CO129-411 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [5-7] — Page 128

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part, and it is now one of the finest school buildings in the

Colony. The Government gave a grant of $7,000 towards the cost of

the first extension. The school is controlled by a Chinese

Committee with Mr. Kadoorie as Life President and lir. Lau Chu Pak

as Secretary or Correspondent. At first the school was free, but

now a fee of $2 a month is charged. The school, which was admitted

to the Grant List in 1903, has grown rapidly in numbers, and has

now an average attendance of 759. Some disputes have occurred in

recent years between the Staff, Headmaster and Management, and it

has not been easy to obtain or retain the services of satisfactory

Assistant Masters. It is partly on account of these difficulties

and of the expense of running the school that Mr. Kadoorie has

decided to offer it as a going concern to the Colony. He also feels

that the undertaking is too great a one for private hands, and that it will benefit by being brought under the control of the Education Department. In the same way his school at Shanghai has

been handed over to the Municipality.

3.

The site on which the school stands is Inland

Lot No. 1244 having an area of 43,100 square feet or nearly an acre, and in your Despatch No, 267 of the 2nd. September last you approved of certain proposals which I made in my Despatch No. 281 of the 5th. August for the transfer of the lease to the Trustees of the school. The Land Officer values the site, if it were used for ordinary building purposes, at 85 a square foot, but this would depend to a great extent on the number of houses that could be erected on the site and the cost of levelling it.

4.

I enclose an estimate prepared by the Director of Education of the probable expense of run ing the school, which shows that the nett cost to the Government would be 13,171. The principal change which it is proposed to make is in the salaries of the Assistant Masters. The present Assistant Hasters on the English Staff and their salaries are as follows:-

John Smith, aged 24, a trained certificated

teacher, salary $210 a month.

Yau