1871 — Page 182

27. The Village Schools supported by Government stand in the following order of efficiency:-

1. Stanley.

2. Sai-ying P'ún (Pun-ti.)

3. Girls' School.

4. Bowrington.

5. Sai-ying "ún (Hak-kn.)

6. Tang-lung Chau (Pún-ti.)

7. Webster's Crescent.

8. Aberdeen.

9. Túi Wong Kung.

10. West End.

11. Wong-nai Chung. 12. Shán-ki Wán.

13. Tang-lung Chan (Hak-ka.)

28. Among these schools Stanley continues to hold the pre-eminence. If all the Village School were as it is, there would be much cause for congratulation. The master is a good scholar, a diligent and successful teacher, and he enjoys in a high degree the confidence of the villagers. The school. room is always neat and clean. The scholars are regular in their attendance and orderly in their behaviour. A new school-house is much wanted here. The locality of the present one is unhealthy: and to this must be attributed one or two serious attneks of illness from which the master suffered last year. The whole village is said to be unhealthy and the denth-rate high, especially at some sensons of the year. A new school-house on one of the kuolis tuljacent to the village should, it well drained and properly ventilated, be much more healthy than the present one.

29. The new school at Túi Wong Kung in Win-tsai has been very successful; but, from the fact of its being new, it is too soon to speak confidently about it. It has withdrawn a few of the scholars from Bowrington and a great many from the Ink-kn school at Tang-lung Chun. The wanderers will no doubt find their way back to their old schools by and by; and, if they do not, no harm is done, as long as they are taught at all. If the children could but he got to attend any school, the particular school of their choien would be a matter of very minor importance.

30. The Village Schools receiving grants-in-nid are 11 in number. Their relative efficiency stands thus:-

1. Ap-li Chan.

5. Ma-t'an Ch'ung,

2. To-kwn Wán, (Hak-kn.) | 4. Little Hongkong,

3. Yau-ma 'T'i.

4. Ma-t'ân Ts'iln.

9. Mong Kok. 10 |lung |

7. To-kwn Wiin, (Hok-lo.) | 11. Pok-fűi Lam. 8. Tok Cn.

31. The school at Pok-fű Lain was added in the course of the year, and the grant was with drawn from Shek Shún, where the people refitsed to change the master, although he stood convicted of repeated instances of neglect and disobedience. He is a very cumming old man, and holds some mysterious sway, I suspect of a fortune-telling nature, over the ignorant villagers.

82. A grant was applied for to the school at Tái-kok Tsui, where the new Dock is to be, laut the master, on examination, was found to be quite unfit for his duties. The villagers were requested to select another, but they declined. If they could not have the grant with the present master, they would take him without it. They have since thought better of it, and the school is likely to receive the grant this year.

33. The villagers of Little Hongkong have again been distinguishing themselves in their own peculiar way. In 1870, they tried to unke the master out a thief, in order that the Ti-po's son, an ignorant youngster, might be installed as his successor. Last year, they brought a charge of a most disgraceful nature against the present master, no doubt with the same object. The matter was fully investigated at the Police Court and the lying witnesses fined. I wish it had been in the power of

the Magistrate to add a flogging as well. The charge was utterly Inseless; and what the state of morality in the village is, may be judged from the fact that the people, knowing well that it was baseless, yet incited five little boys to stick to a story which one of then had concocted in revenge for a sound flogging which the inster had given him for fighting. It was very melancholy to listen to the tissue of falsehoods and contradictions of which the boys were guilty in the witness-box. Our mode of inflicting punishment fails sadly to meet such enses. A heavy fine on the whole village and the imprisonment of the Ti-po, however foreign to what is called Constitutional Government, world have been a punishment salutary for the present, and deterrent for the future. The villagers are simply children in civilization; and punishment, after English ideas, is to them little or no punish- ment at all. There is neither conscience nor a healthy public opinion to appeal to, and where these are wanting ordinary punishments fall very lightly.

34. The boys, with one exception, deserted the school, and the parents asked for the removal of the master. It was useless to ask them why this should be done, after his innocence had been clearly established. They had suffered a defeat in one quarter, and they thought to make up for it in another. For two months, they held out; and then the more sensible of them, seeing that the determination to maintain the master in his place, scholars or no scholars, was not going to be de parted from, began to think of sending their children back. The Ti-po exerted himself strenuously to prevent this; but, when he was told that if the boys were not all back in school by a certain day he would have to answer for his conduct before a Magistrate, he discontinued his opposition and the boys all returned.