16.
The CAPTAIN SUPERINTENDI Your Excellency, the hon, me the Chamber of Commerce I would like to point out
POLICE - *representing rred to traffic. the whole mat.
ter of the regulation of ti 6c is under the consideration of a commit 3. I pointed out to the hon. member the great difficulties the police bave to contend against. Some 1,100 ricsha coolies out of 3,000 come up to the Central Police Station for licences every Friday, and there are 1,578 chair ecolies for 634 chairs. We do with them as well as wo can, but we hope for an improvement when the recommendations of the committes come out. "IS EXCELLENCY-Gentlemen,—Before I d-al with the subject under consideration, it will no doubt be of interest to the Council if I inform them of the latest news which has reached me of the absorbing events which are occurring on the other side of our frontier. His Majesty's Consul-General has just telegraphed to me that at 1 8.m. last night the city of Canton declared itself an adherent of the new party, a declaration in which H. E. The Governor- General concurred in the hope of preventing terrible bloodshed. His Excellency has, how- ever, decided to leave Canton and seek a very temporary asylum in Hongkong. It is a British tradition that hospitality is never refused to those who seek la distress, and I have every confidence that the Chinese Community of this Colony, whatever their political sympathies may be, will be glad to afford hospitality to a guest who was lately a high official, who has dove his utmost to prevent bloodshed, and has, so far as we can judge, been wonder- fully successful in his efforts to this end, There are so very many subjects raised on the debate of the annual badget this year that I shall find it exceedingly difficult to deal with thom at all adeqn taly, even if I make a long speech But I welcome the criticisms and interest shown in every portion of the budget this year and am grateful for the many sugges- tions made. 1 will do my best, in as short a space as possible, to reply to the principal ones, and incidentally I may thank the several hon. members for having informed me roughly of the points they intended to bring forward so that I should know the line they were going to take. I' my explanations should, in consequence of time limit, be inadequate, I can only say that I am most anxious at any time, either in public or private, to give any additional information which any hon. member may desire. I regretted to have to call to order the first speaker on the subject of the military contribution, but that vote bas been excluded specifically from the Bill now before the Council. But we have in the sixth item of the Orders of the Day a Bill dealing with the military contribution, and I thought it would be more convenient for moul- bers to confine their remarks on that subject to the discussion on that Bill. The first speaker who, I understand, speaks generally in the name of the whole of the unofficial members, alluded at some length to the question of wireless tela- graphy. There is no vote on the estimates for that, and I presume it is the omission of a vota that has brought it forward in the debate to-day, I think it would have been premature to have included a vote in the coming year's estimates for wireless telegraphy, but, as I previously in- formed the Council, the subject is having my most earnest consideration, and I am pressing it forward, especially the matter of a high-power station, and, as I told you, I think, not without snoouss. Delay has, however, occurred in consequence of the absence of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir A. Winslos. It is of course absolutely necessary that we should deal in this matter in close co-operation with tho Navy, and until his return I am afraid the matter will be somewhat hung up. The estimate which the hon. member gare for the
and
establishment of a station and its annual op keep was, I may say, generally very much less than what I have so far beard myself. At the present moment, however, I will only allude to one point, that is, that in discussing this question it is very advisable that we should be clear as to our terms. I am told by naval experts that the terms
we have been using, high-power
low-power, are eutirely incorrect, The terms aЯ used by the Admiralty are low-power station, one of normal range (that is, 30 to 400 miles), medium-power station (one of 507 to 600 miles, and 1,000 to 1,500 by ni ht), and high-power station (one which L's a rate of 2,500 miles by night. I have also been told that no bigh- power station in the world receives messages from any but a high-power station, consequently it is a matter of some consideration whether we require a high-power station or a high-power and a low-power station. All the matters are very intricate and will affect the policy of the Empire over a large portion of the globe, so this is not a matter which can be rushed through in any great taste. I core now to the various criticisms in connection with education, The hon. member representing the Chamber of Chamber, speaking for the uuofficial members in general, said it was the view of his colleagues that suficient money was not spent on education in this Colony With ! that view I heartily agree. Since I have been here, as I said in my last speech, the percentage of our revenue spent on education bas very nearly doubled. I shall not therefore hesitate to ask this Council to pass a supplementary vote during the course of the next year if oo- casion arises to devote more money to education. The senior unofficial member sta ed that our percentage was very much less than that of other countries. Singapore is a Crow Colony, and we can arrive at a fair estimate by consider. ing what its expenditure is The speaker quoted, as I did, that it was double what we spend As to his statement that 6 por cont, of the revenue is spent on education in India, I should be glad to know where he gets his figures. I have looked up several documents to find out what the total amount spent is, and what I arrived at was that only 20 por cent. of the boys in India gat any primary education.
The question now arises, if we are to spend more, how should that amount be spent? What are the most urgent claims in the Colony? The senior unofficial member suggested, firs, that we should more largely subsidise the newly. created vernacular board of education. I havo already said it should be more largely subsidised, ! but before we can arrive at any definite sum which I would ask this Council to vote for the purpose, we must have from the Board itself something more definite as to what its aims are and what it wishes to do. So far as I have heard, informaly at prosent, I understand they propose to appoint an inspector who shall acquire information as to the districts in the city which mostly demand an iner ase in education, and that they also intend to support schools conducted 1.y Various societies, such as the Man Mo temple, the Confucian Society and others. Later on. they will endeavour to include those private schols which my hon. friend called adventurous schools in the Colony. I should like to know in what way they intend to support these different schools. I think their programme should, in the first instance, be devoted to the society schools, and the Government should be informed as to what they propose to do later with regard to private schools. I think we will all agree that any money which is devoted to education cannot be better spent than by extending free or nearly free education to the children of the poorer classes, The hon.
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