291
on in Hongkong, and that, unless the staff of Victoria College make a special effort and put on a spur, St. Joseph's College and the Diocesan School and perhaps even one or two other competing institu- tions will outstrip the Victoria College in the matter of efficiency and results. My reasons for this fear are as follows. The English Reading, which was very good in one or two classes of Victoria College, was, at the last examination in quite a number of classes below the average of similar Anglo-Chinese Schools, and some of the classes are moreover too large to admit of the possibility of giving an all round effective reading lesson. The Composition papers of the whole College were hardly equal to the average results of similar Anglo-Chinese Schools in the Colony. Now, Reading and Composition results, taken together, are the only means we have of forming an estimate of what the attainments in English Speaking probably are in the case of the scholars. A gentleman, who for the last twenty-five years has taken a prominent place in the educational movement in India, visited lately the several classes of Victoria College, and, comparing its methods with those of similar institu- tions in India, pointed to the apparent insufficiency of efforts in the direction of imparting a command of conversational English as the principal defect of Victoria College. Another point which I noticed in comparing the examination papers of Victoria College, with those of other Schools is that the hand- writing of Victoria College is decidedly inferior and indicates a deficiency as to the time and attention devoted to the subject of Copy writing, which has a strong practical bearing on the future commercial usefulness of the scholars of Victoria College. I am aware that the foregoing defects almost disappear from sight when contrasted with the excellent results obtained at the last examination of the College in most of the higher subjects (among which the Chemistry papers stand out most prominently), shewing solid and effective teaching in the majority of classes. There is, however, a further point which I think it my duty to draw attention to, in order to stimulate the energies of the staff of Victoria College. A School like this, which is so splendidly equipped, which can draw upon the publ'e exchequer to the extent of over $30,000 a year, and upon which the Government has annually been spending as much money (even apart from cost of buildings) as on the whole of the 76 Grant-in-Aid Schools, such a School surely ought to take a foremost place in all the public educational competitions of the Colony. When Governor BowEN established that magnificent Government Scholarship, worth £200 per annum for four years. it required an effort to dissuade him from confining competition for that scholarship to scholars of Victoria College, because he assumed that it would furnish competitors enough. Now, the first Government Scholarship was indeed gained by Victoria College in 1884, but at the contest for the second Scholarship in 1886, Victoria College failed, and in the third and fourth competitions conducted by the Cambridge Syndicate in 1888 and in 1890, Victoria College took no share at all. Again, at the last annual public competition for BELILIOS Prizes and Medals, in Decem- ber 1890, where, in the boys division, St. Joseph's College, the Diocesan School, the Hongkong Public School and the Victoria English School competed for honours, the scholars of Victoria College took no part. At the Oxford Local Examination held in July, 1890, Victoria College presented nine competitors in the senior division, but only three of them passed, and not one of the 1,075 scholars of Victoria College was presented for examination in the junior division. I bring these points thus publicly forward with some reluctance, but I believe I am performing a public duty in doing so. I subjoin the usual Statistical Tables, which indicate, in detail, the progress made in the year 1890, by the several divisions and classes of the College.
I-VICTORIA COLLEGE.-NUMBER OF BOYS PASSED IN EACH SUBJECT IN 1890.
CLASS.
Book-keeping.
Latin.
I.A.,
I-
7
6
6
I-
7
7
7
7
8
9
16
7
out of out of † out of out of
I.B.,
18 14
18 11
H.A.,
27 24 27 21 22
༠སླབ
12
18
18
II.B.,
21 20 21 18 14 15 20 14 16
III.A.,
31 31 30 31 23
25
29 31 31
2242
13
13
15
15
14
12
8
3 15
9 29 8
24 22 22
22 | 17
24
22 12
17
20 21 17 29 30 27 29
11
III.B.,
20 12 20 12 5
7
13 12 10
12 12 13
4
21
17
28
8
IV.A.,
52 47 52 37 37
46
21 49 46 40
41
IV.B.,
33 27 30 21 19
27
15 31 27
15
13
IV.C.,
30 24 28 26 18
19
20 28 19 16 20
V.A., V.B.
V.C.,
17
VI.A., VI.B., VLC.,
VILA.,
VII.B.,
VII.C.,
VIILA.,
50 49 44 44
VIII.B., VIIL.C.,
9923
54 48 52 35 27 49 39 48 45 42 45
36 25 35 21 20 26 29
33 26 29 25
27 28 28 22 22 31
56 51 52 28 38 44 38 54 42 46
35 32 35 30 24 29 82 30 25 29 23 23 22 21 13 19 23 20 14 20
28 25 24 19 21 22 23 25
29 28 27 27 11 22 16 23
56 51 55 44 46 51 51
49 41 48
26 23 26 26 22 19 21
27 26 27 27 25 24 25
Writ-
23 28 22 22
*****-*7922
39 ing.
32
23
26
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