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MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
Grant came prominently before the British public. The Committee of the Privy Council, deliberately favouring religious education, had made a regulation which directed that the authorized version of the Scriptures (and no other) should be used in all Schools to which the aid of the Govern ment was extended. This was a rather objectionable regulation, because it de- liberately excluded Roman Catholic and other versions of the Scriptures, and there- fore inhibited Roman Catholic Schouls from participation in the Grant, while it admitted Wesleyan and other Noaoaformist Schools as well as those of the Church of England. The educational vote was on this ground fiercely attacked in Parliament by Sir R. Peel, Sir W. Molesworth and men of all parties, and the vote, which had by this time risen from the first grant of £20,000 made in 1833, to £30,000 in 1839 and to £10000 in 1817, was passed only when Lord J. Russell had pledged the Govern- ment to a speedy change of system in regard to the exclusion of the Roman Catholics.
Within five days after their appointment, the Educational Committee of Hongkong presented their report to Government (11 November, 1847). They stated in this re- port, that they had visited all the existing Chinese Schools in Victoria, Aberdeen aud Stanley, excepting those supported by the charitable contributions of Europeans (i.e. the local Mission Schools); that at Victoria they found 3 Schools in active operation (in Taipingshan, Sheungwan and Chung- wan) with 67 scholars; that at Aberdeen they found 2 Schools with 27 scholars, at Stanley 3 Schouls with 29 scholars. They explained that the system of instruction, which was identical in all these Schools, comprised only Chinese reading and writ- ing, the readers being the three-characters- classic and similar eleruentary books, ris- ing to the Four Books and Five Classics. The Committee stated that the school fees, paid by each individual sobolar, varied
from 8 to $6 per annum, but they pointed
out that in Stanley and Aberdeen the fish- ing seasons, commencing in the third and ninth moons of each Chinese year, interfered sadly with the attendance. Then, as to the question of religious versus secular educa- tion, the Committee unanimously made the following memorable declaration, · With regard to interference with the religious prejudices of the Chinese, we think that there is no need for apprehension. We cannot think it advisable to separate the knowledge of what we and all the Christian world confess to be the highest truths, from other knowledge. We therefore advocate the ultimate introduction into these Schools of the study of the Bible, and we should re- gret any measure likely to exclude religious instruction: but at present we think any interference with the existing course of in- struction would be injudicious. We sug- gest that no such interference be attempted at present, but that a Committee, for the purpose of improving the Schools which accept of Government aid, be appointed and that they make from time to time, subject to the approval of the Government, such alterations in the mode of tuition as may gradually lead to the introduction of a bet- ter system. The Committee concluded this admirable report by stating that they be- lieved that the desiro manifested by Her Majesty's Government to provide in some degree for the education of the poorer classes of the population would be appre- ciated by well-disposed Chinese, but that vigilance would be required to prevent misappropriation of the monthly graat.
The Guvernment lost little time in acting upen the foregoing report of this Committee, ut which Mr. Hillier was the head as Mr. Stanton was its heart. On 10th No- vember 1847, Colonel Caine informed the Committee that the Government approved of the recommendations of the Committee. This statement virtually implied approval of the adoption of a Government Grant-in- Aid system having the definite aim of con- verting existing secular Schools of the Chi-
MATERALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
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nese people into Government Grant-in-Aid bonouls, in which, with judicious caution, a religions education, based on the Christian Bible, was eventually to be introduced, so as to reform by insensible steps the native Confucian system of teaching. Such was at any rate the purport of the recommendations which the Committee had made and which the Government now formally approved. There is indeed reuson to believe that Colonel Caine meant mothing of the sort, for, when stating that the grant for the Three Schools Wax La commence on January, 1848, he added the following caution, the grant is to be strictly confined in the objects detailed in my letter of 7th instant and always subject to the pleasure of the Government.' But that letter of 7th November contained not a word jussitiv.ly prohibiting the introduction of that religious education, which the Committee had made the heart and soul of their recom- mendations. No further instructions were given to the Committee which was formally appointed on 6th December, 1847, and con- sisted of Mr. C. B. Hillier, the Rev. V. Stanton, and Mr. J. M. Marques (who had meanwhile succeeded Mr. Inglis as Acting Registrar General). They were merely re- quested to act as a Committee of Supervi sion and to send half-yearly reports on the progress of the students and on the fitness and ability of the teachers."
1848. During this year the Protestant Scivols of the Colony consisted of Mr. Stanton's Church of England School, where Mr. F. Drake taught (single-handed, it seems) 27 hoys and 18 girls, the east of the Sohool being $562; the Morrison Education Society's School, which was continued by Mr. W. A Macy with 22 Chinese scholars costing $1336; and the Anglo-Chinese College under Dr. Legge, who expended $73 on the tuition of 27 Chinese boys and 7 Chinese girls. In September, 1848, Mr. J. bummers (subsequently Professur of Chinese Literature at King's College, Lon- den) arrived as the first Head-Master of
St. Paul's College, and ennmenced teaching a small number of Chinese hoys, collected from the lower classes of the Chinese pu- pulation. About the same time Mr. Stanton requested the Trustees of St. Paul's College in Englaust to transfer all their rights and powers to the Lord Bishop of Victoria. This was accordingly done. The Roman Catholic Mission, besides continuing their theological Seminary, now started an Anglo- Portuguese School with Is Portuguese buys under Father Girard, also a Chinese School with 14 Chinese hugs under Chun A-yee and a Girls-School in which 13 European and Portuguese girls were taught English The and French by Sisters of Charity. Roman Catholic Mission thus followed the example of Mr. Stanton's Church of England School in educating the sons and daughters of European residents while the Government and the Protestant Missions laboured chiefly for the benefit of the Chinese,
The working of the Government ¡Grant- in-Aid Seluuls commenced on 23rd February, 1848, when Masters were appointed for three Schools for Chiuese children (Victoria, Stanley and Aberdeen), Mr. Marques hav- ing resigned his appointment and left the Colony (a February), the remaining mem- bers of the Committee, the Rev. V. Stanton and Mr. C. B. Hillier, presented their first half-yearly report (9 August, 1848). They reported an average attendance, of 96 scholars in the above-mentioned 3 Grant-ia- Aid Schools, and stated that they had insisted upon Arithmetic being taught and required more explanation to be given of the Chinese reading books, but otherwise left the native methods of teaching intact, They also reported now the existence of 12 private Chinese Schools in the Colony, viz.
in Victoria, 2 in Stanley and 4 in Aber- deen, with a total of 214 boys. From this it appears that, as the activity of Protestant educationists aroused the energies of the Roman Catholic Mission, so the new-born pedagogical zeal of the Government sti- mulated the educational efforts ot the
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