CO129-285 - Acting Governor Major Gen Black - 1898 [9-10] — Page 262

Enclosure 2

255

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23713

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hea? 24 OUT 98

TO THE HON. C. P. CHATER, C.MG,

SENIOR UNOFFICIAL MEMBER OF THE

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, HONGKONG.

SIR,

1. Victoria View,

Kowloon, 15th March, 1898.

I am instructed by the Kowloon School Committee to lay before you the accompanying papers, and to ask you to bring the subject to the attention of the Unofficial Members of Council, with a view to their assistance in procuring for the European Residents in Kowloon a School for their children. Such assistance might take practical shape in the proposal of a Resolution in the Legislative Council, if need be, and insistance upon the immediate attention of the Government to the matter in question, which has been pending for several years and is becoming more urgent with the increase in the Kowloon population.

2. The Committee ask only for a boon for which the meanest of Her Majesty's subjects at home does not ask in vain ; for a boou, moreover, which is freely, even lavishly, accorded at the ratepayer's expense to aliens in Hongkong who make no pretence of allegiance to Her Majesty.

3. The Chinese community in British Kowloon are well provided with Schools, there being no less than sixteen under the supervision of the Inspector of Schools. Of these, one is a Government School, and, of the others, new being conducted as Grant-in-Aid Schools, the Committee believe that the Government in the first instance, granted the land and buildings of several of them. There are no fees at any of these Schools. For European children in Kowloon, there is no provision whatever, though the Kowloon Residents enjoy no exemption from taxation on that account.

4. It is obvious that a School for European children on the Grant-in-Aiù system has not the same chance of success as a similar School for Chinese children, Very much depends upon the teaching staff, and whereas Ilongkong may be considered the head-quarters of the Chinese Scholastic profession (for Schools on European lines) we are 10,000 miles away from the home of Suropean teachers, and even with ample funds for the replacement of a master, if necessary, the succese of a Grant-in-Aid School in Kowloon for European children may be subject to grave interruptions,

5. The Committee formerly had promise of liberal help towards a fund for the teaching staff, but the onerous exactions made by the Government, as shown in the accompanying correspondence, hava repelled such assistance, and the Committee can now only ask that a Government School shall be provided in Kowloon for European children as is the case with the Government School for Chinese boys at Yaumati, oxcepting that the European Residents in Kowloon will be willing to contribute to the maintenance of the School by the payment of reasonable fees,

6. The Committee have invited the Kowloon Residents to make a return of their children under the age of fifteen. These returns are appended for your verification, and shew 115 European children resident on the Kowloon side of the Harbour. (A few may have boen omitted owing to negligence of parents). In addition to these, the number of

new houses in course of eroction, and projected, at Kowloon will no doubt attract their quota of children.

I have tabulated these returns for your convenience and it will be seen that of the total number, just half are under six years of age, from which it may be reasonably expected that as the older ones grow out of school age, the Younger ones will grow into it.

7. In considering the question of numbers it should not he ignored how great a deterrent the absence of a School is to family life, and the Committee suggest that the welfare of the Colony would be promoted by supplying the need.

In making this suggestion, the Committee have in mind the cases of Residents who have left their children at home on account of the absence of a good School at Kowloon,