356
Year.
Comparative Statistics of Voluntary and Government Schools.
Religious
Voluntary Grant-in-Aid Schools.
Secular
Government Departmental Schools.
Schools.
Scholars.
Schools.
Scholars.
1873,
6
442
30
1,838
1874,
9
632
30
1,931
1875,
9
679
30
1,927
1876,
11
751
30
2,171
1877,
14
996
30
2,148
1878,
17
1,021
30
2,101
1879,
19
1,417
31
2,043
1880,
27
1,808
36
2,078
1881,
37
2,237
85
1,986
1882,
41
3,068
39
2,114
1883,
48
3,517
39
2,080
1884,
55
3,907
35
1,978
1885,
55
4,041
35
1,803
1886,
56
3,951
34
1,893
1887,
61
4,160
33
1,814
1888,
63
4,325
34
1,933
1889,
69
4,814
35
2,293
1890,
76
4,656
36
2,514
1891,
81
5,182
36
2,540
1892,
95
5,655
35
2,622
6. SITUATION OF SCHOOLS.-The above mentioned 99 Private (and mostly Confucian) Schools, the 35 Government Schools (giving a secular education) and the 95 Christian Mission Schools, at work in the Colony during the year 1892, are happily so interspersed that, with the exception of three places, every village, and in town every district and even every considerable street, had some school or other. The exceptions are the Praya where family dwellings are comparatively rare, the Peak district where the residents do not care yet sufficiently for a Public School, and the village of Aberdeen where malarial fever has some years ago necessitated temporary closing of the School.. Numerous, well- distributed and conveniently intermingled as the various classes of local Schools are, the school-houses are ill-suited for the purpose, there being, among the 229 Schools of the Colony, hardly 16 Schools that can be said to have proper accommodation. The high prices which Managers have to pay for house- rent constitute the principal cause of this state of things. The rarity and costliness of building sites in town, suitable for educational purposes, also hinder Managers erecting school-houses with the aid (under the Building Grant Regulations) which the Government would be willing to furnish.
7. EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURE OF THE GOVERNMENT.-The sum total of educational payments made by the Government during the year 1892 ($86,627 as compared with $72,983 in 1891) amounted, after deducting all educational refunds ($12,857 as compared with $12,624 in 1891), to $73,770 as compared with $60,359 in 1891. The increase of expenditure ($13,411) was caused principally by the rare occurrence of two building grants, by the naturally increasing cost of Victoria College, by the gradual expansion of the Voluntary School system, and by the fact that the financial year 1892 includes 13 months. The detailed items of expenditure were as follows:- Office of Education Department, $6,220.35; Victoria College (not including repairs of building), $24,216.82; Government Central School for Girls (including rent of building), $2,860.19; thirty-two other Departmental Schools, $8,704.61; Grants-in-Aid to Voluntary Schools, $28,430.27 (viz., ordinary Grants-in-Aid to 95 Schools $22,930.27 and Building Grants to 2 Schools, $5,500.00); Physical Training in all Schools, $339.72; Government Scholarship, $2,808.56; Student Interpreters, $189.72. The net cost of education ($73,770.24) amounted, in 1892, to 3.29 per cent. of the total Colonial revenue (as compared with 3.26 per cent. in 1891). The total number of scholars educated in Hongkong in 1892, at the expense or with the aid of the Govern- ment, being 8,278, the education of each scholar cost the Government (after excluding cost of two Government Scholarships held in England) $8.57 per scholar (as compared with $7.49 per scholar in 1891). In the several educational institutions of the Colony the cost, to Government, of the education of each scholar was as follows:-in Victoria College (not including repairs of building owned by Government) $22.80 per scholar; in Girls Central School (including rent of hired building), $20.57; at 32 other Departmental Schools, $6.12; at 95 Grant-in-Aid Schools (not including Building Grants), $4.39. The Managers of those 95 Grant-in-Aid Schools, who received from the Government, in 1892, as Grants-in-Aid, based on the definite results ascertained by the individual examination of each scholar, the sum of $22,576.97, spent during the same year on those Schools, out of the resources of their respective Societies supplemented, in the case of 6 Schools, by school fees ranging from $1 to $3 per mensem for each scholar, the sum of $59,394.13.
8. NATURE OF THE EDUCATION GIVEN IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE COLONY.-As regards those 130 Schools, with 8,277 scholars, under the supervision of the Education Department in the year 1892, there were 22 Schools at work, giving to 3,024 scholars of English, Portuguese, Indian or Chinese
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