THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 6TH MARCH, 1869.
93
done, and the better will the school and the instruction given in it be appreciated. Besides, education is intended first for the benefit of the taught and then, as much as may be, for the advantage of the community. The Government has a higher object in view than simply getting a monetary equivalent for the instruction which it is the medium of imparting.
10.-"
English conversation" is a subject of great difficulty to the boys, and I am sorry to find people so exacting in this matter. Several have been rejected, without trial, on account of this defect. It is very easily accounted for. The boys have no possible opportunity of speaking English except to their teachers at school. It cannot, therefore, be expected that immediately on leaving school they could be very proficient in it. Practice alone can give facility, and I always find that when the boys who have got situations come back to see me, as they invariably do when they return to the Colony should they happen to be employed elsewhere, they speak English with considerable fluency. At school, they have laid a foundation in a grammatical knowledge of the language, and, when they come into close contact with foreigners, speaking is rapidly acquired. A little reflection on this shows the reasonableness of it, and this reference to it may not be without its uses in future.
11.-Mention has been made of the teaching of Algebra, and of doubts connected with its success. a mathematician, well versed in Chinese, that he had tried to teach it to a class at Shanghai, by way of an experiment to I had been told by test the powers of the Chinese, and that he was so dissatisfied with their want of progress that he gave up the attempt. There is certainly no cause for boasting of what has been accomplished at this school, but the result, such as it is, gives fair hopes that, with increased facilities of teaching such subjects, no unimportant success may be obtained. The reasoning faculty is not wanting to Chinese boys; it is simply dormant. "Elementary Chinese education makes no attempt at developing it, but the opportunity once given, its existence is soon apparent.
When to
12.--When the Third Master arrives Euclid will be attempted, and no doubt with a certain measure of success. this has been added instruction in Natural Science nothing can be said as to a narrow field of study whatever may be thought of over-confident expectations.
13. The examination of the school, which extends over the last eight days of the year, while very useful for enabling the teachers to ascertain what both they and their scholars have done, is greatly appreciated by the boys, and there is reason to believe that it is regarded with some interest by their relatives. Examinations in themselves need no recommendation to the Chinese. In fact, a recognition of their importance is a great step made towards securing their confidence. I have never heard a whisper of any unfairness in the mode of conducting those at this school; and, next to a desire to get one of the va- luable prizes which Government as wisely as liberally offers for success, comes anxiety to know the exact number of marks which each scholar has obtained in each subject. These are carefully noted and taken as they are intended to be a guide to future diligence.
14.-A favourable opportunity here offers itself for expressing my acknowledgements to Mr. Smith, Registrar General, and to Mr. Gerrard of his Office for their annual prizes. To His Excellency The Governor, also, and to Dr. Murray, Colonial Surgeon, similar acknowledgements are due for the valuable prizes they have offered for next year. I need not say how gra- tifying it would be to see others following their example undeterred by the rather severe criticism which has lately been passed upon the school,-criticism, it should be remembered, based not on experience, but on a priori reasoning. It is true I regretted last year, and the feeling still remains undiminished, that the conduct of the elder boys when out of school was not what one could wish to see; but I was reporting on the Central School and not on Chinese clubs. Had the latter been my subject, it would have been necessary to state that they contain also the baptized and the confirmed, and that these do even as their neighbours. The circumstances then referred to are not applicable to this school alone. They are characteristic of all the English-speaking Chinese in the place, whether educated at the Central School or at the Mission Schools.
15.-Making the Bible a class-book in the school would not remedy the present state of things. Time alone will do that. When the grand-children of the present occupiers of the school benches come to take their places on them, a different state of things may be expected. If common consent may be taken as a guide, it is now, and has always been, the case that converts to Christianity even (to say nothing in the meantime of school children) do not give, in the first generation, the satisfaction which their teachers would desire. I referred, last year, in confirmation of this, to the state of things in the early days of the Corinthian Church, and I repeat the reference now to those who care to look at it. If further confirmation is needed, it is to be found in the fact that the Roman Catholic Church in China ordains no novice to the priesthood. Candidates are selected solely from those families which have been Catholics for some generations.
16.-The public may rest assured that the secular system of instruction given in the Central School was neither hastily adopted nor is it unthinkingly pursued; and, it will not be altered in any way till good cause has been shown to the contrary. Were the boys Christians, or the sons of Christian parents, there might be ground for objecting to purely secular instruction; but taking things as they are, it may well be asked-why should the Government lose an opportunity of diffusing useful knowledge by enforcing religious instruction, to which the Chinese mind is at present so repugnant? It will be time to super-add the Bible when the boys consider it their duty to read it; not, as at present, when their every feeling is opposed to it. Education may be within the province of Government, but certainly not conversion; and no good can ever come of using the accident of power to tamper with a people's convictions.
17.-The present system is on its trial. Let it have a fair one. schools where the Bible is read and religious instruction given show better results in the future than they have done in the It is not yet the time to pronounce judgment. When past, objectors to secular education will receive a patient hearing. Till then they can scarcely expect it. The Government of this Colony is not wedded to secular education as such. It simply accepts the situation in which it finds itself, and tries to make the best of it. With a change of circumstances will no doubt come a change of policy; but, if in a professedly Christian institution, in existence for about fourteen years, the "prospects are discouraging," and point of view, give little encouragement," Government need not be called upon to prosecute the experiment.
the results, in a Christian 18.-Christian and secular education must for the present be accepted as two distinct fields of operation in Hongkong, and it is incumbent on those who have the care of schools to decide which of the two is the more desirable for the purposes they have in view. The Missionary will make his choice, the Government its; and both, if it is permitted them, will work harmoniously for the same common object, for the object is none the less common that the one aims at it by direct and the other by indirect means.
4
66
19.Within the last few days, the question has been prominently put and with hyperbole which must have startled not a few,-Will the boys at the Central School become the "Nana Sahibs" of their day? I confess the subject causes me no disquietude. I do not assert that Secular Education is an unmitigated good, any more than many of the other blessings which we enjoy, but I will assert this that if anything untoward does happen with these boys, it may be in connexion with, but it will not be in consequence of, the education which they are now receiving. No question of right or wrong is ever shirked; no countenance is given to deceit or to immorality in any of its phases, and I am sure of this that neither the Government which supports the school, nor the teachers who labour in it, will ever regret the work which they have done. Moreover, if these boys do ever become the "Nana Salibs" of their day, it will be in opposition-shall I say in greater oppo- sition to the principles of Confucianism than to those of Christianity. At any rate, it will scarcely be too late to reconsider our position when the existence of "British Rule in China" has become a fact and not a fancy.
20.-The Village Schools remain in very much the same condition as formerly. The Tables appended to this Report give all necessary statistical information concerning them. From these it will be seen that the numbers are gradually increasing, and that regularity in attendance is becoming more and more marked.
21.-Three new schools, those namely at Ma-t'au and Mong-kok on the Kow-loon Peninsula, and at Little Hongkong,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.