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HONGKONG.

REPORT ON THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE, FOR THE YEAR 1901.

8

No. 1902

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.

No. 10.

QUEEN'S COLLEGE,

HONGKONG, 25th January, 1902.

SIR-I have the honour to present the Annual Report on Queen's College for the year 1901. 1. On the 22nd January, 1882, I first arrived in the Colony to assume the duties of Head Master. I propose, therefore, briefly to compare the conditions existing twenty years ago and now :-

2.

Statistics.

Total No. on the Roll,

Average Daily Attendance,

Monthly Maximum,

Daily Maximum,

School Fees.....

Expense to the Government,

Average Expense of each Scholar,

1901.

1881.

1,483

562

894

386

1,154

451

1,129

$28,424.00

$4,051.00

$15,475.04

$10,550.15

$17.31

$27.35

Thus at the present time we have twice and a half as many boys as twenty years ago; fees seven times the amount; total net annual expense to Government one and a half times, while the cost of cach individual scholar is nearly two-thirds of the figures in 1882.

3. I arrived at a time when the work at the Central School had been publicly called in question, and my opinion, as a stranger, was desired. At the Prize Distribution, after conducting the examina tion, I was able truthfully to say to Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY that I was surprised at the success of Chinese boys in coping with the difficulties of the English language; and I may add that this im- pression has not faded, but, on the contrary, has been confirmed with increased experience. That a Chinese boy should in five years advance from the study of the Alphabet to an intelligent acquaintance with a play of Shakespeare and a period of English History is to me little short of the miraculous; when due allowance is made for the novelty of the simplest ideas, which are conveyed in idioms, without parallel in his own language.

4. The chief points of contrast between the Examination held by me in 1882 (which naturally is indelibly printed on my brain) and the Examination just concluded, are as follows. The papers now are nearly all clean and remarkably well written; whereas twenty years ago these were the exception, the majority of papers being dirty and almost illegible. The standard now applied is infinitely severer; in 1882 the action of the gauge was very delicate and sympathetic; e.g., if from a hopeless translation, you could decipher that the boy had a fairly correct idea of the original, he was allowed to pass; in Composition, three sentences grammatically correct constituted the test of a pass, irrespective of subject matter; in Arithunetic, there was an allowance for method, which was supposed to condone for a wrong digit in even a total or product; beyond all this, a personal element was in- troduced into the equation in the case of delicate or weak-minded boys, or of boys whose attendances had been affected by sickness or other cause. I objected to anything but a rigid uniform standard being applied to all alike; and maintained that, in mathematical subjects except for some slight cleri- cal error, no leniency could be shown. The severer standard was gradually adopted, to avoid pressing too heavily at first.

5. A further proof of the increase of standard is to be found in the larger proportion of boys examined in certain subjects. Every boy is now examined in Reading, as against three-quarters of the school. All the Chinese are examined in Translations, whereas in 1882 twenty per cent. did not offer these subjects. More than half the boys are now examined in English Composition, as against less than one-quarter in 1882; in Grammar 85 / as compared with 46%, and in Geography 69 % with 39% The full significance of the difference will be more apparent when it is understood that 781 boys were in 1902 examined in English Grammar as against 170 in 1882. On the other hand, twenty years ago. Copy Writing was accepted for more than three-quarters of the whole school as a subject which might assist in averting failure; this concession is now made to only one-seventh, Several subjects now forming part of the curriculum were not taught in 1881-Shakespeare, Algebra. Euclid, Mensuration, Book-keeping, Natural Science, and Physiology. One outcome of this general