K
(10)
are running the streets in this Colony, or grow up in ignorance in the boats without receiving any education. "We have heard it suggested that a training ship should be started for these poor children, but how many could be received and trained? Chinese are very fond of learning trades. Why then do they not assist more the only existing Industrial School?”
L
From 1880 up to 1885 nothing worthy of being noticed took place except that we succeeded in having a new wing attached to the building, to place there the Portuguese boys separated from the Chinese. The pecuniary means were supplied by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The Institution went on steadily, the average number of boys being from 50 to 60. It being difficult to find work for the shops in the Reformatory, several boys were sent out to private shops to learn a trade, with the obligation of coming for the night to the Reformatory, or at least every Sunday to spend a part of the day with the other boys. The Directors of the Reformatory paid a certain sum for their apprenticeship in order to have a supervision over the boys, even when they are out. This system proved to be good to a certain extent, but we prefer having the boys working inside the Establishment.
In August, 1885, we were invited by the Government to send in a kind of history of our Reformatory, and we sent the annexed Report which we would take up as the summing up of what we have said.
(11)
REPORT OF THE WEST POINT REFORMATORY, 1885.
FROM ITS FOUNDATION (1864) UP TO AUGUST, 1885.
When His Excellency Sir HERCULES ROBINSON granted to the Roman Catholic Mission in Hongkong the site where the present Reformatory stands, he openly declared that the Government could not give any coercive power to the Directors of the Institution to keep the boys against their own will. Therefore, when the Mission at its own expense erected the building, it did not provide for a strictly speaking Reformatory, but more for an Asylum to prevent the boys from becoming worse.
2. With two exceptions, no boy has ever been sent for a fixed period of time; the boys sent by the Magistrate had already finished their time in Gaol, and then, not having any one to look after them, they were sent to the Reformatory to remain there as long as they pleased. With regard to the two exceptions we received the boys conditionally, if they liked to remain.
3. It has never been a general rule that all the boys who had been in Gaol should be sent to the Reformatory, but it was left to the choice of the Magistrate. Sometimes we received some, sometimes none.
4. In spite of all these drawbacks we tried to do our best, and we think we have done some good. We adopted the voluntary system. No coercion; and we tried to make the boys affectionate to the Institute.
5. The greater part of the boys sent by the Government were from the Magistracy, a few from the Registrar General, and two from the Colonial Secretary. They do not exceed sixty.
Altogether 525
:
K
( 10 )
are running the streets in this Colony, or grow up in 'ignorance in the boats without receiving any education. "We have heard it suggested that a training ship should be started for these poor children, but how many could "be received and trained? Chinese are very fond of learn- "ing trades. Why then do they not assist more the only
existing Industrial School?”
<L
From 1880 up to 1885 nothing worthy of being noticed took place except that we succeeded in baving a new wing attached to the building, to place there the Portuguese boys separated from the Chinese. The pecu- niary means were supplied by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The Institution went on steadily, the average number of boys being from 50 to 60. It being difficult to find work for the shops in the Reformatory, several boys were sent out to private shops to learn a trade, with the obligation of coming for the night to the Reformatory, or at least every Sunday to spend a part of the day with the other boys. The Directors of the Reformatory paid a certain sum for their apprenticeship in order to have a supervision over the boys, even when they are out. This system proved to be good to a certain extent, but we prefer having the boys working inside the Establishment.
In August, 1885, we were invited by the Government to send in a kind of history of our Reformatory, and we sent the annexed Report which we would take up as the summing up of what we have said.
( 11 )
REPORT OF THE WEST POINT REFORM-
ATORY, 1885.
FROM ITS FOUNDATION (1864) UP TO AUGUST, 1885.
When His Excellency Sir HERCULES ROBINSON granted to the Roman Catholic Mission in Hongkong the site where the present Reformatory stands, he openly de- clared that the Government could not give any coercive power to the Directors of the Institution to keep the boys against their own will. Therefore, when the Mission at its own expense erected the building, it did not provide for a strictly speaking Reformatory, but more for an Asylum to prevent the boys from becoming worse.
2. With two exceptions, no boy has ever been sent for a fixed period of time; the boys sent by the Magis- trate had already finished their time in Gaol, and then, not having any one to look after them, they were sent to the Reformatory to remain there as long as they pleased. With regard to the two exceptions we received the boys conditionally, if they liked to remain.
3. It has never been a general rule that all the boys who had been in Gaol should be sent to the Reformatory, but it was left to the choice of the Magistrate. Sometimes we received some, sometimes none.
4. In spite of all these drawbacks we tried to do our best, and we think we have done some good. We adopted the voluntary system. No coercion; and we tried to affectionate to us the boys to the Institute.
5. The greater part of the boys sent by the Govern- ment were from the Magistracy, a few from the Registrar General, and two from the Colonial Secretary. they do not exceed sixty.
Altogether
525
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