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MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
English instructress. The Government in- mediately placed one of the houses in Albany Terrace at the disposal of the Com- mittee and the Diocesan School was forth- with temporarily located there under Miss Wilsou,
The
1860. It is not a little remarkable that, immediately upon the revival of educational activity among the Protestant Missions, which characterized the close of the preced- ing year, the educational movement among the Catholio Missions also made a fresh start in the year 1860, displaying a sudden and quite extraordinary energy. The R. C. Society de Propaganda Fide commenced, in September 1860, an English Boys School in Staunton Street, under a Mr. Rowland, who had an average of 25 boys under instruction, at a cost of $960 to the Mission. This insti- tution furnishes the first recorded example of a School enjoying exemption from pay- ment of police and lighting taxes. Propaganda Society started at the same time alan a Portuguese Boys School, in Staunton Street, under the tuition of Mr. Vincento Pereira, at a cost of $600. This School, like. wise exempted from payment of rates and taxes, was attended by 35 Portuguese boys. To provide for Chinese Catholic youths, the same Society now re-opened also a Chinese Boys School in Wellington Street, taught by Jacobus Leang, and attended by 30 boys, at a cost of $141. In May, 1860, the Italian Sisters of the Couvent in Caine Road started (with the assistance of Miss Bowring) three Girls-Schools in Caine Road at an expense of $2,400, viz., an English Girls School with 22 girls under Sister Aloysia, a Portuguese Girls School with 32 girls under Sister Giovannins, and a Chinese Girls School with 30 girls under Sisters Rachèle and Magdalena Fan, and further the Italian Sisters started in Spring Gardens (Queen's Road East) a Chinese Girls School with 22 girls under Sister Cecilia Leang, the latter School costing the Italian Mission $144. The French Bisters, of the Asile de la Sainte
Enfance in Spring Gardens, also revived now their former Schools, viz. a Chiness Girls-School, bringing together 30 children under the instruction of Sister Benjamin, and a Chinese Boys-School with 14 boys under Mr. Joseph Lee. These two Schools cost the French Mission $384. The two Seminaries, formerly established, were now likewise revived, The Italian Mission re- opened their Seminary now in Pottinger Street, placing 12 students under the tuition of Fathers T. Raimondi (the present Bishop), J. Borgazzi, and G. Favini, and giving them a theological training in Latin, at an expense to the Propaganda Society of $600. The French Mission des Etrangères, at the same time re-opened their Ecclesiastical School at Sookouped under Père J. Jacquemin, with 20 students, at a cost of $840. Moreover the Propaganda Society opened a Chinese School at Aberdeen, under Mr. Stephanus Chu, at a cost of $96.
This extraordinary revival of the Roman Catholic educational movement, though ati- mulated no doubt by the reviving energy of the Protestaut Mission, is, however, prin- cipally due to the educational zeal and energy which ever distinguished the newly arrived Father (since Bishop) Raimondi, who at once occupied among Catholic Educa- tionists about the same prominent and fruitful position which Dr. Legge, whom he much resembled also in character and shrewdness, occupied among the Protestants. Bishop Raimondi, however, has remained at the head of Catholic education ever since his arrival (in 1858), whilst Dr. Legge ro- tired from the scene a few years after the establishment of his chef d'oeuvre in edu- cation, the Government Central School, which at this very time Dr. Legge had already designed in outline,
At the beginning of the year 1800 (Ja- nuary 21st) the Government Gazette an- nounced the formation of a new and stronger * Board of Education for the management
of the Government Schools.' We have no records shewing how Dr. Legge's objections
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MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
were overcome, but Dr. Legge did join this new Board, although the presidency of it was placed in the hands of Bishop Smith. The probability is that Dr. Legge had rea- son to expect that Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, would eventually support his scheme of an entire re-organisation of the Government Schools. The other wem- bers of the new Board were the Rev. J. J. Irwin, Rer. W. Beach and Messrs. J. J. Mackenzie, W. C. Robinson and W. S. Bridges (Secretary). In a letter addressed to Bishop Smith, the Colonial Secretary defined the powers of the Board as including, besides the general supervision and control of all Government Schoola throughout the Island, the appointment, transfor, suspension and dismissal of School- masters and the fixing of their salaries. The meetings of the Board were to be held in the Council-room. The Board were to appoint their own Secretary but the ap- pointment of the Inspector of Schools was to rest with the Governor, The Inspector was to report to the Board, but both he and the teachers had an appeal to the Governor. The proceedings of the Board, which were at all times to be subject to the vet, of the Go- vernor, were to be regularly reported to the Colonial Secretary. At the first meeting of this new Board (24th January, 1860) Mr. Lobscheid tendered his resignation, and the Board, after communicating with the Go- vernor, was at once requested to recommend a suoceвBOT. But at their next meeting (7th February, 1860) the Doard, on receiving from Mr. Lobecheid a promise to recognize the Board's supreme authority, recom- mended that Mr. Lobscheid he re-appointed from 1st February. Mr. Lobscheid resumed bis labours and continued them, though not without some frietion, until the end of June, when he resigned finally, and the Board re- commended that his resignation be accepted, but made no suggestion as to the appointment of a successor. The reason was that Dr. Legge now bad matured his now scheme of merging the Inspectorate of Schools in the
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Headmastership of a grand Central Sokool, which was to become the centre of the whole educational movement of Hongkong and to deliver the Government Schools from the bondage of St. Paul's College and its Bishop. Immediately after the Inspector's resigno- tion had taken effect (1st July, 1860), Dr. Legge orally explained at a meeting of the Board (3rd July, 1860) his plan for the establishment of a Central School in the City of Victoria, to combine several at present separate Schools, involving an in- crease of expenditure estimated at £250. The Board at once resolved that Dr. Leggo should be invited to reduce his plan to writ- ing, and on 6th September, 1869, the Board, having received a written statement of what was henceforth popularly known as 'Dr. Legge's Plan,' unanimously resolved that Dr. Legge's suggestions be approved and that the document be forwarded to the Colonial Secretary for submission to the Governor with their cordial recommendation and an earnest request for pecuniary aid in carrying out the Plan. It may be noted, as explaining the easy success which Dr. Legge gained in the Board, that from after 24th January, 1860, until 7th January, 1862, Bishop Smith (being probably absent from the Colony) did not attend a single meeting. of the Board of which he had been nominated President on 20th January, 1860. Dr. Legge, with his force of character and superiority of scholastic knowledge, practically ruled the Buard with the ease and grace of u born Bishop. His Great Plan was subsequently condensed by himself in the following state- ments: (1) that several of the Schools should be collected in one large Central Institution where there should be accommodation for 400 pupils who should be taught their own langnage and the rudiments of English as hitherto; (2) that, instead of an Inspector, the Institution should be under the charge of a Headmaster who should reside in it and have all the native masters immediately under his eye; (3) that from the pupils who were taught English the leadmaster should
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