Sessional_Paper_1894 — Page 62

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complete year at the Central School, we find that for purposes of comparison with the present rate of expenditure, instead of $26.48 per head, we must take $37.56 which is evidence that Victoria College costs per head less than the Central School; and further that the actual net expenditure of 1888 would have been $17,642.54, thus showing only $3,762.92 as the increased annual cost of the larger building, with its doubled staff.

4. REGISTER ADMISSIONS.-

February 1862 to December 1871- February 1872 to December 1881 February 1882 to June 1889 July

10 years,

LL

10

73

23

1889 to December 1893

4/12/

1)

32

Total,.........

Average rate per annum.

726 = 72

1,642 .165

.1,276 = 170

.......1,614 359

5,265 = 164

Thus the admissions since the opening of the new building, in July 1889, are more than double the highest figure attained at the Central School, which satisfactorily attests the need of the larger accommodation provided by the Government; even though there is no immediate prospect of the occupation of every seat.

5. EFFECT ON THE COLLEGE OF COLONIAL DEPRESSION.-Last year a pessimist letter signed "Never" appeared in one of the local papers in which was foretold with some acrimony the steady downfal of this Colony. "Ever" replied in an optimist strain exuberantly prophesying a magnificent future. Now, are we to suppose that a pre-eminently practical race like the Chinese are unaffected by their own impressions of the outlook of trade and of prospects of demand for employment? It would be exaggeration to suppose that even one-tenth of the Chinese boys who attend this College do so with the object, pure and simple, of acquiring an English education per se; ie, for the mental enlargement and other advantages to be derived from it. Before he can talk English plainly on any other subject, a boy at the bottom of the school will tell you, that his aim is to get dollars, to raise his market value.

There is nothing poetic in this aspiration, which cannot be compared with the enthusiastic love of classical study occasionally to be met with among school-boys in England; but it clearly shows the motive power. The deduction is evident. If there is not a steady annually increasing demand for English-speaking clerks, if new hongs, factories, and enterprises of all sorts do not arise; we must not be surprised at a stagnation, nor even at an ebb, in the influx of Chinese pupils. There will be no cause for anxiety until the average daily attendance fall below 653, which is the proportion to be expected from the 700 seats estimated as the necessary accommodation in the new building.

6. SUPPLY FROM GOVERNMENT DISTRICT SCHOOLS.-There is, however, one source of supply which does not appear to satisfy anticipation. I refer to the Government Anglo-Chinese Schools, the total Roll of which in 1892 was 539 while not more than 30 of their boys sought admission to Victoria College. As the total number in 1888 was 426, the increase of 100 in four years shows that these schools have no difficulty in obtaining scholars. Nor is this a matter for surprise when it is remembered that boys in our Lower and Preparatory Schools pay a dollar a month for an elementary English education which in these schools is provided free. The Inspector of Schools has, during the last two years, assured the Government that the majority of these boys are well able to pay the fees charged in the respective classes of Victoria College. The continued annual admission of four scholars from these schools, after competitive examination, to three years' free education at Victoria College, was one of the four questions of Financial Reform discussed in 1892 by the Registrar General, the Inspector of Schools, and myself. For the first time in ten years, no candidates presented themselves in 1893, and we are driven to the conclusion that there is no boy in these schools unable to pay the fees charged here. If this be so, what is to prevent 100 or even 150 boys being annually drafted from these five schools to Victoria College, and the seats thus vacated being occupied by others anxious to obtain free English elementary education? By the present system parents, who are reported to be capable of paying fees, keep their sons for four or five years at a Government Free School, and only send them to Victoria College to complete their education. This seems to be an abuse of the charitable object of the Government in establishing free schools.

7. PROMOTION.-Of the 72 Chinese boys forming Classes IA, and IB, on 11th March, 1893, I find from the College Register that 35 per cent. or 25 boys had not exceeded five years in progressing from Class VIII. where they learned the Alphabet, to Class I., where Shakespeare and the higher subjects are taught; but again 13 of these boys took only four years, and two others actually only three years to perform the same feat. The boys themselves deserve great praise for their steady application, but the chief interest in the fact recorded is the incidental evidence it affords to the excellence of the teaching in the Lower and Preparatory Schools, without which foundation, boys so rapidly promoted would have found it impossible to pursue their studies so successfully in the Upper School. There are on the other hand manifest objections to such rapid promotion. Theoretically each boy should