[ { "id": 206321, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "132 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nand workers. In one case, a District Watch Inspector arrested a member of the Secret Strike Party (the so-called Labour Commission) carrying illegal dispatches to union members, a fact duly noted in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' report for 1925. \n\nIt is difficult to see how the Hong Kong government could have coped as well as it did with periods of economic recession after 1918, with years of labour unrest, with the rising tide of nationalism emanating from Nationalist China, without the strong support of the Committee, whose members between them sat on most of the ten other official Chinese committees and boards. The members of the District Watch Committee were strongly entrenched in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese Clubs and they played a significant role in the Chinese Manufacturers' Association. They also occupied important positions in district associations, benevolent societies, guilds of employers and business associations. The power and influence of the Committee ramified down through such associations, so that the few were able to exercise political control over the many62. Thus the power of the Committee was diffused through many associations, helping to maintain what no doubt the government would call 'sensible attitudes' among the Hong Kong-born Chinese, the group that formed the vertebra of the Colony. \n\nThe District Watch Committee was re-established after the return of the British administration in 1945, the Committee containing the same names as in 1941. No further nominations were ever made. A hundred and one District Watchmen reported for duty in 1945-6 and carried on with their normal duties: patrolling streets, conducting enquiries in connection with boarding houses, guilds, and the protection of women and girls, and making general investigations on behalf of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. In addition, the force assisted the rice controller in checking black marketing in government supplies; they were also put on static guard duties at various premises requisitioned by government. But the pre-war system of soliciting private subscriptions for the upkeep of the force was abandoned in 1945: henceforth it was financed entirely by the government; and government soon decided that the strength of the force should gradually be reduced to about fifty men, which would be sufficient to deal with the special requirements of the Secretariat for Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211321, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "13\n\nAn increasing population and rising standards of prosperity gave impetus to the growth of technical education. In 1953, the Technical Education Investigating Committee (the Burt Report) concluded that a technical college in Kowloon was essential.1 The Chinese Manufacturers' Association offered to donate one million dollars towards a new college if Government would provide a similar sum and a site. The Administration accepted the offer and the College commenced classes on its Hung Hom campus in November 1957.16\n\nIn the 1947/48 academic year there were 25 full-time and 599 part-time students on the roll of the Technical College. By the time the College moved to Kowloon in November 1957, these figures had increased to 345 full-time and 5,532 part-time students.7 With the help of donations the Technical College expanded rapidly. New buildings were added which included an all-purpose hall, a dyeing and finishing block, a new electrical laboratory, another workshop block (for construction as well as electrical and mechanical trades), and a heavy-current workshop as well as a library, a textile workshop block, and a new classroom wing. It was estimated in 1967 that, of the total building costs of approximately $7.5 million, some $4.8 million (64 per cent) had been donated. Similarly $2.4 million (40 per cent) had been given towards the cost, or was the estimated value, of the donated equipment out of a total value of $6 million.\n\nDuring the 1960s the Technical College was mainly preoccupied with technician level work, but it also ran courses for technologists (professional) and a limited number at craft level. Most of this development took place under the direction of S.J.G. Burt, who had joined the Trade School in 1938 and was Principal of the College from 1951 to 1963 when he became a full-time technical education adviser to the World Bank. The late Sydney Burt has frequently been regarded as the \"grandfather\" of technical education in Hong Kong.\n\nThe Principal and staff of the College had long felt an institution was required which would concentrate on craft and technician courses. This is the main reason why the first technical institute (of which the author was the first principal) came into being in 1969. It occupied borrowed premises for one year, at the Technical College at Hung Hom, and moved to its new building, at Morrison Hill, in 1970.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215162, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 258, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "218\n\nA Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong\n\nproduced The Burt Report) concluded that a technical college in Kowloon was essential. The Chinese Manufacturers Association (CMA) offered to donate one million dollars if Government would provide a similar sum and a site. The Administration accepted the offer and the College commenced classes in November 1957, on its new Hung Hom campus, after we stopped teaching for three days to move physically from Wan Chai.\n\nIn the 1947/48 academic year there were a mere 25 full-time and 599 part-time students on roll at the Technical College (TC) in Wood Road. By the time TC had moved to Kowloon these figures had increased to 345 full-time and 5,532 part-time. Various walks of Hong Kong society were extremely generous. The College expanded rapidly.\n\nBuildings added over the next decade or so included an all-purpose hall, a dyeing and finishing block, an electrical laboratory, a multi-storey craft workshop block, a heavy-current electrical laboratory as well as a library, a textile workshop block and a new classroom wing. It was estimated that in 1967, of the total building cost of $7.5 million at the Hung Hom Technical College, about 64 per cent of funds had been donated. Similarly, out of a total estimated cost of $6.0 million for equipment, 40 per cent had been donated by industry.\n\nNevertheless, many of us were far from satisfied with the rate of expansion, bearing in mind the need at the time for technical education. Money allocated by Government for recurrent costs was strictly limited. For example the one-year, full-time electrical engineering technician level Radio Officers' course, in 1967-68, was estimated to cost only $61,262 to run for a full year. With an average of 25 students in the class this worked out at a total cost of $2,450 a student each of whom paid a nominal fee of $400.00 a year.\n\nDuring the 1960s, the Technical College was mainly pre-occupied with technician level teaching the entry requirement for which was completion of Form", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]