558
IV.-EDUCATION.
The number of Government and Grant Schools, including Queen's College, is 79 of which 25 are Upper Grade Schools with a staff competent to give instruction in all the sub- jects of Standard VII and 54 are Lower Grade Schools under purely native management, Generally speaking, the Upper Grade Schools are taught in English, and the Lower Grade Schools are taught in the Vernacular.
The total number of pupils in average attendance at Government and Grant Schools was 5.924 against 5,496 in 1906. Of these, 2,144 were in Government and 3,780 in Grant Schools: 3,569 pupils received instruction in English, and 2,355 in the Vernacular. The proportion of boys to girls was 3,761 to 2,163.
The Revente derived from School Fees was $49,223, $30,442 of which was received from Queen's College.
The Expenditure including that on Queen's College was $184,028, being 3.19 per ccut. of the total expenditure of the Colony.
Hygiene has now become one of the regular subjects of study in all Government and Grant Schools, English and Vernacular.
The Manual on Hygiene issued to the English Schools has been translated into Chinese and is in use in all the Vernacular Grant Schools.
The annual competition for the Challenge Shield presented by Sir MATTHEW NATULAN, K.C.M.G., took place in December. Seven teams entered for the competition. There was no competition in the Advanced Course this year.
Evening Continuation Classes opened in October, 1906, and were continued until the eud of May, 1907, when they closed for the Summer. Examinations were held at the end of the Session, and Certificates were granted to successful students.
In May a Committee was appointed to inquire into the subject of instruction at the Evening Classes. A Report was published in September with the result that the Classes were re-organised and, under the title of the Hongkong Technical Institute, re-opened in October.
The object of the Institute is to afford facilities for a commercial and scientific training to students generally, and to enable those who have left school to continue their studies.
The following Table shews the subjects taught at the Technical Institute, and the number of Students who entered for each subject.
Subject.
Building Construction, Field Surveying,... Machine Drawing,
Engineering Steam,
Section.
No. of Students.
28
21
21
23
Mechanics: Elementary,
18
Do. Advanced,
12
Mathematics: Elementary,
9
Do. Advanced,
10
English: Junior,..
41
Do. Senior,
25
French: Junior,
23
Do.
Commerce
Senior,
9
Section.
German : Junior,.
5
Do. Senior,.
6
Shorthand: Elementary,.
35
Do. Advanced,
9
Book-keeping,
19
Science Section.
-9-
Chemistry: Theoretical,
Do. Practical, Physics: Elementary,. Do. Advanced,
Total,
12
10
5
855
The Total Expenditure during the First Session of the Technical Institute was $1,412; Total Receipts (Students' Fees) were $1,377.
The Classes were attended for the most part by Chinese, but a considerable number of Europeans also attended. The Students take a deep interest in their work and generally have made very great progress in their studies.
There is a well equipped Chemical Laboratory. The lecturers are for the most part officers belonging to the Public Works, Education and Medical Departinents and Queen's College who receive fees for their lectures.
Visual Instruction, --Arrangements have now been made by which regular courses of lectures are delivered during the cool weather at the prominent Government and Grant Schools in the Colony illustrated by the lanterns which were purchased in 1905.
year.
Many schools which had no opportunity of taking the course when the lanterns first arrived took the course for the first time this year and to them the sets of slides were quite new, but in the case of several schools the lectures covered the same ground as last
It will be necessary to vary these lectures, which have again been full of interest to all con- cerned, next year by the addition of some new sets of slides and the suggestion that they should illustrate emigrant life in Canada, Australia and other parts of the Empire appears a very happy one.
V.-PUBLIC WORKS,
The principal public works in progress during the year, exclusive of the Railway, were the Tytan Tuk Waterworks (1st Section) and the Kowloon Waterworks, both of which have been described in previous reports. The former were practically completed and fair progress was made with the latter, which are now in such a forward state as to be fully capable of supplying the whole Peninsula with water. The extension of the distribution system to the important villages of Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City and Taikoktsni was completed and the substitution of mains of larger diameter for those originally laid at Kowloon Point was in progress to ensure an efficient supply of water for fire extinction purposes, the erection of large godowns being in progress there.
The New Law Courts and New Government Offices were still under construction, whilst the Public Mortuary near Yaumati and the Time Ball Tower on Blackhead's Hill, Kowloon, were completed. A new building to accommodate the Land Office at Tai Po, which had hitherto been housed in a temporary matshed structure, was in progress: a new market at Sai-Wan-Ho, near Shaukiwan, was practically completed: an extension of the Staff Quarters at the Government Civil Hospital was undertaken to afford accommodation for the nurses hitherto supported by the Nursing Institute; and a jiuricksha shelter was erected close to the Star Ferry pier in Salisbury Road, Kowloon. As the construction of the Railway involved the demolition of the Slaughter House and Cattle Depot at Hunghom, the erection of New Slaughter Houses and Depôts was begun at Ma Tau Kok. Provision is made in the
new establishments for considerable development beyond present requirements. The works of reconstruction of gullies and extension of nullah training were continued, $10,000 being spent on the former and over $23,500 on the latter. A large tank for flashing a portion of
the Sewerage System of the City was constructed at the junction of Water Street and Queen's Road West; the rifle ranges for the use of the Volunteer Reserve Association at the Peak and King's Park, Kowloon, were extended; a new service reservoir at West Point for supply- ing the High Levels of the City was begun; a new Cable Reserve was established at North Point and the cables were transferred to it; an obelisk in memory of the French sailors lost in the Typhoon of the 18th September, 1906, was erected; and the construction of a retaining wall behind Inland Lot 1,523 to obviate the risk of landslips which threatened to endanger the conduit conveying the water from Tytam to the City was completed.
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