are not Christians

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could wach it effectively, or even teach it at all. These so-called Christian masters were a source of continual dificulty and no one has any cause to regret their removal. Their successors are not by any means perfect, but I am not at present speaking of them.

51.-Up to the 1st July, 1865, the schools remained under the superintendenen of the Board of Education. At that date, they passed under their present management. The transition was not marked by any radical change. The reading of the Bible was not "abolished." If it is at present read in fewer schools, it is because there are fewer Christian masters to teach it. 63.-If it be asked what then are these schools? the answer is, they are schools where an attempt is being made so give as good a Chinese education to the village children as the peculiar circumstances of the Colony will admit of If it be further asked,-what results have been obtained in these seven years? it may be answered, they are these:---

The exposure of a course of the grussest hypocrisy in the teaching of the Bible.

The dismissal of lazy, deceitful, and incompetent masters; and sparing no pains to secure as competent successors to them as can under the circumstances be found. Some schools have had as many as four changes of masters.

3 Putting a stop to such practices as falsifying the school-rolls, posting watches, and paying children to sit in the schools on days when they happen to he visited."

4 Introducing some approach to order and discipline; insisting, as far as can be done, on attention to cleanliness both of person and of school-room; and securing more regular attendance.

& Commencing in 1884 an annual examination of all the schools, in order to test the masters' diligence and the scholars' progress; and delaying this examination till a few weeks before the Chinese New Year, in order to keep up the attendance as long as possible. Under this heading may be included the distribution of prizes, which has also been one great means of affecting this; nor must increased efforts on the part of the masters be left out of account.

6 The removal of the schools from low, narrow, and unventilated buildings to the best that can be rented in the locality. The building, also, of two commodious and airy school-rooms, at East and West Points, for the accommodation of four of the schools.

Making the instruction, such as it is, which is given in the schools as effectire as can reasonably be expected, except in a few cases where it is impossible to say whether the master or the people are the more to blame for the prevalent remissness.

8 The establishment and organization of the Central School, and bringing it into its present condition. £8.-It was long before I could assign any reason for the indifference, and in some cases upposition in the part of the people to these free schools. At last, they began to speak plainly, and I was told that they would not accept of even free education of which Christianity formed a part.

54.- aduit that this is only half the truth; else, why do not the numbers increase now, when it is most distinctly understood that the reading of the Bible need form no obstacle, and when it is no longer necessary to have recourse to dissim ulation in this particular? No one who has not bad actual experience of the work can understand the difficulties that have to be encountered in the advancemeat of education among such a people as we happen to have in this Colony. No sooner is one objection removed than another springs op, and when expectations are just about to be entertained that a school bere sad another there are at last beginning to prosper, something or other happens to throw them back once more to their original condition. Schools which, a few years ago, were attended by fifty or sixty scholars have now only ten or twelve, and others which were about to be shut up are now well attended and fairly taught.

55. It is easy to sympathize with any one who, knowing the state of education at home, would like to see something of the same nature here; but, if after twelve months' experience of what Hongkong schools really are, he is of opinion that matters ure hopeful, I shall be very glad to hand him over my share of the work. If he should then insist on restoring the Bible to its original place in the schools, this question deserves his most serious consideration:-if so little has been effected by teaching the Chinese as they themselves do and wish, what success is to be expected for another scheme which would include an cleruent to which they are totally opposed? If he would revolutionize the present system, and wish to introduce school- books on the English model, who is to translate them; and, when translated, how many would read them? As for such a proposition as that of making "Half-castes" the "future Teachers in the Chinese Vernacular Schools of Hongkong" no one who knows the Chinese will think of it without a smile. The word "barbarian" on the lip of a Greek contained but an iota of the contempt which the Chinese entertain for such persons.

56-Many things connected with the schools are bad, and no feasible suggestion for their improvement will be disre garded, but I must deinur to calling the whole system immoral. So far is this from being the case that the present state of things, be it what it may, is the result of a determination to put down immorality in such of its aspects as neglect of duty, hypocrisy, falsehood, and deceit. Because the education is secular, it is not, therefore, immoral. Because in the Village Schools it is Confucianism, pare and simple, neither is it immoral. Confucianism may be defective, but its whole tendency s for good. As far as this life is concerned, it is second to no system of morality, ancient or modern; and that there may no mistake on this point, it may not be out of place to state what Confucianism really is.

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57.--An eminent sinologue engaged in mission work thus described it in April last. Speaking of the Sages and the doctrines they propounded in what is called the golden age of China, Mr. Wylie, of the British and Foreign Bible Society, says:-"Confucius indeed in later times stands forward as the professed continuator and strenuous upholder of their principles. "But powerful as are the claims of this great teacher, and wonderful the influence he has exerted in all subsequent ages," the "history and present aspect of the nation strongly testify to the insufficiency of his doctrines to satisfy the cravings of buman It is but an act of justice to praise him for the purity and excellence of most of his lessons; at the same time it must be admitted that some of the greatest lite problems are utterly ignored by him. We are told indeed that such was his "sincerity in his religious observances, that he worshipped the spiritual existences as if he actually stood in their presence. "But when Ke-loo, an inquisitive disciple, interrogated the master touching religious worship and a future life, the memorable answer which has been handed down for the instruction of after ages is of the inost vague and erasire character. While you are insufficient for the service of men, how can you serve spirits? While yon do not understand life, what can you "know about death? Tsze-kung, another disciple, on one occasion asked for a general rule of life in a comprehensive form. "Confucius replies :-'Sympathetic benevolence is the rule. What you would not have others do to you, do not practise "towards them. A maxim worthy to immortalize the sage; and indeed the code of ethics he laid down is for the greater "part unobjectionable, even from a Christian stand-point." Had man nothing but a moral nature, his teachings might be well "nunpted to secure the end proposed.”

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58. This is the passage as it stands, without note or comment. If it tells against Confucianism, lat what it mys for it be fairly considered. Because the Missionary finds it defective, must the Educationist ignore it? Is it not rather matter for congratulation that he has, in a system of such marvellous purity, a foundation ready laid to his hands! It is no argument against it to say that the people do not act up to its requirements. Chinese as well as Roman has to confess

aliudqué cupido,

Mens aliud sundet: video meliora, proboque: Deteriora sequor,

59-Education in Hongkong is in its infancy; bat, grounded on such principles as have been described, it has a germ of vitality in it which will in due course bear fruit. Time is needed to mature it. The whole revenue of the Colony devoted solely to the purpose for a series of years would not, unless education were made compulsory, bring the schools up to a level with those in England.

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