1869 — Page 164

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |

C.O. 133 / 28 ALL WITHOUT PERMISTON OF THE

157

311.

No. 13.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

The following Annual Report on the state of the Government Schools in Hongkong for the Year 1869, is published for general information.

By Command,

J. GARDINER AUSTIN,

Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 5th February, 1870.

Hongkono, 31st January, 1870.

Sin, I have the honour of presenting to you the Annual Report on the Government Schools

[ia this Colony for the year 1869.

2. Having entered so fully into the history of these schools in the last Annual Report, I do not deem it necessary to do anything more in the present one than to refer to a few matters of detail.

3. The arrival of a third English Master, in the course of last year, has added very considerably to the efficiency of the Central School. Subjects which, previously, could be attended to with great difficulty have now become a regular part of the school routine. Two new subjects, Chemistry and Geometry, have been added, and all the ordinary branches receive much greater attention than, in former years, could possibly be given to them. The additional assistance also enables the Hend Master to have the whole school more completely under his own personal supervision. He is no longer, what he really was before, simply the teacher of three of the classes. It may be safely said that the

'school has entered on a new stage of progress.

4. After long delay, the Laboratory is at last in full working order. Considerable difficulty was experienced at first, partly from the defective state of the apparatus, which had been lying unused for about two years, and partly from my own inexperience.

5. The Lessons in Chemistry proceed slowly but, it is to be hoped, surely. The air attempted is not the mere amusement but, as far as may be, the sound instruction of the boys in a department of science to which they have nothing corresponding in their own schools. Much interest in it is taken by them at present. It will be unfortunate if it is allowed to flag. It is not likely, however, that the indifference, real or assumed, of their countrymen to this and kindred studies will be any impediment here. The boys are too young in the art of dissimulation to feel that the gratification of a natural

curiosity is a confession of inferiority.

6. Although additional assistance has been obtained, the number of scholars at the school has not been materially increased. This was not intended. With even a smaller attendance, there would be ample work for the present teachers, more especially as the gradual increase in the number of Village Schools necessitates the more frequent absence of the Head Master. The object to be gained is not,

at present, the attraction of more scholars, but the thorough teaching of the school in its existing condition.

7. Through the liberality of Ilis Excellency The Governor, The Honourable C. C. Smith, Dr. Murray, Mr. Gerrard, and Mr. Wai A-kwong, in addition to the sum placed on the Estimates for the purpose, prizes of the value of two hundred and five dollars were awarded to the most deserving, at the recent Public Examination. The encouragement thus given to the school should not pass unno- ticed; and the promises made for the coming year give good hope that the school has at last obtained the recognition to which it is not unfairly entitled. It is now time that when a stranger enquires, at public places in Queen's Road and elsewhere, for the way to the Central School that he should not enquire in vain,

8. The presence of a number of the parents and friends of the scholars at the late Examination gives even greater encouragement than the liberality just alluded to. Hitherto, for reasons which it

I would be difficult to assign, the Chinese residents in the Colony have kept aloof from the school,--par- ents, even when living here, seldom taking the trouble to come and ask admission for their sons. What- ever pleasure it may have given the boys to see this new feature in the day's proceedings, the pleasure felt by the teachers was of the most unqualified description. Nothing that has happened since the school was established has augured so well for its future prosperity.