720273-1861-GOVERNMENT-NOTIFICATION-NO-33 — Page 1

DIEU

DROIT

THE HONGKONG

Government Gazette.

publisyr by Authority.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 6TH APRIL, 1861.

VOL. VII.

No. 14.

Νο. 32.

HERCULES G. R. ROBINSON.

PROCLAMATION.

By His Excellency SIR HERCULES GEORGE ROBERT ROBINSON, Knight, Governor and Commander- in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same.

Whereas the Commands of Her Most Gracious Majesty The QUEEN, conveyed through His Grace The Duke of Newcastle, Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, have been received, approving of and confirming the following Ord'nance; namely:

No. 15 of 1860, entitled-"An Ordinange for the Registration and Regulation of Boatmen,

and others employed in Licensed Cargo Boats, and for the Survey of such Boats”, Now, therefore, it is hereby declared, that the said Ordinance has been so approved and confirmed, as aforesaid.

By His Excellency's Command,

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

Given at Victoria, Hongkong, this 1st Day of April, 1861.

No. 33.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

W. T. MERCER,

Colonial Secretary.

The following Report of the Board of Education for 1850, is published for general information.

By Order,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2nd April, 1861.

W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.

In fowarding to His Excellency the Governor a Report of the Government Schools for the past year, the Board of Education has to commence with expressing its regret that it cannot be so full and thorough as might be rendered under more favourable circumstances.

The Inspector having resigned his situation in the month of June, the Bourd was not able to exercise so careful a super- vision of the Schools, particularly the more distant ones, as he had done.

Pending the appointment of a successor to Mr. Lobscheid, or the adoption of a new system of management which the Board submitted to His Excellency in September, the Revd. Mr. Irwin undertook to look after the Schools from Webster's Bazaar Eastward as far as Sai-wan; the levd. Dr. Legge to look after those in the Middle and Upper Bazaars; and the Revd. Mr. Beach to look after the other Schools in Victoria and at West Point. These Gentlemen have endeavoured to discharge the duty so undertaken as efficiently as their other engagements would admit.

The larger Schools, those namely in the Middle and Upper Bazaars, Taiping-shan, Tang-lung-chow and Bowrington, have been carried on with a good degree of success. There were complaints indeed about the School at Bowrington in the first. part of the year, but they were obviated by a change which the Board made in regard to the Teachers.

Mr. Irwin reports favourably of the school in Wong-nei-chung, the Hakka schools at Tang-lung-chow and Show-ke-wan,

and of the school at Sai-wan.

At the beginning of the year two Teachers were appointed to several of the schools, but the benefit has not equalled expectation. The Board is of opinion that excepting in the very largest schools, it will be advisable to encourage a monitorial system in preference, in the arrangements for next year.

.

The attendance has been in general good, as is shown by the Tabular Statement which accompanies this Report. It fluctuates, however, and in all the schools it gradually diminishes towards the end of the year. This is an evil, which is un- avoidable in the village schools, where the children are drawn off to assist in agricultural labours, and where the fishing population is large. But the Board is of opinion that it may be combatted to some extent even in those cases, and more in the schools in Victoria, and other benefits also be secured, by the institution of a judicions systera of rewards for good attendance, good behaviour and proficiency.

The Board cannot speak very favourably of the Ehelish classes. The Teachers, indeed, are willing and attentive, but they voed the counsel, and countenance also, of an Inspector. Fill the Bound does not recommend any considerable dinge in the arrangements of this department, for the coming year. Education in English should in its opinion enter more largely into the conduct of the principal schools than it has yet done. Some at least of the young men now employed may be und useful assistants, in the new plan of management which the Board las salmitted to His Excellency.