684754-1880-Meeting-of-Council-of-10th-September-Subjects--Estimates-City-Hall- — Page 6

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11 SEPTEMBER, 1880.

695

As I mentioned, upon that letter Dr. STEWART made a ininute that the effect of it would be to defer everything to the spring of 1880. However, Mr. MARSH approved of it and also directed that the paper was to be submitted to the Governor on his return, and it was accordingly filed until the Governor's return. Well, I returned to the Colony on the 6th September, and one of the first inquiries I made was for the Plans and Estimates of the Central School and the Gaol on the separate I then learned from Mr. MARSH that he had taken the responsibility, for what he conceived system. very good and sufficient reasons, to alter my decision, and these works were postponed. Thereupon I sent him the following minute :----

"9th September, 1879.

"Let me see my minutes directing the Surveyor General to prepare the Plans, &c., for the "Central School, and the Stone Cutters' Island prison."

I then made the following minute:---

"18th September, 1879.

"Let us consider this question raised by Mr. PRICE as to the relative claims of Stone Cutters' Island prison and the Central School upon his Department at the Executive Council to-day, when "we can have the advantage of hearing his views explained in detail. Attach all other papers on the "subject to this.

"J. POPE HENNESSY."

Accordingly, I summoned the Executive Council on that day, the 18th September. The question that had been raised by Mr. PRICE was whether, if I resolved to insist on my original minutes, I should not be satisfied with having only one set of Plans prepared for the School or for the Gaol. We had the advantage of hearing the Surveyor General at the Council meeting, and the following is an extract from the minutes, which I now lay upon the table :-

"In reply to His Excellency, the Surveyor General states that he hopes in a very short time to "be ready with the Plans and Estimates for a Gaol at Stone Cutters' Island and for a new Central "School.

"In regard to the latter it is agreed to request the Head Master of the Central School to reduce "his Estimate of the number of boys for whom the school would be required, as the extent of ground, "in the opinion of the Surveyor General, was too small to accommodate the large number of 700 "pupils for which Dr. STEWART had recently estimated.”

The decision of the Council was that the Plans and Estimates of both projects should be prepared; at least that was iny decision after listening to what the Council and the Surveyor General said, that he ought in a very short time to be ready with the Plans and Estimates for both projects. Well, the year 1879 passed, and in the month of June of this year the Plans of the Central School were put before me by the Surveyor General, and in the month of July, the Plans of the Gaol on the separate system. With respect to the Central School, the moment the Plans were put in my hands in this room I called upon my honourable friend Dr. SreWART to come with me, and also the Inspector of Schools and the Surveyor General, and we proceeded instantly to consider the question which had been engaging my attention for some months before. You will have noticed from the early minute I read that Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH had given me directions to raise the fee of the Central School, and in fact he said it ought to be raised, the lower fee, from fifty cents to one dollar. That was in March, 1879. I said I would act in accordance with Dr. STEWART's wishes, and he asked me not to fix the higher fee till 1st January, 1880, and accordingly I acted on his recommendation, but the delay that had occurred with the Plans enabled me to consider whether the number of 700 which Dr. STEWART had suggested and which I had approved of would be decreased by this increase of the fee, and the further question, whether the establishment of five new elementary schools might not draw away the lower classes froin the Central School and in that way much reduce the numbers, and wheu finally, in the month of June, I had the three officers concerned--the Head master, the Inspector of Schools, and the Surveyor-General--we considered a third question, namely, whether the time had not come to raise the Central School itself into a collegiate establishment, trusting to the fact that the five new elementary schools, especially by giving an English teacher in each school for teaching English to the Chinese boys, would take away a considerable number, and I understood that the number to be so drawn away from the Central School under these conditions would not be far short of 400. In a word, it was manifest that the time had come to reconsider the position of the Colony with regard to the Central School, and after all I don't regret the delays that took place, asmuch as these delays have enabled me to issue a commission which I addressed to every unofficial ember of the Council, of course to my honourable friend the Head Master, the Attorney General, the Nurveyor General, the Inspector of Schools; and the only gentleman not connected at present with the Council or with the Government whom I put on is Mr. BELIOS, who recently endowed a scholarship. The Commissioners will soon be at work, I hope; the questions they will have to consider are simple es, and I believe they will speedily come to a conclusion. They will be able to let me know whether the time has come for having a collegiate institution or an institution of a somewhat more academic Hature than the Central School for teaching English and science to the Chinese, and then we will also