688585-1878-Education-Annual-Report-for-1877-and-Governor-Address- — Page 1

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 6TH JULY, 1878.

311

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ANNUAL REPORT ON GOVERNMENT EDUCATION.

ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR POPE HENNESSY, AT THE CENTRAL SCHOOL,

25TH JANUARY, 1878, AT THE ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION OF PRIZES.

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.

Perhaps I may take this opportunity of saying a word or two to the students who are present on a subject which at one time attracted a good deal of my attention and which, close as we are to China, You are all aware that the is not an inappropriate subject in addressing an audience such as this. Government of the Great Empire close to us relies for obtaining its official element upon a system of open competitive examination, established now for many centuries in China, and you are also aware that some of the countries in Europe-I will not say following the example of China, but certainly treading in the footsteps of China-have established also a system of open competitive examination for appointments in the civil service. And at this moment, if a clerkship is vacant in the Colonial Office, in the Board of Admiralty, in any of the great departments of the State (with one exception), any young man in England, Ireland, or Scotland, without any favour or patronage, can compete for the appointment. And what is the result? I am told by the heads of the departments in England-the Secret

Treasury has told me so, many of the leading officials in the public service have told me, that since this system was established they find the tone of the service has improved and they have now an admirable staff of clerks. I may add that in India a similar result has occurred. The system was, to a great extent, brought into operation in the time of Lord LAWRENCE, and his present brilliant successor, Lord LYTTON, has borne testimony to the fact that the system of open competitions for the appointments in India has been most beneficial to the administration of that great Empire. Under these circumstances I thought it

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I asked the hea was good enoug1

Right Reverend t

aps, to introduce the system into this Colony, and xaminations. On one occasion there was a clerkship Chinese clerkship, and usually such a post was This list of applicants, and gave the appointment xperiment of an open competition. Accordingly, gistracy) to beco an examiner, and Mr. MAY Bishop BURDON, and my

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well, these three examiners were good enough to prepare the examination papers, anumey made their report to me in course of time. I was disappointed, undoubtedly, at the result of that examination. The examiners reported that none of the candidates passed the examination sufficiently well to entitle them to the appointment. The examination consisted of translating a document which had come to the Magistracy in the ordinary course of business, a Chinese document, into English, and of translating the deposition of a witness taken at the Magistracy some weeks before into Chinese, and in reading and writing from dictation. That was a simple test, and, nevertheless, eleven candidates having presented themselves, I regretted to find that the examiners could not recommend to me any one of the eleven as having properly passed the examination. Now, it would be, I think, very foolish for us to shut our eyes to a fact of that kind. The examination could hardly be simpler than it was. The clerkship to be given away was of some value, $80 a month, and the result was certainly somewhat disappointing. But, I venture to repeat what I at that time put in a minute, published in the Gazette, that looking at the report of the examiners, though I regretted the result, I felt the Chinese students who competed at that examination had shown great intelligence and industry, and I had every hope that at a subsequent examination some of them would be successful.

INSUFFICIENT TEACHING OF English.

When I visited the Central School the other day and saw Mr. FALCONER and the other gentlemen going through the daily routine of their duties, I was struck by some incidents, which it is well for us to bear in mind, because they suggest the possibility of improvements which I know Mr. STEWART has at heart. I visited one large class-room, indeed a sort of double class-room, on the other side of that passage. In that room I should think there must have been a hundred and fifty Chinese youths who were being instructed by three Chinese teachers. They were reading the Chinese classics. I found that the three Chinese teachers who were instructing them in the Chinese classics had themselves no knowledge whatever of the English language. These three Chinese teachers spoke no English; and of the pupils in that particular class-room not one could speak English. During the whole of the year we have had six hundred and ten pupils attending the school. I asked Mr. STEWART this