Sessional_Paper_1917 — Page 65

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Remarks. The above table is intended to show the percentages of their total expenditures which various Colonies devote to Education. Those Colonies have been chosen in which general conditions are at all comparable to those in Hongkong: the Self-governing Dominions spend a higher percentage than most of the above Crown Colonies-but conditions are very different, The columns showing area. estimated population and number of schools are intended to show that the Colonies are of approximately the same type in these respects. British Guiana, which appears an exception, ou account of its area. is not really so, for the interior is almost untouched and only the population of the littoral is counted.

The columns containing expenditure and attendance are given as a check on the accuracy of the last two columns. Of these the last column but one gives a rough and ready measure of the educational effort of the administration in the number of children attending school per 100 of the population. The last column gives the percentage of expenditure. In each case more than one year has been taken where possible, and an average struck, to avoid special irregularities due to temporary circumstances.

The sources of the figures are in most cases the year books of the Colonies. In the case of Singa- pore and the Straits Settlements the Annual Departmental Reports (1914 p. 27, 1915 p. 83) were used. The Stateman's Year Book for 1916 was used for Ceylon. In the case of Hongkong the Blue Book does not enter the £2,000 grant to the University under Education. Adding this to the expenditure we get an addition of about 02% to the 2·6% making 28%. The number of schools in Hongkong is inflared by the inclusion of a great many schools, (about 500), which are merely registered under the recent Ordi- nance. The ratio of average attendance to enrolment is also disturbed by the fact that many of these schools make no return of attendance. This accounts for about 2,000 of the large difference between enrolment and average attendance. As I have taken the figures of special and total expenditure from the budget statements of each year book, the table involves the assumption that a fairly uniform system of public accounts exists in all these Colonies.

The table shews that Hongkong spends less than any of the Colonies for which I have information. It spends less than a third of the proportion spent by Barbadoes, and the reason appears to be, on the face of it, that a smaller percentage of the population is educated.

17th May, 1917.

(Sd.)

WILFRED J. HINTON,