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14. GOVERNMENT DISTRICT SCHOOLS.-The number of the Government District Schools was reduced by three at the end of 1898 in the manner stated in my report for that year. The villagers of Stanley, though they were encouraged by me to do so, failed to start a Grant-in-Aid School for the study of Chinese; but the Female Education Society which has maintained a Chinese Girls School at Stanley for the last sixteen years, took up the work and turned their school into a Mixed school, engaging a qualified man to teach the boys. The school has been well attended and two-thirds of the scholars are boys. The average attendance which in 1898 was 21 rose to 41 in 1899, and as the average attendance at the Government School in 1898 was only 24, it is clear that no injury to education has been caused by the withdrawal of the Government.

15. Although Chinese is no longer taught in the Government School at Wongnaichung, no Chinese School has been opened in the village.

cent.

16. The average attendance at the four schools which teach English shews au increase of 14 per It has reached the limit of accommodation, and in the case of the two schools at Saiyingpoon and Wantsai, has passed a little beyond the point beyond which the teaching can remain as effective as is desirable.

17. Teu boys competed for the Free Scholarships at Queen's College in March, and four scholar- ships were awarded. Two of the successful boys had been educated at the Saiyingpoon school, one at Wantsai and one at Wongnaichung. There were no competitors from the Yaumati school.

18. No change has been made in the curriculum of the English Schools beyond the introduction of translation in the Fourth Standard and the substitution of the elements of grammar for geography in the second.

19. Some slight progress, though not so great as I had expected, has been made in the substitu tion in the Chinese Schools of a system of teaching Chinese adapted to elementary schools in place of the time-honoured system in force in China,

20. The boys are indebted for their prizes to the generosity of Chinese.

21. The post of Master of the Yaumati School falling vacant in April was filled by the appoint- ment of Mr. NG FUNG-CHAU at a salary of $300 a year rising by annual increments of $24 to $540. A sum of $60 has also been provided out of which an Examination Graat is made to the teacher at the end of the year, the amount of the grant varying with the report of the Inspector of Schools on the examination and on the general conduct of the school. As occasion arises it is proposed to extend this system of partial payment by results to other schools. The Yaumati School is the only school in the Kowloon Peninsula in which English is taught and it is attended by boys from Hunghom, Shamshuipó, and Kau-lung-tong. It occupies hired premises next to a Chinese machinery shop, but the future of the school is assured and permanent quarters ought to be provided on the site which was reserved for this purpose many years ago.

22. GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS.-The number of grant-in-aid schools on the roll is 96 compared with 100 on the roll in 1898. One new school, a mixed Chinese school under the management of the Roman Catholic Mission, has been opened at Aberdeen, where there was previously no school for girls, and the following five schools have been closed :---

The Basel Mission School at Matan-chiang.

The Berlin Ladies Mission Queen's Road West School.

The Roman Catholic St. Theresa School.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral School, Division II.

and The Wesleyan Mission Kennedytown School.

23. The school at Matau-ch'ung, though only now removed from the roll, has been closed for three years.

It is a Hakka school, but there is another school for Hakkas in the village of To'kwa- wan, distant half-a-mile. The average attendance in these two schools in 1896 was 43, whilst the average attendance at To-kwa-wan alone last year was 67.

24. The Santa Theresa School was a girls school situated in Hollywood Road, and its scholars will be divided between two girls schools in the vicinity.

25. No school has taken the place of the Berlin Ladies Mission School in Queen's Road West, the Second Division of the Cathedral School and the Wesleyan Mission Kennedytown School, all of which were Chinese schools for boys. It is much to be regretted that no new schools take the place of the schools which have been closed. As I pointed out above there has been a loss of fifteen. Chinese schools in Victoria alone during the last six years.