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THE CHINA REVIEW.
system of education was organized, Cadet- ships for the future improvement of offi- cial interpretation were established, a road to the Peak and a Sanitarium were con- struoted, the waterworks which, through the energy of his successors, proved such a boon to the Culony, were begun, a Mint also was set up and a new Gaol built on Stone-cutters' Island. As the natural result of such
vigorous enlightened policy, sympathetically animating the whole Government Service, the Chinese began at last to feel confidence in the stability and integrity of the English government; they ventured to bring their families to Hangkoug, life and property, both foreign and native, gradually became secure as crime diminished, and the Colony began to redeem its previous deservedly bad reputa- tion. Two only of Sir Hercules Robinson's schemes, the Mint and the Gaol on Stoue- eutters' Island, were abandoned by his successors, yet public opinion has lately come to see that the abandonment of the Mint was a grand mistake, and the Gaol on Stone-ontters' Island, the original design of which was left uncompleted, has never had a fair trial yet. The idea, from which the hailding of the Gaol on Stone-cutters' Island arose, was to establish the separate system which is now found to be go offcetual.
But the two principal reform schemes of Sir Heronles Robinson, those which have had the most beneficial effect on the Colony, not only met with the unquali- fied approval and persistent strenuous sup- port of his successors Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell (1866-1871) and Sir Arthur Kennedy (1872-1877), but they gained by their practical results the uafoigned admi- ration and gratitude of the whole population, native and foreign. I mean the organiza- tion of the educational system of the Colony and the Student Interpreters' scheme, the former of which measures has so commended itself to every unprejudiced member of the community, that any tampering with its pre- Bent successful working would produce a storm of lawful popular indignation such
as no sensible Governor would venture to evoke.
a
The educational system of the Colony is the result of a gradual, almost spontaneous growth. A few schools existed before Sir Hercules Robinson, but they were but a sham and the objects of native derision. Sir Hercules Robinson appointed a Board of Education, and opeucd elementary schools in various parts of the Colony in charge of a foreign Inspector, the Rev. W. Lobscheid. The bible was used as a school-boak, and native Christian teachers were therefore required. But it was soon found that, under the peculiar circumstances of the Colony, this denominational system was mistake. Ninety per cent. of the school children were heathen, the remaining ten per cent. representing a most heterogeneous mixture of creeds, Roman Catholicism, Church of England, Nonconformity both foreign and native, Mahomedans, Parseos and Jews. Protestant Missions, still in their infancy, were unable then to supply the schools with Christian teachers who were not shams. Is it to be wondered at that the whole scheme proved a failure? Yet out of this failure arose gradually, and without any definite policy on the part of the Gavern- ment, the present secular system of educa- tion. One good thing the Board of Eduos- tion did before it died of inanition. Bishop Smith, as its representative, scoured the services of a Graduate of Aberdeen Univer- sity, Mr. Stewart, who came prepared to take things as he found them. Warned by the failure of the Board of Education and eniowed with a broad and clear conception of the special requirements of the Colony, he resolutely resisted the counsels thrust upon him from various sides to disregard Chinese and confine himself exclusively to English teaching. Mr. Stewart formed the Govern- ment Central School, and meeting with the warm support of every succeeding Governor and Administrator (Mr. Mercer, Sir Richard MacDonnell, Sir Arthur Kennedy, Mr. Aus- tin) continned, to the present day, to work
CHINESE STUDIES AND OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION.
both the Central School and the Village Schools in such a way that the Government offees gradually filled with clerks and inter- preters having received a sound elementary knowledge of both Chinese and English on the basis of the publications of the Irish National School-book Society, whilst the strict disci- pline and moral influence of a gentleman like Mr. Stewart and his staff of high-class English and native teachers formed an educational agency far more powerful than were school-learning. Sir Richard Mae- Donnell raised the standard of the Central School by having the elements of Natural Science, elementary Chemistry and Al- gebra, brought within the range of subjects taught in the School. Sir Arthur Kennedy further extended the secular educational system of the Colony by a scherue of grants- in-aid, offering most substantial assistance to all well-taught private schools in the Colony whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or Con- fucianist, on the basis of payment by results in secular teaching, such schools being, however, subject to periodical inspection and annual examination by H. M. In- spector of Schools. Owing to the absence of suitable native school books, Sir Arthur Kennedy moreover appointed a School-book Committee, a seat being offered in that Com- wittee to the representative of every Roman Catholic and Protestant Mission in the Colony, and the result was a set of Chinese elementary school-books, designed to be used side by side with the Chinese Classics, whose deficiency in enlightened secular teaching demanded such a supplement.
Apart from the educational system, initi- ated by Sir Hercules Robinson, the Colony owes to this, its greatest Governor, yet another scheme more directly grappling with the great evil of former days, viz. the want of satisfactory official interpretation. He urged upon the Colonial Office the establishment of Cadetships, designed to supply the Civil Service in Hongkong with an efficient staff of interpreters. The candidates were to be selected in England on the basis of com-
7
petitive examinations, and after two years study of the Chinese language in Hongkong, or as soon afterwards as they should be declared qualified by a Board of competent examiners, they were to be appointed Govern- ment Interpreters and to be employed in such of the departments as might require their aer- vices, being after three years' approved ser- vice eligible by the Secretary of State for promotion to the higher offices in the Civil Service of Hongkong. This far-seeing schome, which bad in vain been urged upon preceding Governors by the Rev. Dr.j Legge, was approved by the Foreign Office, on 15th November 1861, and forthwith brought into operation by the selection of candidates, resulting eventually in the addi-: tion to the Civil Service of the Colony of six gentlemen, who are now foremost in ast Samiti, many different departments and thoroughly qualified to check the interpretation and ty documentary translation work going on in their respective offices, as far as the written language of China and the Cantonese verna-; cular are concerned.
The Student-Interpreters' scheme was ver- tainly a move in the right direction, but it lacked in range of application and in solid- arity of execution. It embraced only the ruling dialect of Hongkong, the Cantonese dialect, and ignored the Hakka and Fohkien dialects. But even for the study of that one Cantonese dialect the course of study was too short; it should have been extended to at least three years instead of two. The Students were moreover left too much to themselves. The then Colonial Secretary re- garded a young man, come out to learn Chi- nese, much as Mr. Verdant Green might have regarded an unbroken horse-a oreature that ought to be done something to, but Heaven knew what! In consequence each Student was allowed to follow what system or no system he liked, and to waste his time in Hongkong when he should have been in Canton. Morcover the pay allowed him during the pupilage was too small for ano- ther year of it to be contemplated. Gonteel
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