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them. The words are: "The Committee hold that what Education is given should be thorough, and that better results will be obtained by assisting to enlighten the ignorance of the upper classes of Chinese than by attempting to force new ideas on the mass of the people."

This is a definite and intelligible statenient embodying a principle which, whether sound or not, could, if adopted, quite well be brought into practice and be acted upon steadily and consistently for many years to come. It implies that such Government money in Hongkong as is devoted to Education should preferably be spent on teaching few scholars of the higher rather than the lower classes, and teaching them well.

This would seem to point to withholding Government aid from all or most of the Vernacular Schools which now receive it, and confining it to the higher schools in which English is taught; and there is much in the report that tends to support this conclusion. I note for instance that the Committee state that for the reason given in their words, as quoted above, they have paid much more atten- tion in their report to the Anglo-Chinese Schools than to the Vernacular.

I note too from paragraph II of the report that the private Vernacular Schools which receive no aid from Government attract as many pupils as-i

-indeed in 1901 they attracted considerably more than--the Government and aided Vernacular Schools which give their education free.

In the Anglo-Chinese District Schools (paragraph 9 of report), it is stated that the majority of the scholars are sons of small shop-keepers, but about one- third belong to the labouring classes. Most of them before joining have attended some private Vernacular School ****** very few have studied in the Ver-

nacular District Schools next described or in the Vernacular Grant Schools."

Of the Vernacular Grant Schools for boys--and the shortcomings of the Verna- cular District Schools are said to be much the same-it is stated (paragraph 11 of report) "the children, provided as they are with a free education at the hands of the Government remain to all appearances destitute of any conception of the obliga- tions they are under. Any hopes the Government may have entertained of win- ning the good will of the rising generation through the establishment of these schools appear altogether unrealised."

Thus the expression of opinion that, in the case of the Chinese, thorough teach- ing of the few should be attempted rather than more widely spread education, coup- lea with the condemnation of the existing Government and aided Vernacular Schools, and the evidence that private Vernacular Schools successfully compete with schools which give free education at the Government expense, points, as I have said, to the conclusion that Government money would be much better spent if withheld entirely from Vernacular Schools and devoted entirely to Anglo-Chinese Schools, or if such encouragement as is given to Vernacular Schools were given only in the form of a large number of free foundation scholarships, such as are suggested on pages 10 and 12 of the report, intended to carry on boys from the private Vernacular Schools to the Government or aided Anglo-Chinese Schools, assuming fees to be charged, as they are now charged, in the Anglo-Chinese Schools. I do not say that such a solu- tion would commend itself to me. Sir C. C. SMITH lays down in his Memorandum that "the first duty is to maintain Vernacular Schools," and certainly it would need very strong grounds to justify withholding Government assistance from Vernacular education in a large native community such as exists at Hongkong, thereby presumably excluding the very poorest from the benefits of education; but I do say that it would be a logical course to adopt on the assumption that the last paragraph of the report represents the real views of the Commission, and I should have expected a rather clearer and more definite statement on the subject, for guidance in the future.

As it is, the Commission recommend (paragraph 53 of report) that the Vernacular Grant Schools * should be retained as a framework on which to build an improved system," but what the improved system is to be is not clear, though various specific improvements in existing conditions are recommended clearly enough.