188
No. 10.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 22ND FEBRUARY, 1890.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, HONGKONG, 28th January, 1890.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward, under this enclosure, the usual tabulated summary of the amounts earned, during the year 1889, by the various Grant-in-Aid Schools of the Colony under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme of 1883, and I beg to recommend that, if the reduction which I find necessary is approved by His Excellency the Governor, and if the accounts I enclose are found correct by the Audit Office, a warrant be issued for the payment, through the Colonial Treasury, of the Grants payable, as hereunder recommended, and amounting in the aggregate (after a reduction of 5-3 per cent.) to $18,737.12.
2. The sum nominally earned by the 69 Schools examined under the conditions of the Grant-in- Aid Scheme at the close of the year 1889, amounts to a total of $19,785.12. But, as the sum voted for Grants-in-Aid and included in the Estimates for 1890 amounts only to $19,000 and has already been drawn up to the amount of $258.25, the balance actually available for Grants-in-Aid amounts to $18,741.75, so that the Grants-in-Aid nominally earned by those schools in 1889 exceed the balance in hand by $1,043.97.
3. I beg to recommend, therefore, that the amounts nominally earned by the Grant-in-Aid Schools in 1889 be subjected to a pro rata reduction of 5.3 per cent., amounting to $1,048.60, which will reduce the amount payable to these Schools to $18,737.12 and thus bring the expenditure within the limits of the amount provided by, and available under, the Estimates for 1890, leaving in hand a balance of $4.63.
4. For this recommendation there are several precedents on record. From C.S.O 439 of 1883, it will be seen that in the year 1883 the Grants, nominally earned by these Schools in 1882, were subjected to a reduction of 14:33 per cent., and C.S.O. 291 of 1888 will show that the Grants-in-Aid nominally earned in 1887 were subjected to a reduction of 1 per cent.
5. The reason for this procedure is that, in Despatch No. 211, of 30th September, 1882, the Secretary of State, Lord KIMBERLEY, laid down the rule, "that the sum of money voted each year for Grants-in-Aid ought not under any circumstances to be exceeded," and the justice of the proposed re- duction will appear from the fact that the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, under which these Grants have been earned, makes distinct provision for a possible reduction of Grants nominally earned, by laying down the Rule (No. 6), that "the Government will be guided......by the amount of money at its disposal for educational purposes.' At examination time I informed each Manager that à reduction would no doubt be necessary this year.
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6. The increase in the above expenditure required for Grants-in-Aid is to be accounted for in the first instance by the increase which has happily taken place in 1889 in the number of Schools and scholars placed under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, and secondly in a healthful increase of the cultivation of the higher subjects of an English education, manifested by a larger number of scholars taking up the subjects for which special Grants are paid, viz., Algebra, Euclid, Physical Geography, Animal Physiology and Book-keeping. Details concerning the progress which has thus been made, and which has caused the increase in the expenditure incurred under the head of Grants-in-Aid, will be submitted in the usual Annual Report on Education, which is now in course of preparation.
7. I now beg to recommend that the enclosed accounts be audited, as usual, by the Audit Office and that, when the accounts are approved or revised, a warrant be issued for the sum of $18,737.12, to be disbursed by the Colonial Treasury.
8. It has been customary, since 1884, for the Inspector of Schools to supply the Colonial Tren- surer with a detailed list of the payees and amounts due under the Grants-in-Aid account when approved by the Audit Office, and to supply the Managers, Teachers and Assistant-teachers, of the which Grant-in-Aid Schools concerned, with warrants for the respective payments due in each case, warrants are then paid on presentation at the Treasury, and retained there as vouchers of the payments This mode of payment has all along worked satisfactorily, and I propose to follow the same plan in the present case.
made
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
The Hon. F. FLEMING, C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretary.
E. J. EITEL, Ph. D., Inspector of Schools,
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