230
CORRESPONDENCE.
THE LACK OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES ÂT THE PEAK.
"
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONGKONG
DAILY PRESS." ]
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[September 13, 1909. »
per month, would be much more than covered DEATH OF THE BISHOP OF NUEVA by the Peak district's contribution to educational purposes in the Colony's revenue. į
It will be clear then that the provision of this school would not be in any way a demand on the community outside the Peak district, and I would submit that not only are the residents in this district entitled to ask that the school should be provided, but also they need not hesitate in sending their children to it, as they are finding the whole of the cost.
3rd September, 1909. DEAR SIR, I was very pleased to read the
In any case, even if the fees have to be fixed letter from "Common Sense" in this morning's issue, for it explains the reason why a greater so that the revenue from same meets the total number of letters have not been sent in inexpenditure, the Government would still be support of the proposal to establish educational conferring a benefit on the children at the Peak by undertaking the responsibility of providing facilities at The Peak.
the school.
The subject seems to have been a good deal talked about and everybody appears to be agreed that something should be done without delay.
Might I trespass on your space to deal with one or two points which have been raised?
What is a Kindergarten? A school for little children in which instructive diversions, object lessons and healthful games are prominent fea- tares. The object of the Kindergarten is ex- pressed by Froebel as follows:-"It shall give them enjoyment suited to their nature, strengthen their bodies, exercise their senses, employ the waking mind, make them acquaint ed judiciously with nature and society, cultivate especially the heart-temper, and lead them to the foundations of all living-to unity with
themselves."
E
We may draw three conclusions from this, viz. That the kindergarten system is the best for young children, especially in a place like Hongkong, where the control exercised by Chinese amahs is so weak; (2) that to teach such a system a specially qualified and certi- ficated mistress is necessary, and (3) that to be denied the facilities of such an excellent and happy training at a most impressionable period of their lives would be a great loss that children
at home would not suffer.
Why should it be provided by the Govern
ment? The reasons are :--
(1) Only by Government control can continuity be guaranteed.
(2) Government control would place it above injudicious interference by outside
parties.
(3) That the important matter of education should be under a fully qualified Director of Education, which would be the case with the Government, but not with private control.
(4) That money is being paid by all tax. payers in the Colony for educational purposBS and that the proper proportion of these funds should be devoted to education in the Peak District.
(5) That the European residents are mainly a moving population with only temporary interests here, whereas the Government is permanent, and, from this standpoint, can an educational more easily carry on establishment.
(6) That it can be carried on more cheaply by the
Government than by private individuals. Could a site be found for the school? There are several suitable sites, but one already exists, in a central position on the Peak, which belongs to the Government and can be appropriated without any expense and without interfering with existing interests. I refer to a piece of garden at the west side of Government Villas, which appears to be most admirably suited for the purpose.
The cost of erecting a small semi-open-air building on this site and equip- ping it as a school would be very small.
What would the cost of maintenance, be? Your correspondent "A Parent," allowing for a certificated mistress, stationary, assistant teacher, rent, etc., estimates the cost at 400 Allowing $75 of this dollars per month. for rent, the cost to the Government would at the most be $325 dollars per month. In your leading article on this subject you estimated that at least forty children would attend the school, and it has since been estimated that fifty children would avail themselves of its advantages. However, taking the lower figure, and assuming a school fee of five dollars per month were charged, we get the revenue per month at 200 dollars. .
The difference between 200 dollars revenue and 325 dollars expenditure, viz., 125 dollars
There are other points, but I am afraid I have already trespassed on your space, and my excuse must be, sir, because i remain
THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE
DAILY PRESS."]
HONGKONG
SIR, A school to which all Peak parents would send their children would be one of the wonders of the world. How, for instance, could you expect our children to be sent to a school attended by other people's children? No; when the Government establishes a score or so of schools at the Peak, each one more select than any of the others, and fixes the fees at a no- minal figure, then will the majority of Peak parents consider that the question of educational facilities for their children has been fairly well solved.--Yours truly,
PEAK HOUSEHOLDER & HIS WIFE.
Hongkong, 6th September, 1909-
NEGLECTED SANITARY WORK.
1:
TO THE EDITOR “HONGKONG DAILY PRESS."
SIR. The writer, who has been a resident in Hongkong for some time, and who has followed with considerable interest the weird workings of the Colony's much-abused Sanitary Department, would be pleased to know at what hour the the day. Plague, apparently, has disappeared, highly paid sanitary inspectors finish work for the new sanitary regulations entail less energy and exertion than previously, and yet one has only to go to Blake Pier, Hongkong's principal landing stage, to find a state of things existing that would shame a kuacker's yard. At 4.30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon several bathing parties assembled on the Pier to board their respective launches, and the sight presented to them on one of the landing stages was disgust- ing in the extreme. Dead cats and fowls swollen and putrid, festering in the sun, and garbage of all descriptions, several inches thick, emitted a stench sickening beyond all descrip- tion. It is a matter for some comment that such things should be permitted, and it is to be hoped that the person whose duty it is to look after the sanitary condition of our principal landing stage will be among those lately recom- mended for the "order of the boot," so that his place may be filled by a more assiduous officer.
The writer has no desire to be officious, but considers that business should come before pleasure, a state of things that cannot exist in Hongkong, when even the sanitary inspectors can find time to sail their own cruising yachts and go off on a week-end jamboree Yours
sincerely,
4
HIC ET UBIQUE.
the
CACERES, P. I.
According to the Manila newspaper Libertas the Apostolic Delegate Mons, Agius received on the 6th inst: the following telegram from Rome, dated 5th September: With great regret I give you notice of the death of Mons. Jorge Barlin, Bishop of Nueva Caceres. He died yesterday fortified with the Holy Sacra- ments and with a special blessing from His Holiness. The Holy Father, very regretfully takes his share in the mourning of the Diocese of Na. Caceres, Episcopacy, Priests and faithful people of the Philippine Islands." -CARD. MERRY DEL VAL.
Mons. Barlin was born in Baao, a village of Camarines Sur, on 23rd April, 1850. Weak in health from youth, which rendered inpossible his permanence in the Seminary, he was taken by the then Bishop of Nueva Caceres as his familiar and under his aegis completed the studies of philosophy and theology. On 19th Septem. ber, 1874, he was ordained Priest, and became page to the Bishop, who afterwards appointed him Chaplain to the Throne and Steward of the In .898, when the Spanish Cathedral, troops retired, so great was the confidence which all the Spaniards had in Padre Barlin that the Governor, zenor Villanil, handed over to him the command of the whole province.
1
Pope Leo XIII. appointed him Honorary Lord of the Bed-Chamber in 1902, and Mons, Campo, having resigued, Mons. Berlin was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Na. Caceres on 22nd July, 1903. In the same year Pius X. appointed him Apostolic Protonotary ad instar participantium, and on 14th December, 1905, he was solemnly proclaimed Bishop of the said Diocese, his consecration to the high office taking place on the 29th June, 1906, in the large and beautiful Church of Sto Domingo of Manila, in the presence of a huge gathering.
Feeling himself become weaker, Bishop Barlin decided at once to make his visit ad imina, and with this purpose arrived at Hong- kong on 24th April last, when he was the guest Glen- seskin." On 1st May he left for Europe by the of the Spanish Dominican Fathers at "
the 27th, and twelve hours later at Rome. He P. & O. s.s. Assaye, arriving at Brindisi on received the almost daily visit of the Holy The news concerning the Father's physician, who ordered him absolute rest for some time. health of Mons. Barlin was received with great regret in the Philippine Islands, and specially by the inhabitants of Nueva Caceres.
CHINA TEA.
T
The Secretary of the Tea Association in London in a letter to the Times dated the 9th ult. quotes the following figures
1909.
lb.
1908. lb.
Imports for June and July... 3,146,000 5,770,000 Deliveries
2,700,000 3,044,000 It will be seen, adds the writer, that the imports and deliveries are less than for the preceding year, owing to no common tea having come into the market, inquiries being all for the finer kinds, with a supply barely enough to meet the demand.
It has been so long the custom of those who inspire the market reports to treat China tea as negligible that they hesitate to recognize its greatly improved position of late years. Like other good things, such as vintage wines, the quality and quantity of China teas must Romances of salesrooms are not matters depend somewhat on the climatic conditions of that often leak out, but a striking example is
the year, unlike the teas of Southern India and reported in the American papers as having Ceylon grown in the torrid zone, where leaves
at Christie's,
of a sort can be picked all the year round. This occurred recently
season the Chinaman has been favoured with result being very much to the surprise of the good weather, and has set himself heartily to
Sometime back she took a woman principal. pair of old Chinese beakers to the famous King-work to produce some specialties, such as street salesrooms, asking that they be sold. Tchangs, Souchongs, and Keemuns worthy of The modest estimate she put upon their value his best traditions. was from ten to twenty guineas. The beakers were included in an early catalogue. dealers and collectors soon realized that they were fine specimens of the Kanghi period. The opening bid was for no less than 500 guineas, and up the price went till it stopped at 2,600 guineas, the biggest figure yet reached this year for any one lot of old Chins.
Both
Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg, the Prince Regent of Brunswick, will stay_with His Majesty the King of iam at the Dusit Park palace. The Bangkok Times remarks that this will be the first occasion on which a foreign Prince visiting Siam has stayed in the same palace as His Majesty.
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