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MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
scholars (among whom there were now for the first time 26 girls) being reported at the close of the year 1857 as in average attendance in 15 Government Schools. In their report for this year the Committee stated it to be their aim to raise the educational standard and not to enter into any antagonism to voluntary efforts in education.' As we have seen above that voluntary educational efforts had by this time been reduced to a very low ebb in Hongkong, the foregoing sentence has peculiar significance. The Com- mittee also stated that to the ordinary course of instruction, customary in Chinese Schools, they have added more explanation of the sonse of the Chinese characters, a study of portions of the New Testament in Chinese, the meaning of which is explained and special passages committed to memory. As to English teaching, they report that the rudiments of spelling and English reading are also taught in the larger Schools and a few facts of geography taught by finding places on European maps.
1858. The partial paralysis of voluntary educational efforts, which suddenly set in with the year 1857, continued during the year 1858. St. Paul'a College indeed con- tinued, as before, under one English and three Chinese teachers, having an attendance of 30 buys and 10 girls, oosting $3000. St. Andrew's School also continued to flourish, under Rev. A. Taylor and Mr. W. Max- well, and was attended by 118 boys and 19 girls, costing $2,500. But no other Mis- sion Schools appear to have been at work under Protestant management. Of Romau Catholic Schools, likewise, two only appear to have been at work, viz. one, reported as 'the Seminary,' taught by a Chinese teacher and attended by 20 boys and 4 girls, and the Sookonpoo Ecclesiastical School with 30 students under Fère Chagot. The former oost the Roman Catholic Mission $900 (which is unintelligible if, as we suspect, the Seminary was now merely a Day School for Chinese children), the latter cost, as Deual, 8750. No other Catholic School
appears to have been at work in the Colony, But as to private Chinese Schools, there is a record stating that, apart from the Govern- ment Schools, there were about nine private Schools in the Colony, in 1858, entirely supported by Chinese.
The new Government School Committee appears to have worked with tolerable smoothness. The Commitee now consisted of the Protestant Bishop, with the Rev. J. Chalmers and Mr. J. Searth as coadjutors, and the educational establishment included an Inspector (Mr. Lobscheid), a Chinese clerk, 4 teachers of English and 20 teachers of Chinese, The system of fees appears now to have been tentatively introduced ir the Government Schools, as a Gazette Notice of 27 November, 1858, informed parents that schools for gratuitous instruction had been established, taught by native teachers, and that no fees were taken 'except 25 cash & month,' The parents were also informed that complaints were to be sent to the Educational Committee for Chinese Schoole.' The school hours were fixed at 6 hours per diem. In their report for the year 1858, the Committee state that there were 675 scholars under instruction in 15 Schools (with an average attendance of 568 scholars), and that 80 of these scholars reocived an Anglo- Chinese and the remainder a Chinese edu- cation, but that the scholars of all the Schools learned the New Testament in Chinese. The presence of girls (26) among the scholars is mentioned as something very strange. The Committee, however, did not think of opening a separate Girls-School, as the Chinese people were supposed to be- and at that time actually were-averse to the notion of giving girls a bookish educa- tion.
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1850. The paralysis which had befallen the educational movement among the Pro- teafant and Catholic Missions continued during the year 1859. There is, in fact, as regards Roman Catholic education, only ene School recorded as in operation during this year, viz. the R. C. Seminary in
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
Wellington Street,' attended by å boys and 12 girls under the tuition of a Mr. de Souza, and that this was merely a private Anglo- Portuguese Day-School (not a Seminary} appears from the statement that thie School was self-supporting, each child paying a fee of $2 per mensem.
No other School, and not even the Soukonpoo institution, is reported as at work during this year in connection with the R. C. Missions. As to Protestant Schools, there was, in 1859, a slight sign of reviving educational interest, as Miss Legge now re- opened the former Anglo-Chinese Girls. Sobool of the London Mission, with 9 girls in attendance, St. Paul's College continued its work with a staff of 1 English and 4 Chinese teachers and an attendance of 40 boys. The Girls-School, lately connected with the College, appears to have been closed in 1859. The expenses of the Col- lege, amounting during this year to $3750, were partially met by the annual grant from the Foreign Office, and the balance is now atated to have been defrayed practically by rents of houses (College Gardens) built by voluntary contributions.' St. Andrew's School, now under the tuition of Mr. E. Giles, was continued at an expense of $3490. The average attendance is not stated, but it is recorded that the principal attendants at this School are Portuguese and Chinese, besides some Parsees and children belonging to other countries.' These words appear to indicate that Mr. Shortrede's original idea, in starting this School for the particular benefit of the children of English residents in the first instance, had by this time been found to be impracticable. The School, however, was continued for a few years longer.
The Government Schools continued to flourish and, through the zealous efforts of the Inspector of Schools, enlisted even the interest and sympathy of the na- tive community, as evidenced by the singu- lar fact that Chinese merchants subscribed, in 1859, the sum of $500 in aid of the Government Sobouls.
As many as 937
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scholars and among them 61 girls were under instruction during the year in 19 Schools, with a staff of 3 English and 21 Chinese teachers. But the average attend- ance amounted only to 713 scholars. The total of the expenses, including rent of school houses and cost of inspection, amount- ed to $6,305. In his report for the year 1859, Bishop Smith states that the course of instruction pursued in these Government Schools embraced the general course of a bative Chinese education is the textbooks of their national literature and works pre- pared by foreigners, and the New Testament and religious works in Chinese, 'except in cases of individual objection from the Mr. Lobscheid parents of the children.' introduced in the Schools a useful edition of both the native Sam-taze-king and of Med- hurst's Sam-teze-king with interlinear com- ments prepared by himself. This work has been perpetuated in countless reprints to the present day. Mr. Lobscheid's relations with the Educational Committee and especially with the Bishop were occasionally strained, and additional cause of friction was created by the permission given to the Inspector of Schools by the Government (18th October, 1859) to assist Mr. Gardner Austin, Emigra- tion Agent for British Guiana, in inducing Chinese from the neighbouring Hakka Distriots to emigrate to Guiana with their families.
But quite a new departure was made by Bishop Smith at the close of the year 1859, in placing a newly started Diocesan Girls School under the Government Grant-in-Aid Scheme. Bishop Smith in- formed the Government (12th December, 1809) that this School was about to be expanded into a Boarding School under a lady instructress expected from England, and that this Boarding Scbool would also be placed under the supervision of the Edusa- tional Committee. Accordingly be asked the Government to grant a site and funds' for building a house for the accommodation of the Chinese girls and the residence of the
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