10
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
Return of the Number and Description of Chinese Vessels-continued.
SAIWAN and SHOWKEWAN.
TOTAL.
Children.
SHEAK-6.
Description of Boat.
No. of Boats.
Children.
Males. Fem.
No. of
Children.
No.
Males. Fem.
of
Males. Fem
Males. Fem. Boats.
Males. Fem. Boats.
Males. Fem.
4
Junks.
2
13
Trading Boats
4
10
97 71 549
120
Passage Boats
3
17 102
3
51 651
4
Salt Boats
Stone Boats
25
3
7 65
3
Fishing Boats
78
34
23
18
194 1,287
624
Cargo Boats
20 112
60
9
40
6
Wood Boats
Fast Boats and Hakows.
3
122
363
181
174
Cooking Boats
5
9
1
Sampans*
8
15
41
854 2,075 1,079
782 480
4
41
Lorchas
3
18
Water Boats
Total
44 140
39
31
22
18
54
:
1
(True Copy,)
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
*
Upwards of 200 employed in fishing.
Enclosure 7 in No.
723
•* ::
~*~:::
(1,361 5,409 2,081 1,772 1,117
(Signed)
CHARLES MAY,
Officiating Registrar-General.
RETURN of the average Number of Prisoners confined in Victoria Gaol during every Day of
each Month of the Year 1850.
Remarks.
One Indian died of dysentery.
One Chinese died of dysentery.
One Indian died of suppuration of lungs.
[One Chinese died of cholera.
One Chinese died of congestion of lungs. One Chinese died of natural causes.
•
One Chinese died of hospital gangrene. One Chinese died of dysentery.
Months. Europeans.
Chinese and Coloured Prisoners,
Total.
Number of Deaths,
January.
24
140
February
26
131
March
25
155
April
14
87
May.
17
112
June
17
122
July.
19
110
August
26
119
3
September
25
165
October.
19
145
November
17
138
December
13
144
242 1,567 1,809
8
Average Number in each Month Total Deaths
150
8
Mortality
5.33 per cent.
(Signed)
W. H. MITCHELL, Sheriff.
(True Copy,),
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
Enclosure 8 in No.
MEMORANDUM showing the Number of Deaths which have occurred in the Garrison of Hong Kong during the Year ended 31st December, 1850.
ot
Average Strength
during the Year.
during the Year.
Proportion of Deaths
Number of Deaths
to average Strength,
Proportion of Deaths to
entire Force.
PERIOD.
Description
Troops.
Quarter ending 31st March.
Average Strength.
Quarter ending 30th June.
Quarter ending 30th September.
Quarter ending
31st December.
Average Deaths.
Strength.
Deaths.
Average Strength.!
Deaths.
Average Strength.
Deaths.
Europeans
Malays and Natives of Į
India
710
412
EL
2
094
19
608
84
499
30
- 625
144
23.04
17-89
422
15
410
7
392
17
409
41
10.02
1,034
185
SIR,
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
Enclosure 9 in No.
11
Victoria, Hong Kong, April 5, 1851. We have the honour to reply to your letter of 1st April 1851, by the following Report on the Government Chinese schools for the past year.
2. The average number of scholars under instruction has been 93; 30 at Victoria, 18 at Stanley, 20 at Aberdeen, and 25 at Wongneichoong.
3. The teacher at Aberdeen having been dismissed for gross misconduct was replaced by another, with whose success in the instruction of his pupils we have reason to be satisfied. The teacher appointed to the school at Wongneichoong, opened during the year, is an elderly man, a native of the village, a schoolmaster by profession, and a Christian convert. for many years taught in that neighbourhood, and was recommended by the villagers them- selves as a fit person.
He had
4. The system pursued in the Victoria school not meeting with our approbation, Mr. Moncrieff proposed to the teacher to remove to St. Paul's College and there receive instruction, as well in the arts of teaching generally as in the truths of the Christian religion. The offer was accepted, and the school served for the time by a teacher from the establishment of the College. After a fair trial, however, it was considered improbable that the original teacher would soon be able to conduct the school in a mode of which we could approve, and as the Bishop of Victoria had a vacancy for a teacher in the College, and kindly agreed to take this man permanently into connexion with him, we thought it better that his relation to the Government should cease, and that the teacher who supplied his place should be continued in charge of the school. We regret that in consequence of this change the unmber of scholars decreased for a time. The former teacher received the 10 dollars a-month only in aid of his school, which before any Government assistance was granted consisted of more than 30 scholars, but the present teacher stood upon a different footing. Latterly the number has again increased, and it now corresponds with that which by the effect of the Government grant was added to the original school.
5. The teachers of the four schools are now, therefore, all nominees of the Government, not receiving, as far as we are aware, any compensation from their pupils, and they are all professed Christians.
6. Christian books have been introduced into all the schools, but it is not compulsory on the scholars to learn them.
If the parents object, the course of study is confined to native
e ading.
7. The following are the principal books now used :---
Native Works.
The three character Classic.
The one thousand character Classic. The four books and five Classics.
Christian Works.
Medhurst's three character Classic. Bishop Boone's Catechism. The Bible.
8. The progress of the scholars has been, on the whole, tolerably satisfactory; we hope, however, by a more effectual supervision, and by the introduction of a few elementary works on various branches of useful knowledge, as soon as Chinese literature shall have been enriched by these, to work some improvement. The great distance of three, or at least two, of the four schools, coupled with our imperfect knowledge of the language, renders the supervision difficult and unsatisfactory. We can, however, only suggest one remedy that lies beyond ourselves, and this is, that the school Committee should be remodelled, and that to the Bishop of Victoria should be accorded the entire superintendence of the schools, or at least a superintendence.
joint
9. The most serious impediment to progress is the fluctuation of the scholars in each school, owing to the caprice, but principally to the avarice or the necessities of the parents, who are unwilling to allow children to remain at school who may be employed elsewhere, with a, to them, more tangible prospect of pecuniary gain, for the importance attached by Chinese to the acquisition of knowledge, though great, is, we fear, secondary to that attached to the acquisition of money.
We are, &c., (Signed)
The Hon. Major Caine, Colonial Secretary,
(True Copy.)
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
C. B. HILLIER,
E. T. R. MONCRIEFF, LL.D., Committee for superintending Chinese Schools.
173
HONG KONG
Encl. 9 in No. F.
(Signed)
Brigade Office, Hong Kong, 6th April, 1851.
(True Copy,)
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
A. E. BURMESTER, Captain, Brigade Major.
3 B 2
!
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.