CO129-190 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [10-12] — Page 213

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Enclosure D.

HONGKONG CADETSHIPS,

Scheme of 1861.

is

With a view to supply the Civil Service in Hongkong with an efficient Staff of Interpreters, intended that a certain number of Cadetships shall be established, the holders of which are to devote themselves for a certain time after their arrival in the Colony to learning the language.

Three gentlemen will be appointed at once to Cadetships, after a competitive examination by the Civil Service Commissioners (at a time and place to be fixed by them, but not before the 1st January next), from amongst Candidates nominated for this purpose by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Every Candidate must, on the 1st day of January next, have attained the age of 20 and be under

of 23.

the

age

The following will be the subjects of examination :----

1. Exercises designed to test Handwriting and Orthography.

2. The four first rules of Arithmetic,

3. Latin, and one other foreign language.

4. English Composition, including Précis Writing.

5. Pure and mixed Mathematics.

6. History and Geography.

7. Constitutional and International Law.

8. Natural Science.

9. Any two of the following languages, not having been taken up under No. 3:-

French, German, Spanish, Italian.

Candidates who cannot pass in the first two subjects will be rejected, but those subjects will not tell in competition.

Every Candidate must undergo a competitive examination in the 3rd and 4th subjects, and in any two others which he may select.

But any Candidate who takes up the 9th subject may if he chooses, be examined in five subjects instead of four.

Each Cadet will receive a salary of £200 per annum, to commence from the day of leaving England. The cost of his passage to Hongkong will be paid, and quarters, teachers, and books will be provided for him at the public expense while studying the language.

For two years after the arrival of the Cadets in Hongkong, they hall apply themselves especially to learning Chinese.

At the end of two years' study, or as soon afterwards as they shall be declared qualified by a Board of Competent Examiners, they will be appointed Government Interpreters, and be employed in such of the Departments as may require their services, at salaries of £400 per annum each, without other allowances.

After two years' Approved service as Interpreters, the salary will be increased to £500; and after three years' service, they will be considered eligible by the Secretary of State for promotion to the higher offices in the Civil Service of Hongkong,

The Cadety, while studying Chinese, will be under the control and supervision of the Governor. of the Colony, who will frame regulations for their hours of study and general government.

The progress of the Cadets will be tested by half-yearly examinations, and every Cadet will liable, at any time, to be dismissed if his progress or conduct shall be considered by the Governor Executive Council to be so unsatisfactory as to render such a course desirable. The Governor Conpeil will decide, having regard to the ground of dismissal, whether the Cadet shall be sent hous the public expense, or shall be left to find his own way home, or shall be, in addition, called upon repay the cost of his passage out.

streuse No. 2 in Grown Sie Him Pre Hennepy's despatel -2.03.125 October 1800

18015

PEC?

0 SEC 40

REPORT BY DR. EITEL, ACTING CHINESE SECRETARY, ON THE HONGKONG PENSION SCHEME AS AFFECTING THE CHINESE, AND THE

SUPPLY OF INTERPRETERS.

211

In pursuance of the order of the Governor, of 7th instant, I have prepared for His Excellency

the following précis of official papers and report, bearing on the question of pensions for Hongkong Civil Servants, as affecting the Chinese Employés of the Government and the supply of Interpreters.

I-ASIATIC INTERPRETERS.

the Author

or to

1. General question of race distinctions in Pension Rudes. From the Imperial Pension Act (4 and 5 Will., Cap. 24) down to the present day, no Act or Minute with reference to pensions of public servants has ever been put in force in the United Kingdom making any distinction of race or birthplace. There are distinctions of "officer, clerk and person," of "officers in the Army and Navy," and "officers in the Civil and Consular Services." There are distinctions of high and low office, of high and low salary. There are distinctions of officers in tem- porary employ, and officers in the permanent service holding appointments directly from the Crown or on certificate from the Civil Service Commissioners. But nowhere is there any exclusion of public servants from the benefit of Pension on the ground of the country where they are born or on the ground of race-extraction.

The General Pension Rules of Colonies aḍinitting natives of Asia or Africa into the Civil Service, have uniformly applied the benefit of Pension to all public servants on the permanent establishment drawing salaries above a certain limit, and not being privates or other members of a Police Force for whom special pensions are provided: Neither the Ceylon nor Straits Pension Rules make any distinction of European and Asiatic officers, nor do they exclude any public servant on the permanent establishment on the score of race or birthplace. There is one partial exception to be found in certain special Rules as to Leave of Absence, Fassages and Pensions, of Officers on the West Coast of Africa, which took effect on 18th September 1874. For, § 430 of these rules states :---

"Neither do these rules apply to officers being natives of the West Coast of Africa, who will con- "tinue to be subject to the rules hitherto in force in regard to leave of absence and pension.”

It is easy to see the reason for this distinction. The climate of the Gold Coast is considered deadly to Europeans, but not so to natives. European officers require there 8 months' ordinary leave of absence out of every 24 months, serving in the Colony only two-thirds of the time they are paid for, and spending the rest of the time, even when well, in Madeira or St. Helena. The "rules hitherto in

Har, force" leave the native Officials in West Africa practically on a as far as pension and leave of absence are concerned, with the European and native Officials of Ceylon, Singapore and all other British Colonies.

Somerly to. They dis now fed any

Enclosure A. Minute by the Governor,

1262.

2. Hongkong Pension Minute of 1862 applied to cases of Asiatics. 1863.

Climate Court.

The Hongkong Pension Minute of 1862, Clause 16 of which was amended in 1865, has never yet ceased to be in force, though further amendments since proposed have in one or two cases been acted upon. It offers the benefit of pensions to "all public servants holding offices named in the Civil List Ordinance or offices described in the Annual Estimates of the Fixed Establishment of the Colony, and drawing salaries of thirty pounds and upwards." At the time when this Minute was sanctioned, there were on the Fixed Establishment of the Colony numbers of so-called Portuguese, Indian and Chinese public servants drawing salaries of upwards of thirty pounds a year.

All these officers expected to be entitled to the benefits of the provisions made by the Pension Minute of 1862. As regards the Portuguese, all of whom are natives of Hongkong or Macao, I am not aware that their share in the benefits of the Pension Minute has ever been called in question.

Dec.