CO129-529-1 Diocesan Boys' School and Orphanage- appeal for money 2-1-1931 - 10-5-1932 — Page 52

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the report of the Economic Mission stresses as urgent and

highly important.

(38) The Committee would specially emphasize that the

necessity for the continuation of the School is amply

illustrated by the general expansion of the Colony since 1913,

and the steady growth of the demand for education. If the

graph on page 37 of the Report of the Director of Education

for Hong Kong for the year 1930 is examined, it will be seen

that the growth of the School population in the English

Teaching Schools has been from 6,442 in 1913 to 17,561 in

1930. The Government appear to recognise this need for the

provision of educational facilities by the fact of their having

recently made a Building Grant to the La Salle College (a Roman

Catholic Institution whose Teaching Staff will presumably belong

to the Foreign Religious Order responsible for the erection of

the building), now approaching completion and situated within

half a mile of the Diocesan Boys' School.

(39) It would be a grave misfortune for the Colony if

its educational facilities were contracted at the expense of

the oldest Non-government School and if an honourable tradition

built up laboriously in the course of 60 years were lost.

(40) The only existing alternative for many of the

students would be the commercialised schools, housed in odd

corners of the Colony and lacking most of the essential

qualities looked for in a school. The Government schools

cannot provide accommodation for their resources are taxed to

the limit the numbers clamouring for admission always

being in excess of the places available.

(41) Finally the Committee confidently ask for favourable

consideration of this Appeal in view of the following statement

from the memorandum of the Advisory Committee on Education in