188
1
26
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
or
resigned, and Bishop Smith being absent, the Board now consisted of the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. W. T. Mercer (presi- dent), the Hon. A. Fletcher, M. L. C., Rev. W. R. Beach, the Rev. Dr. Legge, and Mr. W. Robinson (Secretary). The latter was soon after succeeded by Mr. J. C. Power. At the request of the Board, Dr. Legge drafted a circular letter which was forwarded (10th April, 1861) to the Registrar of London University and to the Principals of the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, requesting each of them to recommend to Bishop Smith (then in Eng- land) two gentlemen likely to occupy effi- ciently the position of Headmaster Principal in the proposed Central Sobool. Bishop Smith was at the same time autho- rized to select from the candidates thus re- commended the individual most likely in his opinion to give satisfaction. This circular, in describing the Government Schools, con- tains the significant remark that "they are not religious Schools, but the sacred Scriptures in Chinese are used as a class book." The following sentences are also characteristic of Dr. Legge. The Headmaster will be ex- pected to acquire the Chinese language, without a knowledge of which he cannot fill the situation efficiently. Under the right man the Institution will not only benefit the Chinese population of this Colony but tell powerfully on the enlightenment and progress of the adjoining Continent."
Ou 25th March, 1861, Dr. Legge's Plan was submitted to the Legislative Council which, in approving it, authorized the pur- chase of premises for the proposed Govern- ment Central School in Gough Street for $20,000 and the erection of an additional building on the same site.
That the Board of Education had now abandoned the former, decidedly religious, principles of education and deliberately adopted secular principles is evident, not only from the above quoted statement of the circular letter, bat also from the fact that the Board at the same time, when they
approved Dr. Legge's draft of that circular (2nd April, 1861), resolved that the Bishop's Diocesan Girls School, which had been placed under the Board as a Grant-in-Aid School 15 months previous (12th December, 1859), could not remain under the Board's superintendence being a Christian School and constituted differently from the Govern- ment Schools.' The Rev. W. K. Beach resigned his seat on the Board (3rd Septem- ber, 1861), and a merchant, Mr. J. J. Mac- kenzie, took his place. As the Colonial Secretary, about the same time, ceased to attend the meetings of the Board, Dr. Legge was appointed Chairman and had henceforth his own way, until the return of the Bishop. Before the close of the year, the Board received (3rd December, 1861) information from the Bishop that he had selected Mr. F. Stewart, M.A., for the Headmastership of the Government Schools of the Colony.
In their report for the year 1861, the Committee briefly stated that Dr. Legge had looked after aud inspected the Schools in the absence of a regular Inspector, and that he was able to report favourably of the at- tendance and of the teachers, but the re- port gives no statistics whatever.
1862.
St. Paul's College School, under the tuition of Mr. J. Fryer, assisted by 4 Chinese teachers, received during the year 1862 a number of English boys who were taught together with the Chinese boys. There were 44 boya in average attendance and the cost of the School amounted to $4000. The Diocesan Female Training School, under Miss Eaton, was continued in the Albany, rent free, with an average at- tendance of 17 girls, at a cost of 82043. Miss Baxter continued her Chinese Day School in Ashton Buildings with an average attendance of 20 children and a Chinese- Eurasian Boarding School in Mosque Ter- race with 13 children. The former School cost $125, the latter $625. There were 16 children in Miss Mugrath's European Day School in Mosque Gardens, and 12 children
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
in Miss Legge's Anglo-Chinese School. In the Berlin Foundling House 13 children attended school. St. Andrew's School, having been closed at the end of the pre- vious year, now disappears from the re- cords.
As to the Roman Catholic Schools, Mr. Rowland had 30 boys under instruction in the B. C. English Boys School at a cost of $960, while Mr. Pereira taught 35 boys, attending the R. C. Portuguese School, at the same cost, and Mr. Maurus Leong taught 30 Chinese boys in the R. C. Chinesa School at a cost of $144. All these Propa- ganda Society Schools were located in Wellington Street. The same Society had a Chinese School in Spring Gardens, which was attended by 35 boys, ander the tuition Mr. Vincent Uen, at a cost of $192, and another Chinese School at Aberdeen, where Mr. Stephanus Chu taught 18 boys, at a cost of $144. The Seminary of the Propa- ganda Society in Pottinger Street is not mentioned in the records of this year. But the Ecclesiastical School of the French Mission is reported as having had 10 stu- dents under the instruction of Père Jaque- The Italian min, at a cost of $489. Convent had, during the year 1862, 20 girls in their English School under Sister Aloysia, 28 girls in their Portuguese School under Sister Giovannina and 35 girls in their Chi- nese School under Sisters Giuseppina and Magdalena Fan. These three Schools cost the Convent $2,400. The same Convent's Chinese Girls School at Spring Gardens, under Sister Cecilia Leang, was attended by 30 children, costing $144. The Schools of the Asile de la Sainte Enfance had an at- tendance of 34 girls under Sister Benjamin, and 15 Chinese boys under Mr. Joseph Lee, the two Schools oosting the French Sisters $360.
As regards the Government Schools, the great event of the year was the arrival (18th February, 1862) of the new Headmaster, Mr. (subsequently Dr.) Stewart, who was destined to establish the reign of secularism
27
in local education, which lasted for the next sixteen years, and to enhance this sway of secularism by bringing eventually even a few Mission Schools under a strictly secular Grant-in-Aid Scheme (1873-1878) for about Nevertheless he exercised a six years. most beneficial influence upon the hundreds of Chinese youths who passed through the Central School in the course of the 17 years during which this Institution was under his disciplinarian regime which, though secular, had a decidedly moral effect through the strict discipline he maintained and especially through the power of his noble personal character. The Central School gradually became not only highly popular but the very ideal of all classes of the community so long as it bore the impress of Dr. Stewart's own personality.
Before Dr. Stewart's arrival, Dr. Legge and Mr. J. J. Mackenzie (as a Sub-Com- mittee of the Board) had selected four of the Government Schools and amalgamated them into one Central School at the new Gough Street premises. Thus Dr. Stewart found, on his arrival, the Central School existing and in working order. But the question as to its permanent organization and most es- pecially the principle on which new scholars should be admitted in future, was for several months a vexed problem of the Board, until Mr. J. J. Mackenzie solved the whole question by a Memorandam which he pre- sented to the Board (3rd June, 1862) and which, with very slight modifications, was accepted by the Board (8th October, 1862), supported as it was by Dr. Stewart's warm approval. The Acting Governor having likewise endorsed Mr. Mackenzie's Memo- randum with his sanction, it was printed and carried into immediate effect under the title Regulations for the Government Schools in Hongkong.' These Regulations excluded rudimentary Chinese teaching from the Central School, admitting Chinese scholars only after a test examination of a specified standard. By this measure the Central School was at once raised above the
382
il
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.