T
36
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
continued at the beginning of the following yeur, when Miss Magrath returned to England, after many years' self-denying labours for the good of Eurasian orphans and Chinese children.
The Roman Catholic College of St. Saviour, with a staff consisting of Messrs. T. Terry, V. Pereira, M. Baptista, Rev. J Mao and 3 Chinese teachers, was attended, in the year 1868, by 140 boys, at a cost of 82.124. The Seminary in Pottinger Street, now under the direction of Father J. Bur- ghignoli (who ever since was Bishop Rui- mondi's right hand in the direction of local Catholic Schools) and Mr. Jehoshaphat Lee, had 9 students under instruction, costing $600. At the Sookonpon Seminary (now called Caroline Hill School), 16 students were under the tuition of Pore Moursau. The Reformatory at West Point, now under the direction of Father Burghignoli, had 51 boys in industrial training under 5 Chinese Masters, at a cost of $1,800. This institu- tion, as willing to receive any destitute and neglected juveniles sent to them by the Government, received now a grant (not for educational purposes) from the Government, paid at the rate of $2 for each boy sent, for a number not exceeding 20. The Prupa- ganda Society contioned its Spring Gardens School with 43 boys at a cost of $120. The Italian Convent Schools were continued as formerly with an aggregate of 230 girls ander instraction (names of teachers hence- forth not recorded), costing $3,729. The Italian Sisters continued likewise their Spring Gardens Girls School with 21 girls under Sister Cham at a cost of $120. The Sisters of the Asile de la St. Enfance had 6
boys and 76 girls under instruction in the Convent, and further at Saiwan (P) 2 boys and 51 girls under the charge of Sister M. Lucien,
As regards the Government Schools, Dr. Stewart recorde, in his report for 1868, 201 scholars in average attendance at the Central School and 360 41 13 outside Schouls, which, making allowance for the increased number
of Schools, means really no increase in the attendance all round. He gives the number of children of school-going age (8 to 16 years) as 13,200. Estimating the number of children attending Schools of all denominations in 1868 as amounting to 2,5 3, he calculates 10,697 children of school-going nge to have remained unedu- cated. Instead of complaining now of the educational indifference of Chinese parents, Dr. Stewart records his discovery that 'the Chinese like to have a schoolmaster of their own chice,' which indicates a kern interest in education. Nevertheless Dr. Stewart reiterates his conviction that no- thing short of compulsion will remedy the evil. The greater portion of his report is taken up with a defence of the secular system which had been assailed by Bishop Alford (2nd February, 1869) as a godless one. • The Government of this Colony,' Dr. Stewart says,
is not wedded to secular education us such, It simply accepts the situation in which it finds itself and tries to make the best of it.' He then endeavours to show that during the reign of religious education (1862 to 1865), since his arrival in the Colony, he found hypocrisy connected with the teaching of the Bible, and Christian Masters who were lazy, deceitful and incompetent teachers, and alleges that he was told that the Chi- nese would not accept even of free education of which Christianity formed a
part." Having thus justified the change he made in adopting the secular systera, he goes on to show that because the education is secular, it is not therefore immoral; because in the Village Schends it is Confucianismu, pure and simple, neither is it immoral.'
1869. Io his report, contributed to the Blue Book for 1869, Bishop Alford remarks, 'St. Paul's College has been absorbed into the Diocesan Orphanage during the year and the College is now temporarily closed." The Diocesan School was re-organized or resuscitated at the beginning of the year by placing Mr. and M-s, Arthur in charge of 12 boys and 9 girls collected in that
37
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.
the Industrial Schools of the Westpoint Reformatory, under the direction of Father Burghignoli, 56 boys were under the tuition of four Masters, at a cost of $1,800. The Government assisted this Institution now by
institution, the expenses amounting to $1,540. Miss Riokomariz (in the absence of Miss Oxlad) conducted the Baxter Vernacular Chinese Day School (number of scholars not recorded) with the assistance of a Chinese teacher at a cost of $150. The London Mission had 40 Chinese boys under tuition at Taipingshan, costing $240, also 28 boys at Wantsui, ensting $144, and 6 girls in the Union Church Girls School under Mrs. Kwan Amni, at a cost of $84. At the Berlin Foundling House 16 girls were un- der the tuition of Miss Süss and Pastor Klitzke, No other Protestant Mission School appears to have been in existence during this year.
In view of the continuous variations to which Protestant educational efforts have apparently been subject in Hongkong dur- ing this period, the comparatively stewty continuance of the Roman Catholic Schools becomes very striking. St. Saviour's Col- lege attended by 130 boys, under the tuition of Messra, T. Terry, V. Pereira, M. Bap- tista, Sam Matcho, P. Montalbetti, Chan Tat-chi and Father Mourn, eust $2.088. At the publio prize-giving of this College (22nd March, 1869) the Governor, Sir R. G. MacDonnell, stated that although there was no more strenuous supporter of the Protestant Church than himself, still he must confess that in this Colony the efforts of the Ro- rean Catholic brethren far outstripped, and were in excess of, all other denominatious.' This remarkable statement, though per- frotis just and sorrect then with regard to the few preceding years, did not apply, as this sketch will have shewn, to the earlier periods of our educational history, nor could it now be applied to any period subsequent to the revision of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme (1879).
The Seminary of the Propaganda Society, now under the tuition of Father Longo counted 9 students and cost $601. The Ecclesiastical School of the Missions des Etrangères, at Sookonpoo, was attended by 10 students under Pace Ch. Mouroux.
At
a grant of $60 a month. The Propa- gandu Society had 36 Chinese boys under the instruction of Mr. J. Leang at Spring Gardens, at a cost of $120. At the Italian Convent 250 girls, in three divisions (Eng- lish, Portuguese and Chinese), received the usual instruction under the general super- intendence of Sister Maria Stella, the ex- penses amounting to $3,120, The Sisters of the Italian Convent continued also their Spring Gardens Girls School with 24 child- ren at a cost of $120. The French Sisters of the Asile de la St. Enfance had, at the Convent, 80 girls and 15 boys under in- struction, and under the direction of Sister St. Lucien there were further 32 girls un- der instruction at Sa-cuon (expenses not recorded).
As to the Government Schools, there was, during the year 1869, at the Central School an average attendance of 218 boys receiving an Anglo-Chinese education which cost the Government $23.33 per scholar, and at the 18 Village Setools there were 422 scholars receiving a purely Chinese education at a cost of $5 12 per head. The subjects of geometry and chemistry had been added to the ordinary branches of an elementary English Selioul and the Laboratory was re- ported to be in full working order at last. There was evidence of a greater interest being now taken in the Central School by the Chinese mercantile community, and translation from English into Chinese and vice versa was recognized as the permanent groundwork of the instruction to be given
in this School. Another sound principle Dr. Stewart now also gave prominence to, viz. that it is indispensable for every
boy at the Central School (European and Indian boys not excepted) to learn Chinese, As to the Village Schools, Dr. Stewart's re- port is confined to the remark that the sys-
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