682798-1881-Speech-of-Governor-at-St-Joseph-s-College- — Page 1

SOIT

QUI-MAL

ET

MON

DROIT.

THE HONGKONG

Government Gazette.

報 Py 轅 • 港 香

Published by Authority.

No. 46.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 5TH NOVEMBER, 1881.

號六十四第 日四十月九年巳辛 日五初月一十年一十八百八千一

VOL. XXVII.

簿七十二第

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR ON LAYING THE

FOUNDATION STONE OF ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE.

HIS EXCELLENCY said-Ladies and gentlemen, the especial interest which the Government has in the proceedings of to-day consists in the fact that this is what is called a grant-in-aid school that is, it is a school towards the support of which the Government gives a grant. When I came to the Colony in 1877, there were in the Colony fourteen grant-in-aid schools. Last year the number of such schools was twenty-seven; this year the number has increased to thirty-two, and the number of pupils has also doubled since 1877. How is that to be accounted for? It is due to the fact that Her Majesty's Government, since the year 1877, have altered the principle upon which the grant-in- aid schools in this Colony receive a share of the public money. When I arrived here, I found the school referred to by Father BURGHIGNOLI in existence, the predecessor of this school, but though that school had in 1877 about 200 boys in attendance, the sons of European residents in the Colony, the sons of ratepayers of the Colony, nevertheless, the school was receiving no Government aid whatever. I also found that schools of other denominations were similarly situated. It was represented to me by PASTOR KLITZKE and the Rev. Mr. Louis, of the Berlin Mission, that their schools were receiving no Government aid, because they used religious books and incorporated Christian teaching with the whole work of their schools. The late Colonial Chaplain, Mr. KIDD, also wrote to the Colonial Secretary, that he could not conscientiously accept the Government grant-in-aid. The very same reason which influenced Bishop RAIMONDI in declining to receive that grant, also influenced the other gentlemen whom I have named. The consequence was that in all the Government grant-in-aid schools in this Colony, there were in 1877 but eighty children of the foreign residents of Hongkong. Well, in this school alone, we have now over 200, and the total number of foreign children in the grant-in- aid schools has increased from 80 to 338. This change was effected by Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH, by simply striking out of the grant-in-aid scheme as it then existed the word "secular," and the word elementary.' In 1877 it was a rule that no school could get a Government grant in which the school books were not secular books, and in which a certain portion of the day's instruction, a con- siderable portion, was not devoted to secular teaching only. Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH considered carefully the representations of Bishop RAIMONDI, of the Lutheran Clergymen who had addressed me. and also of the Chaplain of the Church of England, and he resolved to strike out the word "secular from the grant-in-aid scheme. That decision of Her Majesty's Government was not given hastily, nor without fully considering the question. It so happened that at the time when I forwarded the various papers for the consideration of the Government, I was able to inform the Secretary of State that Dr. STEWART, who had been for years a most zealous and able advocate of the secular system, was proceeding on leave to London, and could explain on behalf of those who wished for a purely secular system of Government aid, his views and the views of those whom he represented. Those views were carefully considered. Dr. STEWART, in a long letter addressed to the Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office, pointed out that in his opinion, if the word "secular" were struck out of the grant-in-aid scheme, it would involve a sacrifice of the principle on which Government grants for education were at that time allowed in Hongkong. Nevertheless, having considered the question carefully, Her Majesty's Government resolved to strike out the word "secular," and to-day I am about to lay the foundation stone of a school receiving Government aid now to the amount of about $1,400, but which did not receive a single farthing of Government aid when I arrived in the Colony; and this school will also receive, under the regulations approved by the