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202
POSTAL GRIEVANCES FROM AMOY.
The SECRETARY reported that on the 27th January a letter was received from the Amoy Chamber of Commerce asking this Chamber to urge upon the Postal Authorities the necessity of fixing a later hour for closing mails by steamers leaving at daylight than that. then fixed, viz., 5. p m. In response to this appeal a letter was addressed to the Postmaster-General setting forth the grievance and also complaining of the recent alteration of the hour for posting printed matter by the homeward mails. To this letter a reply was received the following day in which the Postmaster-General promised to graut later facilities for posting per steamers leaving Hongkong at daylight, and he also readily complied with the Chamber's suggestion to revert to the former hour of closing the mail for printed matter by homeward packets. On the 6th February letters were addressed to the Amoy Chamber, giving results of representation to Postal Authorites, and to the Acting Postmaster-General thanking him for his prompt attention to the complaint and expres. sing the Committee's satisfaction with the proposed arrangements.
Read letter of acknowledgment from the Amoy Chamber, dated 13th February, expres- sing satisfaction with the new arrangement and thanking the Committee for representing the casa to the Postal Authorities.
The CHAIRMAN said that the Po tmester- Genera: had promptly removed what was quite a grievance. He referred to the change of hour for closing the mail for printed matter.
THE FRENCH TARIFF AND HONGKONG PRODUCE.
Read letter from the Government, received on the 22nd January, enclosing copy of despatch received from the Secretary of State announcing that the French Government had * introduced a Bill into the Chamber of Deputies authorising the grant of the benefit of the minimum tariff to the produce of Hongkong for so long as French. produce imported into the Colony is accorded "most favoured nation treatmen
QU RANTINE.
Read letter from Colonial Secretary enclosing copy of telegram received from H.B.M.'s Consul at Batavia, as follows:-* Hongkong declared to be infected with bubonic plague"; and attaching copy of a letter from the Consul General for the Netherlands, dated 24th February, stating that vessels arriving from Hongkong in Netherlands Indian ports would be subject to ten days' quarantine.
The Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD said he was given to understand that the Government had favourably considered the expediency of amend. ing the Bye-laws annexed to the Public Health Ordinance, No. 13 of 1941, so as to empower the Sanitary Board to take such steps as may be requisite in connection with the periodical outbreak of plague without the necessity of formally declaring any dist. ict in the Colony as an area infected with plague. This action had been taken in consequence of his having given notice of a question on the subject to be put at a meeting of the Council to be held on tho 27th inst., which would have very beneficial results to the shipping of the port.
THE HEALTH OF HONGKONG.
During the 24 hours ending at noon on Thurs day a fatal Chinese case of plague was reported, making the third case and death this year.
The Principal Civil Medical Officer of Health reported on lüth inst. that there were then three smallpox patients under treatment in Kennedy- town Hospital, an increase of one case over the number reported on the previous day. One case only came from the Sailors' Home; the two other cases came from ships in the Harbour.
The Government Bacteriologist has certified that the five suspicious cases which were detected among the Japanese crew of the steamer Riojun Maru are cases of Asiatic cholera. In addition to the two deaths which occured on board that vessel, one of the three patients who were taken to the epidemic bulk Hygeia has succumbed. The remaining two are stated to be in a fair way towards recovery. No new cases have been notified since. The naval authorities have as; a precautionary measure curtailed the men's leave on shore.
At Canton, the epidemic is reported to be
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[March 15, 1902.
88
still raging very severely, despite the efforts of examined in certain subjects. Every boy is now the Chinese to belittle the seriousness of the examined in Reading, as against three-quarters outbreak. On the 7th inst. another European, of the school. All the Chinese are examined died in the person of Mr. David Duncan, in Translations, whereas in 1882 20 per cent. a brother of Mr George Duncan, late of Messrs. did not offer these subjects. More than half Lace, Crawford & Co. In this case, however, the boys are now examined in English Composi it is not certain yet that cholera was the cause of tion, as against less than one-quarter in 1882; death Mr. Duncan had suffered from diarrhoein Grammar 85 per cent, as compared with and was seized with cramps in the stomach on
46 per
cent. and in Geography 68 per Thursday immediately after the funeral of a ceft with 39 per cent. The full signifi- fellow employee of the Customs. The medical cance of the difference will be more apparent officer, however, states that only a post-mortem
when it is understood that 781 boys were examination can show what was the actual cause in 19.12 examine in English Grammar of death. In consequence of the appearance of against 170 in 1882. On the other hand, twenty the disease among the Customs employees, years ago, Copy-writing was accepted for more several of them have fled the service and are thau three-quarters of the whole school as a now in Hongkong. Those remaining have been subject which might assist in averting failure; removed from their old dwellings at Honam and this concession is now made to only one-seventh. are now living in large honse-boats on the river Several subjects now forming part of the as a precaution against the spread of the disease curriculum were not taught in 1881-Sbakes- among them,
peare, Algebra, Euclid, Mensuration, Bookkeep iug, Natural Science, and Physiology. One outcome of this general raising of the stand ird of education in Queen's College has been that for the last tewive years, through entering for the Oxford Local Examinations, our boys have, with varying success, been able to submit to a test of their English attainments by English examiners in England..
QUEEN'S COLLEGE IN 1901.
The annual report on Queen's College, by Dr. G. H. Bateson Wright, D D., Head Master, is published in the Gazette. We make the following extracts :-
3.483
894
1.154
}). 29
$28,424 00 $4,051.00
On the 22nd January, 1882, I first arrived in the Colony to assume the duties of Headmaster, I propose, therefore, briefly to compare the conditions existing twenty years ago and now:-
1901.
1881 Total No. on the roll....
562 Averag: daily attendance,
336 Mouthly maximuo,
451 Daily maximno, School fees, Expense to the Govern-
ment, Average expense of each
scholar
$17.31 $27.35 Thus at the present time we have twice and a half as many boys as twenty years ago; fees seven Limes the amount; totil net annual expense to Government one and a half times, while the cost of each individual scholar is nearly two-thirds of the figures in 1882.
+
$15,475.04 $10,550.15
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 con- ducting the examination, I was able truthfully to say to Sir John Popa 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 impression has not faded, but, on the contrary, has been confirmed with increased experiencs. 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 par llel in his own language.
The chief points of contrast between the examination held by me in 1882 (which natural- ly 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 be- ing dirty and almost illegible The standard now applied is infinitely severer; in 1882 the action of the gauge was very delicate and sym- pathetic; e.g., if from a hopeless translation, you could decipher that the boy had a fairly cor- rect 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 Arithmetic, there was an allowance for method, which was supposed to coudone for a wrong digit in even a total or product; beyond all this, personal element was introduced into the equation in the case of delicate or weak-minded boys, or of whose attendance had been affected by sickness or other cause. I objected to anything but a rigid uniform s'andard being applied to all alike; and maintain.d that, in mathematical subjects except for slight clerical error, no leniency could be shown. The severer standard was gradually adopted, to avoid pressing too heavily at first.
A further proof of the increase of standard is to be found in the larger proportion of boys
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I feel confident that this brief historical review will not be misconstrued into an ex- pression of satisfaction with either the progress made or the standard attained in so long a period as twenty years. My desire is merely to place on record a statement of the fact that some advance, however inadequate, has been made in that time. No one can bɔ mɔrɔ eagər or ambitions than myself to see the standard of work at Queen's College raised immeasurably higher; but I may perhaps be permitted to say that nobody knows better the inherent diffical- ties in the way. The formation of an Advanced Class above and beyon the First Class has long been a cherished scheme of mine. Unfor- tanately, however, less than half a dozen boys remain in the College at the beginning of the new school year, who would be fit to proced to higher work; and of these we should hire no assurance whatever that any would remain sɔ long as even six months, whereas two years would be the least possible time in which any result could be hoped to be effected, and in saying this I refer to both non-Chinese and Chinese alike. Of circumstances not under our
control, it is to be noted that, so long as plague recurs annually in the Colony, education must suffer.
The present m st crying educational needs of Queen's College would apper to be
(a) The maintenance of the full streng.h of the English staff, vacancies being supplied as expeditously as possible.
(b) More efficient raining of Junior Chinese Assistants by the appointment of a Normal Master, who, for a small extra salary (like that
of the Headmaster of the Police School), should devote, in addition to his ordinary class duties, six hours a we k t the careful instruction of Pupil Teachers.
(c). The restoration of Native Chinese Schools for the boys in the Lower and Preparatory Schools.
(d) The erection, or enlargement, of schools at Wantsai and Saiyingpuu under English Masters, to act as feeders to Queen's Col- lege, the curriculam of which place would have to be carefully followed, that boys might on admission be fit for the Upper School or for Class IV at the lowest.
I returned to the Colony after eighteen months' leave and resumed duties on 1st Novem- ber, 1911. Mr. A. J. May (Second Master) has bean Acting Headmaster during my absence, evidently devoting himself most energetically to foster the welfare of the College. I may especially mention that it was due to his judicious arrangements that increased accom. modation was provided at the beginning of the year, and that considerable improvement was secured in the Annual and Oxford Local Examinations.
The following summary shows the result of the Examination in the various sections and the College generally :-Upper School, 269 boys examined 238 boys or 89 per cent. passed; Lower School, 362 boys examined 332 boys or 92 per cent, passed; Preparatory School, 279 boys examined 271 boys or 98 per cent, passed ;
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