education-in-hong-kong-pre-1841-to-1941-materials — Page 4

4.
It seems to us that the most advantageous employment of the public funds would be the development of the Central School on its present basis. For this purpose a new building and a larger staff of masters are indispensable.

5.
In addition to the Central School thus improved, it would be of great advantage to the Colony to have five new schools on the scale originally proposed. Each of these should have a trained native master for the teaching of English, and a well-educated Chinese master for the teaching of Chinese. They could not, however, be built for $2,000 each. Probably double that sum would be required.

6.
To secure trained native masters for the Central School and the other Govern-ment Schools, a separate Normal School is not required. When the Central School has been put on a proper footing, the Head-master will be able to make all necessary arrange-ments for the training of the limited number of teachers required for the various schools in the Colony.

7.
To secure more time for, and greater efficiency in., the study of English in the Central School, it is essential that great attention should be paid by the scholars to the study of Chinese during the earlier years of their attendance. For this purpose there should be an Upper and a Lower School. In the latter, Chinese should go hand in hand with English, and about the same amount of time should be devoted to each. For passing from the Lower to the Upper School, there should be a stringent examination, and no Chinese boy should be admitted to the Upper School, until he is considered by the examiners


Illus. 4.1 'Report of the Education Commission appointed by His Excellency Sir John Pope Hennssy, K.CM.G. .. . to consider certain questions con-nected with Education in Hong Kong 1882'.
to have obtained a competent knowledge of his own language. When this has been attained, the translation lessons in the Upper School would prevent any neglect of Chinese which might arise, when the ordinary lessons in that language ceased to be taught.
8.
fn the Upper School the time saved from the learning of the Chinese language should be devoted to scientific subjects; and, with this end in view, the study of mathe-matics, chemistry, etc., should be restored, the object of the school being not merely the training of the boys in English, but the imparting to them of a sound and liberal education.

9.
While not considering it necessary to enter into details which the Inspector of Schools on the one hand and the Head-master of the Central School on the other are best qualified to suggest, we desire to invite attention to two points in connection with the Central School which we deem of the utmost importance. The first of these is the necessity that exists for more masters throughout the school, particularly so in the lower classes, and still more so in the Chinese classes. One of the most serious defects of the school, as testified to both by masters and former scholars, has arisen from the limited number of Chinese masters hitherto employed. These, although well-educated men in their own language, and most of them graduates, do not know how to teach on scientific principles, and are incapable of maintaining proper discipline among large numbers. It will be some time before they can be replaced by well-trained men; but, until that time comes, it is essential that they should have classes of very moderate size. The second point is the great desirability, when the school is organized as we have proposed, of" devoting all the time in the Upper School that the Head-master and his assistants can command, to imparting a thorough knowledge of the English language and the more important branches of Western Science.


FREDERICK STEWART,
Chairman.
EDWARD L. O'MALLEY.
P. RYRIE.
F. BULKELEY JOHNSON. Hongkong, 15th September, 1882.
I agree to the above Report with the exception of Clause 7. The English and Chinese languages are so essentially different that the acquisition of both of them simultaneously by scholars at schools is a task of very great difficulty and labour. Hence it is that the boys who are instructed in both are found naturally to devote their chief application to the one language which is either more suitable to their individual tastes or which will be, from their stand-point of view, more useful in their future career, and bestow very little attention to the study of the other�Xthus the time set apart for the learning of the language neglected by the boys is practically so much time wasted. To obviate this waste of time, I would suggest that the whole attention of the boys at the Central School should be confined to the study of English, and that every Chinese boy before admission thereto should be found to possess a competent knowledge of his own language.
NG CHOY.
18th September. 1882.
Illus. 4.1 (Continued)
something of that sort, and to be able to speak English for practical purposes �X that is what a boy at the Central School can do after six years?
Mr. Falconer (Acting Headmaster): Yes.
Ng Choy: In Chinese Schools the first three years are devoted simply to repeating from books without knowing the meaning of one character. They know the sound, but as to meaning they are quite at sea .. .
8. Life in a nineteenth century school.
(a) A school timetable, from W.T. Featherstone, The Diocesan Boys School and Orphanage, Hongkong: The History and Records, 1869-1929 (Hong Kong: Ye Olde Printerie, Ltd., 1930), pp. 122-23 (Illus. 4.2).
'English School' and 'Chinese School' are rather broad headings, but the timetables presented here may provide some impression of the organization of the school day in a leading Western-style, but non-government, school in the early 1870s.
(b) School Rules, from a series of articles in the South China Morning Post, entitled 'Old Hong Kong', by 'Colonial' (or Jarrett'), June 17 1933-April 1935, bound and rearranged alphabetically by subject, Vol. IV, R-Y, p. 927.
The provenance of the evidence presented below about school-lore (and law) is quite clear, if rather tortuous. A respected 'old boy' bothered to send to the editors of his old school magazine noteworthy, perhaps 'amusing', information about life in the school nearly fifty years before and this information was given wider circulation by an interested local antiquarian.54
I also find the following in the current Yellow Dragon,55 relating to Queen's College of old. The journal states:
54.
This description of 'Jarrett' or 'Colonial' is not intended as contemptuous disparage-ment, but as a statement of fact. The articles on 'Old Hong Kong' contain many fascinating nuggets of information, but they are different in tone and intention from the works, say, of Endacott, Sayer, Eitel or even Tarrant, who were attempting to provide the analysis typical of an historian. 'Colonial' was much nearer to being a snapper up (as collector, preserver and disseminator) of 'ill-considered trifles' and his enthusiastic but amateurish approach led him into such errors as confusing Hanlon's Victoria English School with Bateson Wright's Victoria College. See f.n. 31 above.

55.
The Yellow Dragon, or Wong Lung Po, Queen's College Magazine, was first published in


Table Showing Distribution of Time at "The Diocesan Home and Orphanage."
SUNDAY
MONDAY -J
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY ... .
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
From 6 to 7.30 a.m.
-
Walking out, as an exercise for
' health.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
-
BOYS (Crown) 16th May, 1871.
From From From ! From From From ' From
8 to 8 30 9 a.m. to 1 to 1.30 2 to 4 4 to 6 30 6.30 to 7 7 to 9 REMARKS
a.m. 12.30 p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m p.m.
Breakfast Cathedral Dinner Learning Scrip: Text^- Cathedral Prayers Texts, etc.
V Do. English School Do. Chinese School Play, etc. Tea Preparing Lesions for next day
Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do.
Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. The younger bo>s have the same distribution up to 7 p.m. when they are sent to bed.
Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do.
Do. Do. Do. Do. Church Practice Do. Do.
Do. Do. 11 0 L I DAY Do. ~
-

EDUCATION IN HONG KONG -PRE-1841 TO 1941
The younger girls 1 are same as younger boys with the exception of Tuesday and Thursday afternoons when they attend Mrs. Arthur s Sewing Glass.
_ o 2 i-< �E O o S &�Gd 1 1 "3 SPaa2*3:3 *88 2P 6 P d P d P i 1 o
8-8 a- 1 toCk &0 as ^ P d P d P d P 5P. �� �X S �X
t>. <o 1 H P d P a d P 1
g3 o 60a. �E �G-8i. aa lO *.o o a^ -o o fl I 1 | be .2-o �ESO�G * *>*nfl 50<."3||2*5 ' 2 o o, * o �G - bo �ES* �G s^ o *2 <u sa to,.sin e �EsliR �E �E be a ^ �E. o �G j ^ c. U fl) ga 3s J* o 55 ! _ 3 .J S o a3 �E-. -^ M P3 bo^ C tlDM �Ec a s Us "3 <=>�E-1 ^5 a
R c a~* C S3�GS d u OJ P oP o P d P d P d p d P 9
j a Sri & g C o �Ea c PS-** * 00 _ o c o ^, <8 2M �E�G�E3 -EL 2fl-OH 0 Q 2P^_A_ ^ o " oP o P d P d P d P d p d P 1 d P
c i^a �G5.<o 1 .2 S 2 o fl .iOo^S l Q d P d P s 1
< Pfcfc>00 PfcO& H 05 H �G> H i* <P 00 m o X <4P 00 P WH 5 p rt^ H -.P H <} 03
�X 123 �X


243
We thank Mr. M.K. Lo for sending us a booklet entitled 'Rules of the Government Central School, Hongkong7, dated 1887 and signed by Dr.
G.H. Bateson Wright: it was found among the papers of the late Mr. Lo Cheung-siu and will be placed with the School Records. A few extracts will no doubt interest (and amuse) the present generation:
Fines �X-2 cents for Spilling Ink, 5 cents for Spitting in Class Room, 5 cents for clearing throat with offensive noises, 5 cents for bringing flowers with overpowering odour, as Horn Siu Fa, into school, 5 cents for dirty face or hands or unshaven head, 50 cents for smoking.
School hours �X 6.30-8.00 a.m., Chinese Classes 4,5,6; 9.00-1.30 p.m. Eng-lish School, all classes; 2.30-4.30 p.m. Chinese Classes, 1,2,3.
Half Holidays �X Horse Races in February; Boat Races in December. Corporal punishment by pulling the queue is not allowed.
Boys are required to come to school in shoes and stockings.
Boys' heads must be shaved (unless they are in mourning or suffering from a cold) when they come to school on Mondays.
During the wet season, boys in very wet clothes must be sent home to change them. It will be generally observed that except in very bad weather, studious boys manage to keep dry, starting from home a little earlier or later than usual to escape showers...
(c) A guidebook view of schools in Hong Kong, 1893.56
The following extract is from what the Hong Kong Government Gazette described as Kelly and Walsh's Handbook to Hong Kong. The company of Kelly and Walsh was a successful bookshop and publisher. The author, whose name does not appear on the title page was Bruce Shepherd. As Lethbridge notes, 'there were two Bruce Shepherds in Hong
June 1899, taking its name from the flag of China at the time, which was a dragon on a yellow background. Though its claim to be 'absolutely the first Anglo-Chinese School Magazine that has ever been started in this world' was soon rebutted in favour of the ten-year old St. John's Echo in Shanghai, and was contested by St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong (see Chronicle for 1881 above), it received widespread notice. The London newspaper, The Sketch, reproduced its cover and reviews of its contents were said to have appeared in several continents. For further details, see Gwenneth Stokes, op. cit., pp. 66 ff. and Gwen-neth & John St Stpkes, op. cit., pp. 41-42.
56. In The Hong Kong Guide 1893, with an Introduction by H.J. Lethbridge (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 80-81.
Kong at that time. The first was Librarian to the Supreme Court; the other was Clerk of the
Deed Registry at the same institution. Both had lived in the Colony for over a decade.. /
The brief section in the Guide on Schools offers evidence about the span of knowledge possessed by Europeans about the provision of education in Hong Kong towards the end of the nineteenth century. Readers may note that no mention is made of Chinese schools.
Schools
The subject of education, particularly the education of the Chinese, has received great attention from the Government and large sums of money are annually spent in Government grants.
Victoria College. �X This is a Government school for instruction in English and Chinese. The number of scholars in about 1,000, the large majority of whom are Chinese. The fees range from $1 to $3 per month for each boy, but the greater proportion of the cost of keeping up the college and staff is borne by the Government. The handsome college buildings are situated above the Hollywood Road, in the central and Chinese por-tion of the city. The college, which has superseded the old "Central School," was opened on the 10th July, 1889.
St. Joseph's (Roman Catholic) College. �X This is a large and handsome
building above the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the principal entrance is from Robinson Road. A large number of Portuguese children are edu-cated at this establishment, which is under the management of the Chris-tian Brothers.
The Diocesan Home and Orphanage is situated just below the Bonham Road in the western portion of the city. This school is principally for the care and education of Eurasians. It belongs to the Church of England and is managed by a committee, of which the Right Rev. Bishop Burdon, Bishop of Victoria, is Chairman.
St. Paul's College is a neat and attractive-looking building at College Gardens where Glenealy commences. It comprises a school for Chinese, under the management of Bishop Burdon.
There are many other schools in the Colony belonging to the Govern-ment and to the various mission and educational bodies, including the French Convent, situated in Queen's Road East, and the Italian Convent in Caine Road.
9. Inaugural Address by Dr Patrick Manson, Dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, at the City Hall, 1 October 1887, cited in Lo Hsiang-
Lin, Hong Kong and Western Cultures, pp. 157-61.
Manson's speech provides clear, if not very exciting, evidence about the official objectives of the founders of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. As is frequently noted, this was a precursor of the University of Hong Kong. It was related
245
rather more closely to the missionary movement than it was to the earlier ideas of co-operation with the Tung Wah Hospital and the Central School advanced by Hennessy. Readers may wish to examine the extract for its implicit assumptions.
The Senatus of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for the Chinese has asked you to meet us for these reasons: (a) that we may announce the fact that a school of medicine has been established in Hong Kong; (b) that we may have an opportunity of explaining to those interested in such matters as the object, constitution, and plans of the school; and (c) that we may enlist your sympathy and, at the same time, gain through you, publicity for what we believe is an important movement.
In virtue of my office as Dean of the College, I am spokesman for my colleagues.
Although Hong Kong has been a Crown Colony since 1841, and its population and prosperity have steadily and rapidly increased; and al-though hospitals for the treatment of the Chinese have for years been established and are flourishing in nearly all the Treaty Ports and in [m]any other towns of the Empire, yet, in Hong Kong, which ought to be the centre of light and guidance to China in all matters pertaining to civilization, it was not until this year that a Hospital devoted to the treatment of Chinese on Foreign (i.e. European) principles was opened. It is true that before this there were hospitals of a sort. But the Tung Wah Hospital, according to European notions of what a hospital ought to be, is not up to a proper standard, and is, by its constitution and the spirit of many of its directors and supporters, closed to European methods of cure and administration, and the Government Civil Hospital, besides having associations of a kind not pleasing or attractive to the native mind, is too rigidly foreign (i.e. European) in its ways and discipline to suit the great majority of the sick Chinese. Attempts have been made from time to time to supply what was felt to be a public want, but it was not until February this year that they were consummated. As soon as the Alice Memorial Hospital was opened, its erection received its justification; the beds were at once filled, and crowds of out-patients came for treatment. Its success was established within a month of its being opened. In this Hospital the care of the sick devolves on four of the civil practitioners of the town, on a native house-surgeon, and on a staff of dressers or students. To qualify the latter properly to discharge their duties, they require a certain amount of teaching. If we have to teach a few we may as well teach a larger number. The same staff and time will do for sixty as is required for six. Hence has arisen the idea of forming a school of medicine within this Hospital, with these medical men and these students or dressers for a nucleus. The practice of the Hospital is amply sufficient for educational purposes; but as the task of teaching medicine and the associated sciences would be too much for four men, who have other duties to attend to, they have associated with them other teachers, each of whom has a special
subject to attend to, one which his previous training and his tastes qualify him to teach.
In order to enable them to receive instruction in English, a prelimi-nary knowledge of that language is demanded of the students. In this respect most of them have qualified in the Government Central School. There appears to be little difficulty in getting students; they were already numerous enough to form a respectable sized class. After four or more years' course of study those who come up to a certain standard of profi-ciency, as tested in written and oral examinations, will receive the licence or certificate of the College qualifying them to practise in its name. The government of the College will be carried on by the Rector, who hereafter is to be elected annually by the students; a General Council of all teachers and graduates (or as many of them as possible), who will meet once a year to discuss and decide matters of general interest affecting the College; a Senatus composed of the whole of the teaching staff, which will arrange the curriculum and the details of the teaching plans; and a Court, com-posed of the Rector, a representative of the Senatus, a representative of the Alice Memorial Hospital, the standing legal Council of the College, the Dean and a Secretary: these six will form the executive.
Such, then, briefly, is the origin and constitution of the College. The object of it, of course, is the spread of medical science in China, the relief of suffering, the prolongation of life, and, as far as hygiene can effect this, the increase of comfort during life ...
We �X the Senatus �X think, and I trust you and the public generally will agree with us, that the present is the opportunity for Hong Kong to take up a manifest and long-neglected duty; to become a centre and distributor, not for merchandise only, but also for science. I do not doubt our ultimate success, and when we succeed we shall not only confer a boon on China, but at the same time add to the material prosperity of this Colony. For with a large and successful school or college, such as we see in our mind's eye, other things follow. There is many a town in Europe which lives and flourishes entirely in consequence of its being an educa-tional centre, and that, centuries after the commercial or political reasons for its existence have passed away. I do not suppose the sceptre of com-merce will ever pass from Hong Kong, but her importance and her glory will be greatly enhanced when she becomes a centre for science and letters. He who gives is blessed as well as he who gets. Hong Kong may give science and China may get it; but depend on it the receiver will not fail to recompense the donor in many ways and many fold .. .
No matter how we set about it, our task is one of immense difficulty, and unless I had a thorough faith in the science and art we are to teach, and in its ultimate triumph, I, for one, would not be on the staff of this College of Medicine. Other considerations, too, encourage us and beckon us on. Medicine might be called the mother of the sciences; from her have sprung Anatomy, Physiology, Botany and Biological Science in general; besides much of Chemistry and a host of subsidiary sciences. As these followed her in Europe, so will they follow her in China. It would be hopeless to introduce them on their own merits, but they can be smuggled in with medicine. Now, medicine has opportunities to spread and adver-tise itself to those others, and when she enters she will bring them with her...
However, this may be, it appears to us that the duty that at present lies next to our hands is a matter of the spread of European Medical Science.571 have described, very lamely I fear, the origin of the movement, our plans, our objects, and our hopes. There is yet one other thing I would allude to before I sit down. We have students, we have teachers, we have an organization, and we have a name, but as yet we are, I am sorry to say, without a local habitation. Very soon, classrooms, laboratories, museums and libraries will be required; this means a large building and endow-ment ...
10. Letter, No. 41, from Dr E.J. Eitel to the Colonial Secretary, 5 July 1889, in CO 129/342, pp. 80 ff.
Eitel's arguments might be compared with his earlier riposte to Sir John Smale, as well as to Frederick Stewart's concern about the effects of the teaching of English on girls and the even earlier typically missionary interest in female education5*
I have the honour formally to recommend that the Government take steps to establish a Girls' School intended to give an English education to girls of all classes, on the principles of the present Government Central School (for boys) and that measures be taken at once to start such a School on 1st March, 1890.
In former Educational Reports and especially in my Report for 1888 (paragraph 10), I pointed out that a vast majority of the children in Hongkong who remain uneducated (over 8,000 in number) are girls, that female education as a whole is still in a very backward condition in the Colony, that a good deal has been done indeed to put a purely Chinese education within the reach of Chinese girls, that the Roman Catholic Missions are providing an English education for girls of their own de-nomination, but that hardly anything has hitherto been done for the girls of non-Catholic classes to offer them that sort of English or Anglo-Chinese education which during the last 25 years has been, with annually increas-ing liberality, provided for boys, by the Government Central School and
57.
Quite an early version of the 'White Man's Burden'? See also Evidence 18(d) for a later, but explicit, reference to the concept.

58.
For example, see Evidence 7(d) and (e) in Chapter 1.


by about a dozen similar institutions, and finally that there is no prospect of private effort coming forward to supply this pressing deficiency in the sphere of female education.
The girls for whose benefit I desire the Government to provide an English education may be said to belong principally to the very class of people who send their boys to the Government Central School, that is to say Chinese (about 90 per cent.), European (about 4 per cent.), Indian (about 3 per cent.) and Eurasian (about 3 per cent.) Virtually, I may say, the girls whom I expect eventually to attend the proposed Government Girls' School are the sisters of the 600 boys now attending the Govern-ment Central School. Other classes may indeed send their daughters to the proposed School, but such an extra contingent will be an extremely small minority.
Among the objections raised against the plan of offering to girls, some 93 per cent of whom are of Chinese or Eurasian extraction, an English education, it has been urged that the local system of concubinage would only be fostered by providing Chinese or Eurasian girls with an English education. This objection has hitherto has special weight with the public for the reason that the Ladies' Committee (under the late Bishop SMITH), which started the Diocesan Female Training School in 1862, found itself compelled in 1865 to close the School on the ground that almost every one of the girls, taught English in that School, became on leaving school, the kept mistress of foreigners. But the circumstances surrounding this Girls' School problem have undergone a very considerable alteration since 1865. In those days, the girls drifting into concubinage had no opportunity to learn that smattering of English colloquial which they require for their purposes, and consequently they crowded into the Diocesan School in 1862 which at that time could hardly get girls of any other class. At the present day there are numerous little evening Schools scattered over the Colony where these girls can learn what little English they require, whilst all existing Girls' Schools have as many applicants as they can accommo-date, and public opinion is now strong enough in these Schools to frown out any open supporters of immorality. A second change, which has taken place with reference to this class of people, consists in the fact that Chinese girls are not now as formerly the only class furnishing concu-bines for foreigners, but are in fact now sinking into a minority as Japa-nese girls are crowding them out of favour. As regards the Eurasian girls, the offspring of these illicit connections, a most important change has of late taken place, in that these girls, who formerly used to become concu-bines in turn, are now commonly brought up respectably and married to Chinese husbands who themselves have received an English education in the local Boys' Schools. I am therefore convinced that there is not the slightest danger of the experience of Bishop SMITH'S Committee of 1865 being repeated in the case of the proposed Government Girls' School. I have remarked above that the girls whom I expect to attend the proposed
249
School are, practically speaking, the sisters of the boys now attending the Government Central School, and I am certain that now-a-days hardly any of the boys of that School have sisters who are, or ever will be, the kept mistresses of foreigners ...
. . . Now here in Hongkong, where for twenty-seven years the Gov-ernment has annually spent ever increasing sums of money to give Chi-nese boys an English education, wondering all the time why this continu-ous teaching of English produces so little visible effect in the direction of spreading the knowledge of the English language in the Colony, and why in many cases the giving of an English education to Chinese boys appears eventually to deteriorate rather than to improve their morals, the Govern-ment have, by excluding Chinese girls from the onward movement of English education in the Colony, systematically widened the gulf separat-ing men and women, and, by leaving the men brought up with a knowl-edge of English to marry wives devoid of that knowledge, methodically prevented the spread of the English language in Chinese families. I do not mean to say that the deterioration in morals, which has been observed in Chinese youths who received an English education, is entirely or largely due to the neglect of giving Chinese girls also an English education. There are other causes at work with which I have nothing to do here. But what I mean to say is, that the giving of an English education to Chinese boys only, and not to girls likewise, has naturally contributed to deteriorate the relative position and moral influence of women in the Chinese social organism as represented in Hongkong. I have repeatedly heard Chinese mothers, whose sons were educated at the Central School and subse-quently sent to England or Scotland to finish their education, that their education gave them a contempt for un-educated Chinese women and that only in exceptional cases Chinese girls could be found who would be fit help-mates for them in domestic and conjugal respects.59
In educational matters the case of Hongkong is on all fours with the case of India, and therefore the educational principles and methods, which in the course of the last thirty-five years have commended themselves as practically sound and beneficial to the Government of India, deserve every attention in shaping the educational policy of the Hongkong Gov-ernment. In 1854 the education of the whole people of India (excluding no one class) was definitely accepted as a State duty60 and the famous Despatch
59.
Eitel may well have been thinking of such prominent Chinese leaders as Ho Kai (educated at the Central School, Aberdeen University and Lincoln's Inn), whose first wife was English. It might also be noted that early Christian (especially Roman Catholic) educa-tors in Hong Kong were interested in female education at least partly as a way of providing acceptable wives- for educated Christian Chinese males! See Evidence 14 and f.n. 48 in Chapter 3 above, with its reference to Asile, p. 22.

60.
Cf. the opinion of the anonymous author of The Central School: Can It Justify Its Raison


of 1854, which still forms the charter of Education in India, laid down that 'English is to be taught wherever there is a demand for it, but it is not to be substituted for the vernacular languages of the country/ Accordingly the Government of India not only established Departmental Schools for girls as well as boys wherever there was the smallest demand for English teaching, but liberally aided and encouraged Missionary Societies in pro-moting public and private (zenana) instruction in English, given to native girls...
11. A sample of Hong Kong initiatives and Colonial Office responses.
A variety of facts and opinions may be seen in interesting conjunction and counter-point.
(a)
'The Annual Report of the Inspector of Schools for the year 1891', in Hong Kong Government Gazette, 19 November 1892, pp. 961 ff. (Illus. 4.3).

(b)
Correspondence and minutes in Colonial Office files concerning the the Edu-cation Report for 1891, in CO 129/256, pp. 248 ff.

(i)
Despatch No. 320 from Sir William Robinson, Governor of Hong Kong to the Marquess of Ripon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 21 November 1892.

I have the honour to transmit the Educational Report for 1891, which is on the whole satisfactory. I may mention that the Physical drill instituted by Dr. Eitel has proved very successful, and that I lately witnessed a parade on the Cricket ground of 528 school-boys who went through their exercises very creditably. Dr. Eitel is to be congratulated on the success of his efforts.

(ii)
Colonial Office Minute signed by S.W. Johnson, 2 January 1893.


1. As in several previous Reports Dr. Eitel shows strongly his pref-erence for Grant-in-Aid Schools over Government Schools. Without entering into an academic discussion with him on this question, we should I think:
? Point out, with reference to par. 7 of his Report, that his de-scription of the system in England is hardly accurate, as the Board
d'etre? (see Chapter 1, Evidence 14) and also that of the Education Committee which re-ported in 1902 (see Evidence 16, in this chapter).
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19m NOVEMBER, 1892. 961
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.�XNo. 472.
The following Annual Report of the Inspector of Schools for the year 1891, which was laid before the Legislative Council on the 16th instant, is published.
By Command,
G. T. M. O'BRIEN,
Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 17th November, 1892.
No. 50. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,
HONGKONG, SOth May, 1892.
SIR,�XI have the honour to present to you the Annual Report on Education in Hongkong for the year 1891.
2.
GENERAL EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.�XThe total number of Educational Institutions known to have been at work in the Colony of Hongkong during the year 1S91 amounts to 215 Schools with a grand total of 10,119 scholars under instruction during the year. This constitutes an increase of 475 scholars as compared with the preceding year. Among those 10,119 scholars, there were 8,103 scholars attending 119 Schools under the supervision of the Government and receiving State aid in some form or other, whilst 2,016 scholars attended 96 Private Schools independent of Government supervision or aid, excepting the fact that those few of them which are not kept for private emolument are by law exempt from payment of rates and taxes.

3.
GENERAL STATISTICS OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.�XApart from the Police School with 361 scholars of mature age and the West Point Reformatory attended by 70 young scholars, both of which Schools are exempt from the control of the Education Department, the total number of Schools subject to supervision and examination by the Education Department amounted in the year 1891 to 117 Schools, as compared with 72 Schools under the Education Department in the year 1881 and 26 Schools in the year 1871. The total number of scholars enrolled in those 117 Schools during the year 1S91 amounted to 7,672 scholars, as compared with 4,372 scholars in the year 1881 and 1,292 scholars in the year 1871. There was thus, during the decade 1871 to 1881, an increase of 46 Schools with 3,080 scholars, and a similar increase of 45 Schools with 3,300 scholars during the decade from 1881 to 1891. The population of the Colony increased, from 121,985 people in 1871, to 160,402 in 1881 and to 224,814 in 1891, showing an increase of 38,427 souls in the first decade and nearly double of that in the second decade, viz., 64,412 souls. It is clear, therefore, that the ratio of increase in schools and scholars, during the last twenty years, has been lagging far behind that, of the rapidly increasing population of the Colony.

4.
PROGRESS DURING THE LAST THREE YEARS.�XComparing the statistics of individual years, I find that the number of schools and scholars under the supervision of the Education Department rose from 104 Schools with 7,107 scholars in the year 1889, to 112 Schools with 7,170 scholars in 1890, and to 117 Schools with 7,672 scholars in 1891. The annual increase of scholars amounted in the year 1888 to 281 scholars, in the year 1889 to 849 scholars, in 1890 to 63 scholars and in 1891 to 502 scholars. The annual rate of increase, unusually high in the year 1889 and exceptionally low in 1890, was therefore rather good in the year 1891.

5.
COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS.�XReferring now to thoM' 117 Schools, with 7,672 scholars, which were under the supervision of the Education Department in the year 1891, there were as many as 5,132 scholars attending 81 Voluntary Grant-in-Aid Schools where they received a Christian education, whilst 2,540 scholars attended 36 Depart-mental Government Schools receiving a secular education. The secular Government Schools are all free schools with the exception of two (Victoria College and Girls' Central School), the fees of which are, however, below the average of similar Voluntary Schools. The latter offer Chinese instruction Tree of charge but require for English instruction school fees ranging from one to three dollars a month for each scholar, with extra charges for certain special subjects. The secular Government Schools having all their expenses provided by Government are, as a rule, better housed and have better .school materials and a larger and better paid staff than the religious Voluntary Schools. Nevertheless ihe latter arc annually growing in public favour for the reison that the teachers of Voluntary Schools, wlio^c salaries depend u^on the efficiency and results of their teaching, arc as a rule compelled by self-interest to be more painstaking in attending to the progress of each individual scholar. The subjoined Table exhibits ihe comparative development of Voluntary and Government Schools since the starting of the Grant-in-Aid Scheme of 1873.


Illus. 4.3 'The Annual Report of the Inspector of Schools for the year 1891'.
962 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER, 1892.
Comparative Statistics of Voluntary and Government Schools.
Eeligious Secular Voluntary Grant-in-Aid Schools. Go^einmsnt Depaitmental Schools.
1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891,
6 9 9 11 14 17 19 27 37 41 48
56 61 63 69 76 81
442
632
679
751
996
1021 1417 1808 2237 3068 3517 3907 4041 3951 4160 4325 4814 4656 5132
30 30 30 30 30 30 31 36 35 39 39 35 35 34 33 34
1838
1931
1927
2171
2148
2101
2043
2078
1986
2114
2080 1978 1803 1893 1814 1933 2293 2514 2540
6.
SITUATION or SCHOOLS.�XThe local distribution of the above mentioned 119 Public Schools under the supervision of the Government and the additional 96 Private Schools is on the whole satisfactory. Where the population is densest, the Schools are indeed too closely crowded together. In such cases, a combination of every cluster of small Schools into one large School would of course be preferable, both from an educational and from an economic point of view, but the high rate of house rent and the absence of suitably constructed houses make such a measure at present impracticable. But, though the central districts of the town have Public and Private Schools inconveniently packed together, the suburbs and the villages are comparatively speaking as well supplied with Schools. And yet, in all the purely elemtntary Schools in town, there is hardly a vacant seat to be found and the accommodation on the whole, though annually expanding in proportion to the growing demand for education, is below the actual requirements. Happily, the elastic character of our Grant-in-Aid System is such that wherever in the Colony there is a sufficiently strong demand for a new School, an attempt will with automatic certainty be made by the people to start a Grant-in-Aid School to meet that demand. Such Schools occasionally come to grief after a year or two and collapse again if the attendance is not sufficiently large to secure a substantial Grant. But the system is clearly capable of meetiug every reasonable demand in any localitj', as soon as the demand is strong enough. The only portions of the Colony where there is, owing to the absence of a sufficient demand, a topographical dearth of Schools, are the Pra) a from West Point to East Point, Aberdeen and the Peak District. In the two former cases the almost total absence of educational demands on the part of the boat population, the scarcity of family dwellings all along the whole line of the Praya and the unhealthiness of Aberdeen, are a sufficient explanation. In the case of the Peak District, the shght but growing demand for a Mixed School is at present too discordant, in social and relig:ous respects, to encourage the starting of a Private or Grant-in-Aid School, and too feeble 3'et to demand a Departmental District School. But a School will be wanted on the Peak very soon and if the Government were to grant the use of a piece of ground and building to a Committee, the School could easily be worked so as to be self-supportin�X\ But as to the boat population, something will have to be done as soon as possible to bring them into the education net. One point in connection with the topographical distribution of our 36 Departmental, 81 Grant-in-Aid and 96 Private Schools deserves to be pointed out and that is, that, although those 81 Grant-in-Aid Schools are denominational Schools, giving a distinctly religious education, they are so widely scattered and so freely interspersed with the other Schools, tbat any tax-payers, objecting to religious education, will find some other School within easy distance to send their children to.

7.
EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURE OF 'JHE GOVERNMENT.�XThe sum total spent by the Government, in the year 1891. for educational purposes ($72,983) amounted, after deducting the school fees ($12,624) repaid into the Treasury, to $60,359. ihis sum is equal to 3.26 per cent, of the total revenue of the Colony and constitutes an increase of $4,277 as compared with the expenditure of the preceding year. The principal items of the educational expenditure, incurred by the Government in the year 1891, are as follows :�XGrants-in-Aid to Voluntary Schools $19,960, Victoria College $18,159, Departmental District Schools $8,271, Inspectorate of Schools $5,760, Government Central School for Girls $2,855, Government Scholarships $2,269, etc. ihe total number of scholars educated in the Colony at the expense or with the aid of the Government, in the year 1891, being 7,672, the education of each scholar cost the Government (after excluding cost of two Government Scholarships held in England) $7.49 per -cholar. In the several educational institutions the cost to Government of the '


Illus. 43 (Continued)
THh HONGKONG GO\PPvNMLNT GAZETTE, IOIH N.OVEMBFR, 1892 963
elucation of eich scholar em oik d m 1S91 was as f lions �Xm the Government Central S hocl ior Girls (including rent of lined bull li ^) $?9 13 pei scholir in the Victoria College (not including cost of building) ^16 38 per scholar in the Departmental Distuct Schools (including rent of hired bu H ngs) Sf 19 per scholar in the Giant m Aid Schools $3 83 pei scholar Ihe latter Schools hovever or rathei the Missiomiv, Societies conductm .�E them, spent fiom their own pnv ite resomces in the year 1891 the sum of $->l 444 11 on the education of o 132 scholais oi $10 02 per scholar receiving fiom the Go\emment ns Grant in Aid foi 1891 (after delucting the bonus pail to the teachers) the sum of $16,933 03 or one third of their actual expenses (str ctly speaking 32 97 j er cent ) 1 he Grmt m Aid system as compared with the s\ stem of promoting education bv means of Departmental Government Schools commends itself not onlj I y its compaiatne cheapness as the abo\e figures show but bv its being more elastic in adopting its work to the \aiying needs of the people m 1 m le in touch with their demands A Grant n Vid School for instance cannot foice unseuiceible subjects upon unwilling scholais as a Government School can do noi can a Gi int in Aid School lefuse to turn itself into a distinctly Commeicial School when public need^ demmd it A Giant m Aid School takes up seeon lary edueation at the precise time an 1 t) the evact extent cdled for bv tie actual demand of the publ c an 1 I have no doubt whitevei but that the Giant in Aid S}stem of Hon^l ong is capable of supplying ill the educational nee Is of the Colony m piopoition is uhcy xnse oi expind
InEnglind there ite no Depaitmental Schoo s but all depaitmental educat onal efloi s of the Government ire confined to givmg aid to existing voluntary national schoo's and to encoungmg the starting of such voluntary secondai} schoo's oi clissesas aie needed foi technical, industrial oi arti tic purposes 1 his is what 1 desire for Hongkong in the dim futuie But this cun t pjssibly be dont rere for some yeais to come lor the pies nt I tl in tie Government must whilst expanding by all available means the system of aiding voluntary efforts in education continue all or most of its Departmental Schools all of which are really elementary Bit whilst the prom )t ion of element ny educaticn is continued by means of both Departmental anl \ oluntary Gi mt in Aid Schools the promotion of secondary elucition must be encoui iged e\clusivelv by the cheaper Grmt in Aid system and not by means of Departmei tal Schools What I ecommend thereroie is in eff ct to assimilate the education il s}stem of Hongkong so far as pnn lp'es aie concerned to that of England by expanding the system of Government Giants in Aid in fivoui of all forms of educition and confining accordingly Depirtmental Schools strictly to their piesent legitimate &[ here of elementary education
In my last Report I quoted the preeedent set by the Indian Government because like the
Government of Hongkong it had of necessity at first to stait Depaitmental Schools Since 1883
however the Indian Government now seeks to correct the anomily of the Governments assuming the
schoolmastei s idle and endeavours by gradual and cautious steps to assimil ite the educational
oigani7ation of India so far is its root principle is concerned with tint of England by stimulating
private effort in every braneh of education and confining the educational work of the Government
(with the exception for tie piesuit of the sphere of tlementaiy educition f>r which Depaitmental
Schools are still needed) to giving Grants in Aid and general supervis on to effective schools of all
grades that require it whilst continuing Departmental Schools for secon laiy education only m places
where voluntary effort will not or cannot sup| ly what public interests requne, or only until such
Departmental Secondary Schools can safely be handed over to pnvate effoits
8 NATLRE OF IHE 1 DLCATION GIVEN IN THE SCHOOLS OF THF CoiONY �X As regaids the 117
Schools with 7 672 scholars under the supervision of the 1 ducation Depaitment in the year 1891,
20 Schools gave to 2 873 scholars of English Portuguese Indian oi Chn ese evtriction an Lnglish
education (combined with classical Chinese teaching in the case of 9 of these Schools with 1,879
scholars mostly Chinese) , 4 Schools gave to 1S4 Portuguese children a European education in the
Portuguese language , 3 Schools gave to 171 Chinese children a European education in the Chinese
language , and 90 Schools gave to 4 444 Chinese children a classical Chinese education in the local
Chinese vernaculars (Punti or Hakka) In other worls among 7 672 scholars under instruction in
the year 1891 in Schools under the supervision of the Education Department, 12 94 per cent received
-a purely English education 24 49 per cent received an English education combined with instruction
in the Chinese classics 2 39 per cent received an elementary Luropean educition in the Portuguese
and 2 22 per cent in the Chinese language and finally 57 91 per cent received a puiely Chinese
education As all these schools were either entnely supported by the Government or aided on the
basis of payment for results ascertained bv examination it may be of inteiest to state the propoition
of public funds devoted, in the year 1891, to the suj poit of those several branches of education Poi
the promotion of purely English education the Government paid in the year 1891 the sum of $6 185 ,
for the promotion of English education comlincd with Chinese instruction $2o 504 , for thepiomotion
of Turope in education in the i oituguese Ian uage $1 2o3 , for the promotion of European education in
the Chinese language $1 170 and for the promotion of Chinese education (in the Chmese language only )
$17,750 1 he English education ibe v e referred to though mainly elementary trends, m the highei
classes of seven k cal schools upon the subjects of secondary education as including not only Drawing
Music I atm, Algebra, Tuchd and Physical Geography, but also Book keeping Chemistry and Annn d
Physiology I wo local Schools (St Josephs College and Diocesan School) which, as stated in mv
last heport lately turned into distinctly commercial schools in response to local needs have added
to then programme, me the subject of -short hand and the other the working of a, type writer
Illus. 43 (Continued)
964 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER, 1892.
9.�X FEMALE EDUCATION.�XThough to a certain extent still in a backward state, female education is evidently making rapid strides in Hongkong to reach a normal condition. As to the proportion of boys and girls under instruction, one could not expect hitherto to see the two sexes equally represented in the Schools of a Colony like ours, where the mass of the population (the Chinese), whilst generally appreciating the value of a scholarly education in the case of their boys, are yet to a great extent sceptics as to the good that their daughters can get by attending school, or, looking upon girls generally as destined by nature to be merely domestic slaves or drudges, dread the enfranchising effects of female
education. Nevertheless the unceasing efforts made by the Government, particularly through the Grant-in-Aid Scheme, to enlarge .and improve from year to year the opportunities offered to the people to get a gratuitous education (including industrial needlework teaching) for their daughters, have had good effect with the Chinese who, with all their national prejudices against female education, are too shrewd to reject advantages offered free of expense. In 1851, when the Colony was ten years old and the population amounted to 32,983 people, there were 219 scholars under instruction in Public Schools, of whom 193 were boys and 26 girls. In 1861, when the population had risen to 119,321 people, the attendance of the Public Schools rose to 1,017 boys and 251 girls. In 1871, the population numbering 124,198 souls, there were, as proved by the Census of 5th May, 1871, as many as 2,230 boys and 476 girls under instruction. Two years afterwards (1873) the Grant-in-Aid Scheme came into operation, and from that time onward the proportion of girls to boys improved rapidly, with tolerably steady regularity, as will be seen from the subjoined Table shewing the proportion of boys and girls attending schools subject to the supervision of the Education Department from 1873 to 1891. It will be observed that in 1891 there were 2,791 girls under instruction in the schools referred to. Of these 2,791 girls, as many as 2,532 attended Grant-in-Aid Schools whilst only 259 attended Government
Schools. As u matter of fact, the extension of female education in the Colony is almost entirely due to the Grant-in-Aid system and to the efforts of the local Missions, which are vigorously pushing on education both in town and the villages, and latterly striving also to bring the girls of the boat population, in Yaumati, Hunghom and Shaukiwan, under the influence of education. The only portion of the,population whose girls were hitherto neglected by the Missions were the Eurasians, and to supplement this defect the Education Department has of late been making special efforts by means of the new Government Central School for Girls. Eemale education is, however, not merely expanding as regards the number of girls gathered into schools, but the quality of the instruction given in them is also improving from year to year, and in this respect the stimulus applied by the Belilios Medal and Prize Fund deserves special mention.
PROPORTION of BOYS and GIRLS under instruction in Schools subject to the supervision of the Education Department.
Scholars under instruction. Total Percentage of Population. of Scholars Boys. Girls.
Scholars. being Girls.
1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887. 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891,
121,985
139,144
160,402
166,433 173,475 181,529 190,594 200,990 212,951 215,800 194,482
221,441 1,976 2,282 2,177 2,379 2,520 2,544 2,850 3,187 3,364 3,941 4,120 4,238 4,329 4,161 4,195 4,342 4,991 4,846 4,881
304 281 429 543 624 578 610 699 859 1,241 1,477 1,647 1,700 1,683 1,779 1,916 2,116 2,324 2,791
2,280 2,563 2.606 2,922 3,144 3,122 3,460 3,886 4,223 5,182 5,597 5,885 6,029 5,844 5,974 6,258 7,107 7,170 7,672 13.33 10 96 16.46 18.58 19.84 18.51 17.63 17.98 20.34 23.94 26.38 27.98 28.19 28.79 29.77 30.77 29.77 32.41
10. ATTENDANCE AND NUMBEU OF UNEDUCATED CHILDREN.�XFor the first time in the history of the Colony, the Census of 1891 provided, at my suggestion, the means of ascertaining the exact number of children of local school-going age (6 to 16 years) in the Colony. The result is a saddening revelation. So far as the resident civil population is concerned, the result is indeed very near to what, by a rough estimate, I annually calculated it to be. In his Census Report of 15th August, 1891, (�� 19) the Registrar General states that on 20th May, 1891, "there were in Hongkong, of persons of school-going age (6 to 16 years), 783 Europeans or Americans, 184 nationalities other than Europeans, Americans or Chinese, and 21,331 Chinese (children), making a total of 22,298 (children of school-going age)." Referring (in �� 20) to a Return, taken on the Census day, of children actually found present in School, the Registrar General further remarks, " This return shows that on the 20th May as many as Nu85 childreu actually attended school, though it was a rainy day such as, I am informed, keeps about w per cent, of children from school, if this 10 percent, be added, the number of children
Illus, 43 (Continued)
i HI HONGIvCAG GOVIRNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER 1892 965
attt ndmg school may be estimated at 8 893 whirh "um couiQs neai the number actually enrolled in 1891 viz 9 681 Deducting the number of children attending .chool 8 893 from the number of persons of school going age viz , 22 298 there would be left 13,405 persons not accounted for Of this number some are e Incased by private tutors but it would bQ difficult to siy how many and the remainder must be presumed to be uneducatel Ihese statistics referring to the children of the res dent civil population deduced from the Census of 1^91 are veiy much what I had expected, confirming my former annual calculations ^ u that in Hongkong as in England about one half of the children of school sxing age actually come under instruction in public or pnvate Schools But a careful analysis of the Census tibles re\eilcd the fict tl at the above given number of 22 298 chillien of school going age tak s no account of th^ childr n of the hx/i! bo it population in whos* case the returns furnished only the number of chil lren under 17 years of a >-e As we may safely assume that the proportion of boat people s children of 5 years and under, to those of 6 to 16 years is about the same as in the case of the resident civil populition, vi/ 30 4o per cent I find that there were among the 10,927 bo t people & childien under 17 years (6 196 b^ys anl 4 731 girls) as many as 7 601 children ^4 310 boys and 3 291 girls) of school going age (6 to 16 years) Hence we hive before us the staitling fact that m 1S91 there were in the Colony altogether 29 89<> children who ought to have come under instruction whilst the registeis of all the Schools uudnr the Education Depa tment in the year 1891 and the returns of the Pn\afe Schools show an enrolment of no more than 9 758 children (lea\ mg the Police School out of the calculation) In othei words the saddening fact stares us m the face that in spite of the existence of 215 Schools in the Colony (as pioved by the Census) which are with the exception of Victoria College mostly crow led and in spite of eveiy effort made by th^ Education Department and the Registrar General who has always most cordially assisted (by m ans of his Distnct Watchmen) to stimulate school attendance there were in 1891 as many as 20 141 childien of school going age m the Colony who lttend no school Of a total of 15 748 boys of school going age only 6 657 or 42 27 per cent attended school (viz , 4,9J 1 in Schools under Government supervision and 1 706 m Private Schools) Of a toHl of 14 lol girls of school going age only 3 101, or 21 91 per cent came under school instruction (viz 2 791 in schools under th�X Education Department and 310 in Pri\ate Schools) The case of the boys Is? not bad certainly no worse thin in Ireland as nearly one half of the boys of school going age lo lttend School But the principal defaulters in the matter of school attend mce are clearlv the girls and of this point the Govern nent his bQen aware all along Of the 7 601 children (6 to 16 yei s) of the boat p julation in 1 of the purchase 1 servmt girls (of the same a_,e) there a e at } les nt 1 irdly 200 or 3()0 coming un ler mstructun
Thin s ire howe\er n t halt as had is th�Xy look It mu-st be understood that although our local
school age is coirectly fixed not at 5 to lheu s as in Englail, but at 6 to 16 years because the
majority of children m this Colony do lequ re for a proper elucation at least 4 years it Chinese and
6 years at English studies 01 10 years at Chine e classic d stud es and th�X average igecbservtd among
scholars is act u illy 6 to 16 ye ir& yet of the H) 111 chil lren of 6 to 16 \eirs of ige not attendiug any
school in 1S91 i lar^e number had been m Chinese Schools prcvious'y for 2 to 4 years and then
went into business lite without finishing their education Con equeutly we may I think, sifely ^ay
that of the 20 141 children of 1 jcal scho 1 going ige who in 1S91 attende 1 no school at all x large
number possibly one half though they must technicilly be cl issed with the un^iucate 1 ha\e received
some sort of educition such is then parents think suffic ent in 1 are u t absolutely llhtente
Under these circumstances I think that though thcie is indeed a danger of illiteracy increasing in
Hongkong at a greiter ratio than the population still the drastic 1 uiopean remedy of i co npulsory
attend ince liw with its frictional working geir of School Tax School BoaHs \ttenlance ( ommittees
and Poltce Court prosecutions is neithet necessary nor practicable undei loed circumstances I am
satisfied that the Government will sufficiently discharge its duties by giving to cm loed school system,
which has slowly but healthily developed in the shade w of the Colony s exuberant growth as wid&
.an I as rapid expan.ion as financial means allow with a view to nrovide as sc n as possible additional
scho )1 accomm d ition for ibout one half of our nneducited or imperfectly educite 1 chil hen In other
^ords whit we 1 ave to ai n it is to bring it le. t naif of the nu nber of clnldi n of &c 1) )1 0 mg age,
say fifteen thousand scholirs under instruction m loed scnools But as we h t\e provided at present
for ni elly ten thousand of them anl a& the nu nber to be taken nto consid rition increases ft >myear
to yeir a determined effort will ha\e to be made immediately to tuither the expansion of elementaiy
education in the most economic and efficient wav possible What I think has to be done therefore i^>,
in the first instance, to renench expenditure in all Departmentll Schools so far as it cm be done
wittiout imj airing their efficiency and secondly to mike every po sible effort to encourage voluntaiy
education ll enterprise ind to expand in every direction the Grant in Ail sy si, m nthei tirm the more
ex| ensue l)e[ artmentil "schools But furthei special efforts will have to be mid�X to bnn_, into the
ed ication net the children of tho<=e clashes of the population which habitually deuy them the piivilegc*
of education I \entuie theiefore to uige as in foimer Reports the ad\i ability of compelling by law
the registration and education of all pui chafed "ervant girls in the Colo ly I do not know md have
no means of ascertaining how many children of schoo1 Ooing age are under the locil system of do nestic
bond servitude But, at a rough guess I think theie may be two thousand of them oi moie A,_ un
1 woukl recommend once more to piohibit by lav the employment at public laboui ot children
apparently under thirte n years of age ^c\t , I think special effoits will have to be made t> apply
moi d pre sine to the b it population to arouse them to a sense of the cducUional needs ct their
Illus. 4.3 (Continued)
96h fHF HONGKONG GOMRNMENT GAZETTE 19TH NOVMIBI R, 1892
children 1 his can be done by the ippointment < f a Chinese Attendance Officir as suggested in 1889 by the Right Honourable the Secretaiy of State for the Colonies ind b) the supply of additional
Schools at laikoktsui \ aumati Aberdeen a ul Shauki wan But as the foregoi ijf measures will put an adelitional strun on our annually increasing educational expenditur 1 \cntuie finally to submit for the consideration of the Government with parti u ir refeience to the ne d of Scho 1 houses and Building Grants, the question whether it mi) not be ad visible to create in some wa\ a special School lund I find it stated on good authority that the excellent provisioi which the United States in the absence of the ancient educational endowments of Jhurjpe have male f r Schools of all grades is principally due to a law mide in 176T that in ill new States theieafter to be added to the seventeen then existing a special appropriation of one sixteenth of the public Ian 1 should be re en el for the purpose of supj lying l School I'und' It seems t:> me that seme similai measure is nee led in Hongkong to piovide for the future lo conclude this list of the most | resting of our present educitional needs I beg to point out with reference to 14 biys of <=chool going age found on the list Census day in prison that the present impossibility of effectively segregating dnd educating juvenile offendeis whilst in priscn and the absence of power to forcibly detain inmates of the only local Reformatory constitutes not only a serious educational def ct but one th it is likely to cieite h ibitual criminals 1 he principal statistics of children remaining uneducated will be found concisely summaiized in 1 able XVI appended to this 1 eport
11 �XI ESLI/IS OF TH* ANNUM EXAMINATIOVS�XAs fir as the 81 "\ oluntary Grant in Aid Schools are concerned the detailed results of the ai nual examination of these Schools will be found summarized in lable XI \ appended to this Report where the percentage of scholars pissed in each School in 1891 is stated and comj ared with the results of the preceding vear an 1 in lable XV which recoids the percentage of passes gained by these schools in each subject As regiHs the Departmental Government Schools the reports of the Headmaster of Victoria College and of the Headmistress of the Government Ccntial School for Girls have been published in the local pij eis and in the Goiernment Gazette The Departmental District Schools wdl be found classified an 1 irranged in the order of their efficiency in lable X appended to this Report which lable embo lies the lesults of the annual examination of the&e District Schools I subjoin, however a few critical observations as to those examinations the results of which have not yet been sufficiently brought foiwird
12 VICTORIA COLLFGE�XWith a staff consisting in the iggregate of i Headmaster and thirty eight teachers viz 8 1 nghsh and 10 Chinese Masters with 8 salanel pupil teachers and monitors all available for English woik and 4 other Chinese Masters for Chinese instruction as well as 8 further Chinese Masters assisting the corresponding number of V nghsh Masters an 1 with an enrolment of 1 108 boys Victona College brought only 709 boys under exammition, the average attendance throughout the year being 759 boys Ihe examinations were conducted as in the prece ling years by the Head master and mv self conjointly The Headmastei set the jnpers for the English examination and I revised and added to them Ihe examination of the \nglo Chinese Division and of the pupil teachers training class, as also the English reading of the whole College was taken by myself in the presence of the Headmaster 1 he subjects for Lnghsh composition in 1 the whole of the p ipers for the examination of the Chinese Classes were set by myself The wntten inswers of the boys having been marked and adjudged bv the Headmister he innounced on pn/e giving day the results of this joint examination as they appeared to him and embodiel his own views (as to results obtained in the pu|ul teacher* examination and in the several classes of the Upper lower, and Piepirttory �Gchools with special refeience to Mathematics 1 nghsh Dictation Composition Grammar and Shakespeare) in his report which was read on the same occasion and published in the local papers and in the Government Gazette
I confine my remarks therefore to those subjects winch the Headmasters report parses over in silence though it gives me } leasure to be able to say that a perusil of the boys papers has once more impressed me with the fact that the School does re illy excellent work on the whole in the subjects of Anthmetic Algebra Geome ry, and Mensur ition But while the School is decidedly ipt to produce specialists in mathematics the teaching of the speciGcally English subjects appears to be proportionately less successful There are, however peculiarly unfavourable circumstances surrounding the English teaching of \ ictoria College Ihe majonlv of the boys as well as the Masters aieChine&e who sel ^om speak or hear a woid of English outside the bchool Ihe boys who befoie entering the College have passed through foui or moie years study of books written in classical Chinese have, in Victoria College English reading books put m then hands which in no way connect with the social moril and national environment of a Chinese brain, home or school but plunge these boys head over heels into a sphere congenial indeed to the P nghsh bred school boy but to these Chine e lads utterly bewildenng besides piesupposing an amount of knowlel^e of idiom it c and technical Lnghsh j hrases which everj English sch ol bryhisatln s fingeis ends when first enteru g school but which ate Greek to these Chinese youths even when they have spent five or six yens in Victoria College Under these uicumstinces when commencing the Fnghsh reiding ex imination of the College I told the Headmister that 1 would i_,noie mispronunciation rfany woi Isofftrci n origin and p ss any thing below three gross failuns of simple Sax n woids cm'ained in five lme& fiom that i ortion of the re iding book of rich cl iss which 1 i been rei 1 and e\j limed in the ordm iry rea ling lessors within the previous few moi ths Aj>| lying MHII a low stan 1 ird 1 exjected evuy boy of ever ^o mel otre att unnient to j ass fa lly Lut I w is sadly disappointcl 1 subj m i I ibleof Results whicr speiks for itself It appears to me to contiim what I hue poi ited out in former repo t&, viz , that 1 nghsh
Illus. 43 (Continued)
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER, 1892. 967
ought to be taught by Englishmen and that many classes in Victoria College are too large for an effective lesson. It is also self-apparent from the subjoined Table that when English reading is taught all the way up from Class VIII. G to III, ^1, in 15 out of 21 classes, by Chinese teachers to whom English is an absolutely foreign and uncongenial tongue, the result must be disappointing. It is a maxim of the theory of education that the best teaching is required in the lowest classes of a school because there the foundation for all after-work is laid, and in its highest classes because there the scholar receives the finishing impressions with which he will go into the business of life. But all the best teaching power of Victoria College appears to be confined to the highest and smallest classes, some of which the vast majority of the scholars never enter, and where the teacher of English History, Shakespeare or Chemistry is perpetually compelled to stop and teach the AB C over again. On this point, I believe I am expressing what the English Masters of the College bitterly feel to a man. Giving an English
Master a general superintendence of classes for each of which after all a Chinese Master is responsible, is no remedy for the evil I refer to.
VICTORIA COLLEGE.�XRESULTS OF EXAMINATION IN ENGLISH READING, 1891.
Number of Scholars enrolled�X1J08. Number of Scholars presented�X697.
No . Class. Apparent Average Age of Scholars. Number Examined. Number Failed. Number Passed. Percentage Passed. Name of Teacher.
Years.
1 I. A., 17 11 0 11 100.00 R. M. Jamieson, M.A.
2 I. B 17 13 0 13 100.00 E. J. Boards.
3 II. A., 16 35 0 35 100.00 J. J. Booth.
4 II. B., 16 31 2 29 93.54 A. J. May.
5 III. A., 16 38 0 38 100.00 G. A. Woodcock.
6 III. B., 15 25 0 25 100.00 W. C. Barlow.
7 IV. A., 15 52 3 49 94.23 Lnk King-fo.
8 IV. B., 15 2 9 1 28 96.55 Wan Chung-iu.
9 IV. C, 15 32 1 31 96.87 Chii Tsun-tslng.
10 V. A., 14 49 1 48 97.95 Cheung Ts'oi.
11 V. B., 14 28 0 28 100.00 Lo Kit.
12 V. c., 14 29 1 28 96 55 Cbiu Chi-tsung.
13 VI. A., 15 56 3 53 94 64 Nglu.
14 VI B., 14 31 7 2 4 77 41 Leung Lam-fan.
15 VI. c , 15 27 2 25 92.59 Lo Cheung-shiu.
16 VII. A., 14 32 6 26 81.25 Tsang Chung.
17 VII B., 14 30 6 24 80.00 Wong Kok-ii.
18 VII c , 14 37 2 35 94.59 Sham Tsau-fat.
19 yin . A., 13 30 0 30 100.00 fWong Wai-ho. (Li Man-hing.
20 VIIL B., 13 29 2 27 93.10 J Wong Ming. 1 Wong Luiig-kim.
21 VIIL c , 12 53 1 52 98.11 | Pun Yun-fong. (Leung Kwong-hin.
14.65 697 38 659 94.16 ( 6 English and \18 Chinese Teachers.

I have good reason to believe that the English teaching of Victoria College does not, of late, -satisfy the Chinese community, for whose particular benefit this School exists. The Chinese, as a rule, do not openly or directly complain of official establishments, but they have an ugly way of expressing their discontent by anonymous libellous epigrams. I believe they have the impression that the teaching of the College is too bookish, too theoretical, not practical enough for the average business requirements of Hongkong. I think I can understand the sub-conscious ideas underlying these views. The Chinese know even better than we do that filling the scholar's head with undigested facts and hard scientific English terms, whilst giving him a mechanical smartness in performing certain mathematical operations, is not education. At the last examination of Victoria College I had a class of big Chinese boys before me who could readily work out stiff problems in Arithmetic in precise and neat English form. But when J had an easy sum like 64,5U1,0U7 written on the black board as a test of elementary notation and asked them merely to read or write it off in Chinese, they one and all could not do it. rl hey could vxrite stilted Chinese prose essays and turn rhymes according to the intricate rules of antique Chinese pro^oely. They could easily read or write off and work fractionally in
Illus. 43 (Continued)
968 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19rn NOVEMBER, 1892.
English form sums of any number of digits: but the rudimentary principles of English and Chinese arithmetical notation were lying, side by side, in their brain cells, mutually un-amalgamated, because individually unassimilated. What 1 thus noticed in the case of Arithmetic, Chinese parents no doubt constantly observe in other respects. Hence their discontent.
The peculiar educational problem which Victoria College is, by its very constitution, called upon to solve is not to teach in Hongkong English as it is taught in England, but neither is it to teach English and Cliioese side by side (as some worthy people in Hongkong would have it), which practically means to teach as much high class English and mathematics, side by side with as much classical Chinese, as can be stuffed into a bojT's braiu without manifest over-pressure. The real problem which Victoria College, as an Anglo-Chinese School, has to solve is, how to give Chinese boys an elementary English education in all its branches, the sole object being to teach them English, but so as to help them step by step to transform all English knowledge newly imparted to them into their own Chinese flesh and blood by connecting the former with the inherited and acquired mental possessions of the latter. W I am right in this., then the educative methods and whole organization of the College require a radical reform.
And now that I have for the thirteenth time conducted the annual examination and reported upon this College, I respectfully but urgently solicit Her Majesty's Government to relieve me in future from active connection with this sort of joint examination. Eor the last fourtean years, the unnatural but assumedly unavoidable combination of the Inspector of School's general test examination (in the interest of the public) and the Headmaster's individual result examination (for the purpose of promotion and prizes in the interest of the scholars) has produced an annually increasing train of perplex harassments crowding in upon me at the very time when the examinations of over six thousand children outside Victoria College tax body and mind most heavily. I have no desire to shirk work or duty. I am prepared at any time to examine and report upon Victoria College, as in the case of any other School included in the Education Department of which I was appointed Heaef in March, 1878, but I earnestly beg to be relieved from the difficulties inherent in this present anomaly of combining an examination for prize and promotion purposes which properly belongs to the Headmaster alone, with the general test examination of a public educational institution which is the natural duty of the Head of the Education Department whoever he be. The former examination must necessarily be held at the close of the school year, and if the latter were to be undertaken at some other time, say in the middle of the year, neither would theu clash with the other as at present.
I subjoin the usual statistics forwarded to me by the Headmaster, representing the detailed results of the joint examination as adjudged by him.
I.�XVICTORIA COLLEGE.�XNUMBER OF BOYS PASSED IN EACH SUBJECT, 1891.
T3
a
"fi
03
P* a be c
w
CLASS. c c JI bb S3 bO �EB O -2
o
^
s o 03 a c o
bo c
1 'A .2 3 J3 o "3
1 Q rs J3
B o _d
J* o
To o S a
H H M W O O O O H} PQ cc H
< . & w < tn &
p. T. S, 6 6 4 3 6 6 5 5 6 4 6 Q I.A., 12 12 12 12 9 10 10 12 12 11 12 12 11 5 10 10 12 I.B., 13 10 13 8 11 12 9 8 10 11 7 7 10 5 6 1 6 II.A., 35 35 35 34 31 32 31 27 29 32 34 35 29 34 10 26 H.B., 31 28 29 29 13 24 26 23 19 26 21 25 13 19 7 21 III.A., 37 32 37 27 16 32 28 20 17 31 35 31 28 26 IIIB 25 23 25 21 11 20 23 17 21 24 23 24 18 23 IV.A., 5i 49 48 43 34 45 40 38 44 51 40 IV.B., 30 25 29 21 21 19 7 21 23 22 20 IV.c, 82 29 31 31 30 30 26 23 28 24 18 V.A., 50 41 49 36 33 44 45 32 30 22 24 V.B., 29 18 29 17 14 18 18 8 14 14 17
...
V.c, 31 21 3f> 17 19 17 20 9 21 21 14 VI.A., 58 53 55 42 42 51 52 48 53 50 VLB 31 26 24 20 24 24 31 27 21 23 VI.c, 28 24 26 17 22 24 27 13 23 16 VILA., 32 30 26 28 23 2! 29 28 VLI.B., 31 31 25 31 31 30 31 31 VII.c, 37 37 35 37 36 23 37 37
*.""
V1II.A., 29 29 29 29 27 24 26 29 VIII.B., 28 28 26 28 28 22 26 28 VIII.c., 53 53 52 52 52 49 50 52
Total, 640 665 534 530 577 598 427 I 370 243 274 132 134 113 112 39 58 18 6
Examined hi each Subject, 709 703 709 709 709 7C9 599 499 340 382 153 153 159 14C* 97 91 25 6
* Including 5 from Class LA, Special.
Illus. 4.3 (Continued)
CONSOLIDATION, CONFLICT AND CONTROL
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER, 1892. 969
II.�XVICTORIA COLLEGE.�XPERCENTAGE OF PASSES IN EACH SUBJECT, 1891.
S 3
1 i
6 c O-vj
c a . a . .a
CLASS. |
51 1 S to I Q 1 3 b
c
1 1
eS
il I
H H P <3 3 �E< O H
w o e �� o
. < i-" �E-^
P.T.S.,... r> 100.00 66.66 50.00 100.00 100.00 83.33 83.33 100.00 66.60 100.00 100.00 16.6666
...1 ... "... f...
I.A. 12 100.00 100.00 100 00 75.00 83.33 83.33 100.00 100.00 91.66 looon'ioooo 91.66 100 00 83.33 83.33 10'.on 8.3333 I.B., 13 76.92 100.00 61.53 84.61 92.30 69.23 61.53 76.92 84.61 53.84! 53.S4 76.92 33.40 16.15 7.69 46.15 7.6923 II.A...... 35 100.00 100.00 97.14 88.57 91.42 88.87 77.14 82.85 91.42 97.14|l00.00 82.S5 97.14. S8..-7 74.28, ... 2.S571 H.B., ... 31 90.38 93.54 93.54 41.93 77.47 83.S7 74.19 61.29 83.S7 67.74,80.64 41.93 61.29, 22.58 67.74 ... 3.225S III.A., ... 37 86.48 lOd.OO 72.97 43.25 86.49 75.67 54.05 45.94 83.78 94.57] 83.78; 75.67 70.28 ... 2.7027
III.B 25 92.00 100.00 84.00 44.00 80.00 92.00' 68.00 84.00 96.00 92.00 95.00,' 72.00 92.00, ... 4.0000
IV.A., ... 96.07 94.40 84 31 (5(5.(56 88.23 78.43 74.51 86.27 100.00 78.43 1.9607
r,\
IV. B 30 S3.33 96.66 70 00 70.00 63.33 23.33 70.00 76 66 73.33 66.66 ... ... ... ... 3.3333 32 00.62 96.87 96.87 93.75 93.75 81.25 71.87 87.50 75.00 56.25 3.1250
SPECIAL SUBJECTS.
iv.c, ...
CLASS I.A.
V.A 50 82.00 98.00 72.00 66.00 88.00 90.00 64.00 60.00 14 00 48.00 2.0000
C'acmibtry, 6 examined; 83.33 passed.
29 62.05 100.00 58 50 48.25 62.05 62.05 27.58 48.25 48.25 58.50 3.4482
V.B; .... Mensuration, 5 ,. ; 40.00 ,.
V.C 31 67.74 96.77 54.83 61.28 54 83 64.51 29.03 (57.74 67.74 45.16 3.2258 VLA., ... 58 91.37 94.82 72.40 72.40 S7.92 89.65 82.75 91.37 86.20 1.7241
VI.B , ... 31 83.87 77.42 64.51 77.42 77.42 100.00 87.09 67.74 74.19 3.225S
vi.c 28 85.71 92.85 60.71 78 56 85.71 96.42 46.42 82.14 57.14 3.5714 VII.A., . 32 93.75 81.25 S7.50 71.87 65.62 90.62 87.50 3.1250 VII.B., . 31 100.00 80.64 100.00 100.00 96 77 100.00 100.00 3.2258 VII.c., . 37 100.00 94.59 100.00 97.29 62.16 100.00 100.00 Writing 2.7027 VIII.A... 29 100.00 100.00 10.X00 93.10 82.75 89.65 100.00 3.4482 V1II.B.,. 28 100.00 92.85 100.00 100 00 78.56 92.85 100 00 3.5714 VIH.c.,. 53 100.00 98.11 98.11 98.11 92.45 94.33 98.11 1.8867
709 90.26 94.59 82.37 74.75 81.38 84.34 -71.28 74.74 71.47 71.72 86.27 87.58 71.07 76.71 40.20 63.73 72.00100.00
III.�XVICTORIA COLLEGE.�XCHINESE EXAMINATION, 1891.
CHINESE SCHOOL.
Percentage Table of Passes.
Total
Total No.
Class. Essay. Letter. Prosody. Tuitni. Percentage
Examined.
Passed.
1 50 92 80 42 72 92
2 62 93 89 92 92
3 57 90 82 77 88
4 57 90 91 88 90
5 , 56 91 87 87 90
57 82 84 88 88
7 62 82 76 89 84
53 75 89 81 85
IV.�XVICTORIA COLLEGE.�XANGLO-CHINESE EXAMINATION, 1891.
Anglo-Chinese Class.
Total Total
Copy
Division. No. Reading. Dictation. Characters. Translation. Percentage
Writing.
Examined. Passed.
9 78 81 33 33 78
11 82 64 00 64 45 64
II
12 91 50 50 67 83
10 70 80 80 90 ; 90
Illus. 43 (Continued)
970 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE 19m NOVEMBER, 1*92
13 GOVEUNMFNT CENTRAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS�XIn spite of the repeated changes that took place in the staff of this School w hicL has had within less thin two years of its existence three successive Headmistresses, and notwithstanding the smallness of the hiied School house and the insuitabilitv of its location, the Gnls Cential School has justified its establishment There can be no doubt now but that the School lias supplied a felt though unexpressed educational want of Eurasians in the first and of Chinese and 1 uropeans in the second inst mce The annual examination showed satisfactory result* such as testified to the efficienev of the teaching given in the School s Upper and Lowei Divisions there beinj: cleai e\ idei ce of steady pi ogress in the 1 uglish as well as in the Chinese classes with the exception of the \uthmetic of the I ower Division Ihe want of propel accommodation and the absence of a plav ground are sadly lestraming the expansion and j loper management of the School, the whole of which is now crowds 1 while the Lowei Division urgently needs subdivision by the formation of an infant class for children undei six vears Ihe interest which Lidy ROBINSON has taken in this ^chool and th liberal offer of the Honourable L R BBLILIOS to provide a school house, promise a bright future f r a ^chool which is just emerging from the chivsahs stite of a mere experiment but sadly needs wmj^s and free room to expand ind prosper m the sunshine of public favour We ha\e nothing as vet in Hongkong of th�X so called new education with its kindergartens form study hand and e)e training manual industrial technical and cookeiy instruction Nor hive we any pressing need for any of thes�X subjects with the exception of the first the kindergarten One of the be t modern authorities on duration Dr HARRIS United States Commissionei of Education has stated it as his com iction that without a compulsory law the period of school influence could only be extended by drawing children into school enher lhat beinjj so I see under our present local circurnstanees additioi al reasons foi satisfying the mgent need foi an mfmt division to ba added to the Girls C entral School bv the establishment of a normal kind�Xrgarten than which there is no better means in existence nor my better adopted for the pecuhanties ot Hongkong in order to draw children into school earlier But TROEBrLS svstem of edueating the natural activities of child nature, on the basi5? of the analogy existing between the development of humanity and that of the individual, is a thing complete in itself and cannot be applied to Hongkong in a 1 alf heaited or partial manner It m oc be taken as a whole or left alone But I trust the Goveinment will courageously take the lead in this respect and mtioduce when the time for it is ripe a genuine kindergaiten normal school in Hongkong as a guide foi the development of private effort in this ditection I have urged this measure for years upon private educationists but none have taken it up yet
14 DEPARTMENTAL DISTRICT SCHOOLS �X \moug the 34 Departmental District Schools (outside Victoria College and Git Is Central School) theie were m the year 1891 six Anglo Chinese Schools (at Saiyingpun Wantsai Wongnaichung Stanley Yaumah and Shaukiwan) with a total of 525 scholars as compared with 510 scholars in 1890 shewing hardly any increase as the respective School houses do not admit of any more boys being squeezed in except pei haps at Wantsai The Saiyingpun Anglo Chinese School was moved in the course of the 3 ear into the first of those new District School-houses the building of which was 1 evolved upon twelve years ago Lvery av aiiable seat m the English class rooms of the new buildiDg WuS fille 1 on the da) of opening Ihe demand for additional opportunities foi English teiching at Wantsai was so gieat that it became necessary theie also as at Saiyingpun to make no m re provision for teachers quaiters in these school houses but to utilize any available space for (lass rooms At Shaukiwan however the school house which had accommodation for 75 scholars had for sever il yeirs past i lapidly decreasing attendance, the house being believed by the people to be haunted bv evil spirits that cause 1 wasting disea e and by a Sanitaiy Committee condemned as unhealthy vhich is leally only another v\ay of expressing the truth underlying that vulgar superstition Ihe functions of that School which was closed m September were virtually taken over by the London Mission under the Rev Dr CHALMFRS Ihe continued unhealthiness ot the Stanley Department il School which has for years past been sa lly inteifering with the health and lives of the successive alien teachers without affecting the attendance or health of the indigenous scholars attracted the attention of the Government and led to the resolution to erect as soon as possible 1 scl ool house there in a suitable locality but whether this will improve the sanitary conditions of the School lerimns to be seen Ihe English teacning of these Schools is on the whole, of a mediocre character and lllustiates that sad defect of loeal education the absence of a training institution The remaining 28 Departmen al Schools, with 809 scholars receiving a purely Chinese, but classical education do not call for any remark
15 GRANT IN 4ID SCHOOLS�XTen new Grant in Aid Schools were started m the year 1891, viz 1 bv the Ameucan Board Mission under the Rev J R 1 AYLOR 5 by the London Mission under the I ev Dr CHALMEHS and 3 by the Roman Catholic Mission, under the Lady Superioress of the Italian Convent and 1 other School (the High School undei Bishop RAIMONDI) took the place of the defunct Hongkong Public School by a mere change of location and management Three of those new London Mission Schools (at Taikoktsui Shaukiwan and Priya Central) and those three Schools of the Sisters of the Italian Convent (at Yaumati Hunghom and Shaukiwan) were principally intended to bring the school shy children of the boat \ o\ illation under instruction But the efforts thus energetically made have not as yet met with much success except perhaps at Shaukiwan where the J ahan bisters md Miss JOHNSTONI of the I nale Education ^ociety are beginning to get some educational influence among the girls of the bo it popu! ition The London Mission, under the direction
Illus. 43 (Continued)
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER, 1892 971
of the Rev Dr CHAL*ILRS has of late years been taking an incieasingly prominent positirn in the educational movement of the Colonv there being at the present day as many as 32 Schools under the charge of Dr CHALMIRS, assisted bv a Lady manager Miss DAVIFS, 18 of tho&e Schools being Girls Schools In all the Grant in Aid Schools the tendenc) remarked upon m foimer Eeports, to develop the standard of instruction in the direction of secondary educ ition has steadily continued The cry for a seventh standard accoidmgly becomes louder every vear It was my intention to nake a recommendation to the Government in the course of the yeai to extend the scope of the Grant in Aid Scheme by adding a seventh standaid in the ease of Sehools of Classes III ai d IV (giviu_, a I uropean education) and revising the value of passes besides adding a seventh standard in the case of bchools in Class I (giving a Chinese education) But the measure involves as much financial as educational consideiatio is and under present encumstances when the expansion of the elementary basis of our educational structme makes such pressiuo" claims upon the financial resomces of the Government I deem it moie ui_ent to continue enlir^u _, oui foundations tb m +o build it the top le t we be providing for the educational needs ot the few to the negleet of the ciying necessities ot the many lhQ measure will have to be postponed theiefoie foi a shoit tine but it will leceivc due lttention as soon as th^re is a prospect of the necessaiy financial means being forthcoming
1 he annual examinations proved satisfactorily that our Chinese as well as our English Schools are making steily progress in improving from year to year their methods and oigani7atio l The steady increase of special subjects is also a feature indicating the general vigour pervadin^ the Euglish teaching Schools Special mention must be made of the Victoria English Schools as a whole and particularly of the Girls Division which has of late been taking a foremost phce, so far as examination results and general thoiou^hness of its woik is concerned among the Girls bchcols of the Colony St Josephs College and tl e Diocesan School also continue to distinguish themselves by the Macuty and success with which they hav e responded to the call of the Colony for a distinctly com nercial e lucation and by the great ittention they bestow on the subjects trend mg upon a <=econdaiv educat on in then special classes of scholars who have passed bevond the sixth standard of the Grant in Aid Scheme I would specially recommend to those two Schools as well as to the Victona Eighsh SCIIOJIS High School and St Paul s Colhge School to aim at the introduction ot evening continuation clo&ses for the particular benefit of former scholars who have left school but ieel the need of fuither instruction m the rudiments of secondary technical or scientific instruction The Italian Convent finally, deserves special commendation for the praiseworthy effoits made by the Sisteis to develop the taste for drawing, painting and music among the boys and girls of the Colon} by scientifically graded instruction in these subjects
16 OXFORD I OCAL EXAMINATIONS�XThe results of the Oxford local Examination held in Hongkong in July, 1891 weie as follow �XI Jimioi Division�XHonouis list none Pass List �X Diocesan School 3 passes , St Joseph s College 2 passes , \ ictoria College 1 pass Candidates who, having exceeded the age of 16 years, satisfied the 1 xammeis �XDiocesan School, 3 passes, Victona College 2 passes , St Joseph s College 1 pass Successful candidates who obtained distinction �X Diocesan School, 2 in religious knowledge Details of examination results of Junior Division �X presented 36 , examined, 31 , passed in preliminary subjects, 23 , passed in leligioua knowledge, fully 6, partly 2 , passed m English fully (not including Shakespeire) 9 partly 6 , parsed in English, including Shakespeare 13 , pas=ed in mathematies, 21 , pas&ed in drawing, 3 lotal of certificates issued, 6 Total of pass certificates issued to candidates who had exceeded the limit of asre, 6 II Senior Division�XHonours List none Pass List �XSt Josephs College 3 passes, Diocesan School, 2 passes , Victoria College 1 pass Successful candidates who obtained distinction �XDiocesan School 1 in English Details of examination tesults of Senior Division �Xpresented 6 , examined, 6 , passed in preliminary subjects, 6 , passed in religious knowled e 2 , passed in English b , passed in Trench 1 , passed in mathematics, 6 , passed in drawin^, 3 lotal of certificates issued 6 Ihe foregoing results ma} be summarized thus �XDiocesan School, 8 passes and 3 distinctions , St Joseph s College, 6 passes , Victoria College, 4 passes
17 B*LILIOS MEDAL AND PRIZF EXAMINVTIONS�XThe usual competitive exa imations for Behhos Medals and Piizes were held at the City Hall on 22nd and 23td December 1891 Twenty nine scholars of seven different local Schools took part in the conpetition In the Bo}. Division (Composition on a subject of commercial Geography Algebra Mensuiation anl Bookkeeping) St Joseph's College gained the 1st 3rd and 4th prizes, and the Diocesan School the 2nd ind oth prizes In the Girls Enghsn Division (Composition, Histor} and Physical Geography) the \ ictoria English School took the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes In the Girls Chinese Division (Composition Tianslatio I and Arithmetic) the Victoria Home and Orphanage School took the 1st anl 1th puzes and the Bisel Mission School the 2nd and 3rd prizes
18 PHYSICAL TRAINING �XPhysical drill, in accordance with the S)skm adopted in all Bntish Army Schools was mtrod iced in Hongkong 11 spring 1891 Fiic Government provided the salary ol a Drill Instructor whose set vices were pi iced at the disposal orevei} School in the Lol my len Public Schools and 1 Private School (3 of the numbei being Gnls Schools) av uled themselves of the offer, and physical drill quickly becime a vei} popul ir institution among Chn ese as well as European scholais, and at two public prize giviugs (Diocesan School and Victoria English Schools) highl}
Illus. &3 (Continued)
972 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 19TH NOVEMBER, 1892.
successful exhibitions were held, testifying of the progress made in this branch of instruction. The proposal to establish a Swimming Bath for the use of local Schools has fallen through for want of a suitable locality. A public playground has been provided, at West Point.
19.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.�XThere is no Industrial School in the Colony with the exception of the West Point Reformatory which gives to its voluntary inmates instruction in shoe-making, tailoring, book-binding and gardening. But the needlework instruction, which is an important feature in every local Girls School, has in all the Chinese Schools a distinctly industrial aspect. Thousands of girls and women among the Chinese support themselves or contribute to the support of their families by doing shoe-binding and particularly embroidery work for shops in Hongkong and Canton. In the Departmental Girls Schools and in most of the-Grant-in-Aid Schools the needlework instruction is, ;it the desire of the parents, conducted with special regard to the industrial value of Chinese female needlework in Hongkong.

20.
MEDICAL EDUCATION.�XThe local College of Medicine for Chinese is vigorously continuing its philanthropic work in giving several classes of Chinese students a thoroughly scientific medical and surgical education. The College is, however, in great need of a suitable building, which is likely to be provided by the munificence of the Honourable E. R. BELILIOS.

21.
SCHOLARSHIPS �XThe Vicloria College enjoyed in 1891 the benefit of the Morrison Scholarship, the Stewart Scholarship and four Belilios Scholarships, each of the value of sixty dollars a year. St. Joseph's College had the benefit of two Belilios Scholarships of the same value. The Medical College was aided by a Government Scholarship, the Watson Scholarship and two Belilios Scholarships.

22.
I enclose the usual Tables (I. to XVI.), containing the Educational Statistics for the year 1891 which, to some extent, have been analysed in the foregoing paragraphs.


I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
E. J. EITEL, M.A., PH. D. (TUBING.)
Inspector of Schools and Head of the Education Department.
The Honourable G. T. M. O'BRIEN, C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretary,
#c, $c, Sfc.
Illus, 43 (Continued)
Schools of this country cannot be said to be 'voluntary national schools', but are in all essential principles very similar to the Depart-mental Schools of the Colony, the only difference being that they are supported partly by local rates and partly by Imperial taxation in-stead of by Imperial taxation alone, and are managed by local Gov-ernment Boards instead of by the Central Bureau: and
? add that while approving generally his suggestion that in Hongkong the system of Grants in aid to all forms of education should be extended as far as practicable, and that the Departmental Schools should be confined (for the present at any rate) to elemen-tary education, Lord Ripon considers that one exception must be made to the latter proposition, viz. Victoria College, as his Lordship concurs in his predecessor's view .. . that Victoria College ought to be the model Secondary School of the Colony; and request Governor to instruct Dr. Eitel that on this point he must in future annual Reports written for publication refrain from arguing against what must be regarded as the settled policy of the Government:
[We must stop his incessant attempts to depreciate Victoria Col-lege and to discredit it in the eyes of the Hongkong public]
2. As to Dr. Eitel's suggestions for getting a larger number of chil-dren into the Schools (par. 10 of the Report) �X he is probably right in thinking it premature to have a general compulsory law; but I think his first suggestion (a) 'to compel by law the registration and educa-tion of all purchased servant girls' is impracticable �X and would be an unjust interference with domestic customs, unless we are pre-pared to go further and introduce universal compulsory education. Everything practicable should be done to improve the position of these bondservants, but I cannot see the logic or the justice of com-pelling them to be educated, if we do not compel other children to go to school...
(b)
The next proposal, to prohibit child labour seems to me to be more feasible �X if as I gather it is only intended to apply to work in shops and factories and not to purely domestic labour �X which latter could hardly be interfered with.

(c)
As to the Chinese Attendance Officer: ? Refer to Lord Knutsford's despatch... in which the suggestion was postponed till after the Census of 1891, and ask Governor to consider practicability of now appointing such an officer.

(d)
I would say nothing about the proposed establishment of a special School Fund, as I do not see the need for it, so long as we continue to urge the Government from time to time to extend the Educational system so far as finances allow.

(e)
As to the alleged 'absence of power 'to forcibly detain inmates of the Reformatory7: ? ask what is meant by this as Ord. 19 of 1886


appears to give the necessary power and take opportunity of asking for a report on working of that Ordinance.
3. Par. 12 criticizes rather severely (as usual) Victoria College ... To part of the criticism I have referred already. I fear that Dr. Eitel has not profited much by the reproof which the Governor administered to him last January ...
? Ask Governor to report how the arrangements... of associating Mr. Lockhart with Dr. Eitel and Dr. Wright in the examination of Victoria College worked in 1892 (? it was held last month), and whether he would recommend a continuation of that joint examina-tion, or would adopt the suggestion made by Dr. Eitel that his inspection of the College should be separated from the Headmas-ter's Examination.
The remarks as to the need of kindergarten education, of a Train-ing Institution, and of further Industrial Education need not be noticed on this occasion, as these are luxuries that we must wait for at present.
(iii) Colonial Office Minute signed by C.P. Lucas, 3 January 1893.
There is a great deal of gas in this report, and it does not seem to be worthwhile to make the comments and corrections contained in the first two pages of Mr. Johnson's minute...
The great educational want in Hongkong has always seemed to me to be the lack of provision for the children who live on boats. The late Dr. Stewart, years ago, had some idea of a ragged school61 ship, but I do not think it has ever been tried.
(iv) Draft reply from the Marquess of Ripon to Sir William Robinson, 20 January 1893.
61. The philanthropic 'ragged school' movement started in England, largely as a result of the initiative of John Pounds, a Portsmouth cobbler, in the early 1840s, and was enthusiasti-cally endorsed by such leading Evangelicals as Lord Shaftesbury, the famous factory reformer, who helped to form the Ragged School Union in 1844. Through the raising of funds and the use of voluntary teachers, efforts were made to provide a basic level of care and training for the most deprived children in order to 'convert incipient criminals to Christianity' (Horace Mann, cited in John Lawson and Harold Silver, A Social History of Education in England (London: Methuen, 1973), p. 285). In 1878, Frederick Stewart had sug-gested that a similar scheme should be adopted in Hong Kong, especially to deal with the children of the boat-population and that two hulks, one at either end of the harbour, might serve as Ragged School ships (Frederick Stewart to Robert G.W. Herbert, Esq. of the Colonial Office, 15 November 1878, in CO 129/183, pp. 390-91). The scheme received Colonial Office, but not Hong Kong Government, support.
265
[Against the reference to Eitel being told that it was the settled policy, no longer to be considered as open to question, that Victoria College should be the model secondary school of Hong Kong, ap-pears the following marginal emendation by Ripon:]
I am disinclined to say this. I think an Inspector ought to express his opinion with a large degree of freedom on the Schools he in-spects, though of course in proper terms �X omit.
[In the text of Ripon's despatch:]
The proposal to compel by law the registration and education of all purchased servant girls was reported upon in Sir F. Fleming's despatch No. 215 of 2nd July 1890, and I am disposed to agree with the opinion there expressed that it would not be desirable to attempt such legislation at any rate until the condition of the Colony is ripe for the introduction of system of compulsory education. You may be aware that compulsory education has been introduced into more than one of the Protected Malay States, and with satisfac-tory results, as far as can be judged.
12. Fong Mee-yin, The First Hundred Years of Hong Kong Education (Hong Kong: China Learning Institute, 1975), pp. 68-74.
The following details relevant to the curricula practised in Anglo-Chinese grant schools during the early years of the twentieth century have been translated from the Chinese original. Class I represented the highest class at this time.
The Syllabus of Anglo-Chinese Schools
I. Class VIII.
(1)
English Reader Textbook �X Royal Reader No. 1, Royal School Series Primer, T. Nelson and Sons.

(2)
English writing �X includes dictation, sentence-making, callig-raphy and copy-book exercises. Textbook�XVere Foster's New Civil Service Copy Books, Nos. 1-5, Blackie & Son.

(3)
Recitation.

(4)
Colloquial. Textbook �X Pictorial Language Series, The Welsh Educational Publishing Company.

(5)
Geography �X emphasis on rural geography around the school. Textbook �X Meiklejohn's New Geography, Meikeljohn and Hobden.

(6)
Object Lessons �X knowing objects such as a cat, clock, com-pass, cow, dog, hen, horse, pig, sheep, and slate. Textbook �X Regina Reading and Object Lesson Sheets, George Gill and Sons.

(7)
Arithmetic. Textbook �X Loney's Arithmetic for Schools, Macmillan and Company Ltd.


Class VII.
(1)
English Reader. Textbook �X Royal Reader No. 2.

(2)
English Writing. Copy books Nos. 6 & 7 for copy book exercises.

(3)
Recitation.

(4)
English Grammar �X includes nouns and verbs. Textbook �X J.C. Nesfield's Idiom, Grammar and Synthesis, Macmillan & Company Ltd.

(5)
Colloquial.

(6)
Geography �X Hong Kong Geography.

(7)
Object Lessons �X knowing objects such as bamboo, black-board, coins, fish, frog, orange, rice, tea, animals, vegetables, minerals, and water.

(8)
Arithmetic.


Class VI.
(1)
English Reader. Textbooks �X Royal Reader No. 3 and Course of Hygiene, Elementary, Noronha and Company.

(2)
English Writing �X includes dictation, elementary composition, and copy-book exercises (Copy Books Nos. 7-8).

(3)
Recitation.

(4)
English Grammar �X includes parts of speech, plural and sin-gular, gender, proper nouns and pronouns.

(5)
Colloquial.

(6)
Geography �X Gwangdong geography, Chinese geography and trade routes.

(7)
Object Lessons �X knowing objects such as coal, cotton, electric tram, gold, iron, paper, shipbuilding, sugar, silk, wool.

(8)
Arithmetic.

(9)
Hygiene. Textbooks �X Course of Hygiene, Elementary, Noronha & Company, and Willoughby's Hygiene for Students, Macmillan and Company Ltd.


IV. Class V.
(1)
English Reader. Textbooks �X Royal Reader No. 4 and Course of Hygiene, Elementary.

(2)
English Writing �X includes dictation, letter-writing (about 50 words), simple composition, and copy book exercises (Copy Books Nos. 9-10).

(3)
Recitation.

(4)
English Grammar �X simple sentence structure and prefixes.

(5)
Geography �X includes Asian Geography, Chinese Geography, day and night, the four seasons, latitudes and altitudes.

(6)
Object Lessons �X knowing objects such as cork, fur, glass, knife, lead-pencil, leather, needle, pen, soap, sponge.

(7)
Arithmetic. Textbook �X Loney's Arithmetic for Schools, Macmillan and Company Ltd.

(8)
Algebra �X the relationship of addition, subtraction, multipli-cation and division. Textbook �X Hall and Knight's Elementary Algebra, Macmillan and Company Ltd.

(9)
Geometry �X includes the cutting of angles and lines, perpen-dicular lines, triangles, and parallel lines. Textbooks �X John Carroll's Practical Geometry for Art Stu-dents, Burns and Gates Ltd., and Hall and Stevens' School Geometry.

(10)
Hygiene. Textbook �X Willoughby's Hygiene for Students, Macmillan and Company Ltd.

V.
Class IV.

(1)
English Reader. Textbooks �X Royal Reader No. 5 and Course of Hygiene, Elementary.

(2)
English Writing �X includes dictation, letter writing (about 100 words), composition (narrative), and copy-book exercises (Copy-books Nos. 10-11).

(3)
Recitation.


(5)62 Geography �X English Geography; products, trade; structure of the Hong Kong Government; tides and flow.
(6) Object Lessons �X knowing objects such as barometer, cam-phor, flax and linen, India rubber, newspaper and printing, pottery, rope, salt, thermometer, wood.
62. Presumably because of a proof-reading error, '(4)', which can be quite confidently ascribed to some aspect(s) of English Grammar, is missing from Mr Fong's publication.
(7)
Arithmetic.

(8)
Algebra �X simple formula.

(9)
Geometry �X Euclid's Subject Matters.

(10)
Hygiene. Textbook �X Willoughby's Hygiene for Students.


VI. * Syllabus for Class IV Chinese Language.
(1)
Comprehension.

Textbook �X Guo-min Textbook, Books 3 & 4. Kan-shih Jih-yao,63 Chapter 7.

(2)
Context �X sentence completion, questions and answers.

(3)
Vocabulary �X dictation, copying, calligraphy.


VII. Syllabus for Class III Chinese Language.
(1)
Comprehension. Textbook �X Guo-min Textbook, Books 5 & 6.

(2)
Special Paper �X ordinary writing format (Fu-yu Sik-chi64)

(3)
Context �X sentence completion, questions and answers, writ-ing format (notices, memoranda).

(4)
Vocabulary �X dictation, copying, calligraphy.


VIII. Syllabus for Class II Chinese Language.
(1)
Comprehension. Textbook �X Guo-min Textbook, Books 7 & 8.

(2)
Special Paper �X Shang Lun, Gu-min65; the discussion of cur-rent affairs.

(3)
Context �X discussion, questions and answers.

(4)
Vocabulary �X dictation, copying, calligraphy.


IX. Syllabus for Class I Chinese Language.
(1)
Comprehension. Textbook �X Guo-min Textbook, Books 9 & 10.

(2)
Special Paper �X Mencius, Gu-min, Discussion of current affairs,


63.
The titles of the two textbooks quoted here are, of course, simply romanizations of the Chinese characters. Roughly translated, the two books might be called 'National Textbook' (see also Evidence 19 below) and Main Points of Studying Modern History7.

64.
Roughly translated as 'Women and Children: The Explanation of Terms or Elementary Vocabulary'.

65.
'Shang Lun' may be roughly translated as 'Global Discussion', and 'Gu-min' as 'the Classics'.


269
Tung-lai Po-I,66 Kan-shih Ti-gang.67
(3)
Context �X discussion, questions and answers.

(4)
Vocabulary �X dictation, copying.


13. Memorandum No. 38 of 22 May 1894, by Dr E.J. Eitel, Inspector of School, in CO 129/263, pp. 190-93.
The first outbreak of the bubonic plague occurred in the spring of 1894. Initially, it was the local Chinese who suffered the full brunt of the calamity68 and in a situation in which the known death toll for five or six months was more than 2,500, it is not surprising that panic ensued. The Governor, Sir William Robinson, estimated that 80,000 of the Chinese population fled Hong Kong. EiteVs memorandum indicates an important 'side-effect' of the plague, which is itself, perhaps, a comment on communication problems between Government and people in late nineteenth century Hong Kong.
Sir,
I have the honour to report on the panic which has suddenly deci-mated the attendance in the local Chinese Schools since yesterday morn-ing 21st, but particularly to-day 22nd.
2. Nature of the Panic
On Sunday 20th numerous rumours began to spread in the districts affected by the Plague (and on 21st the rumours reached also Wantsai and Tang Lung Chau and Kowloon) to the following effect:
(a)
That the Government intended to select a few young Children from each School to subject them to a surgical incision of the liver in order to obtain bile, this being the only known remedy for curing the plague.

(b)
That every School would be visited by officers who would examine every child and send to the 'Hygeia' anyone having the least boil or pimple on its body.


3. Effect
I found that to-day most of the Chinese schools in the districts af-fected by the plague have only from ten to twenty per cent, of their scholars in attendance, and a few are closed. In Sai Ying Pun, Sheung Wan, and Chung Wan I have found great variations, a very few being
66.
Roughly translated as Donglai's Academic Seminars'.

67.
Roughly translated as Main Themes in History^

68.
Also among the later victims of the Plague, however, were the Governor's wife, Lady Robinson, and other Europeans.


closed, the majority having from 26 to 40 per cent of their usual atten-dance. I am informed that Shamshuipo, Tai-kok-tsui, Yau-ma-ti, and Hunghom (resorts of the local population) have closed most schools under the effect of the panic. English teaching schools attended by Chi-nese are comparatively little affected by the scare. Hawan and Spring Gardens are at present unaffected by it.
4. Origin of the Panic
Ridiculous as these rumours appear to Europeans they seem very plausible to ignorant Chinese because excision of human flesh for curative purposes when done under the promptings of misguided filial piety is a practice encouraged by the Chinese Government. As to the question who started these rumours in Hongkong on the present occasion, I should not be surprised if it were found that the story concerning the excision of the liver to obtain bile is the malicious distortion of the native medical frater-nity who, I believe, are desirous of bringing some pressure to bear upon a Government supposed to attach great importance to school attendance. I have been told in several districts that suggestions have been made among the Guilds to threaten the Government with a stoppage of all trade and food supplies of the markets in order to extort certain medical conces-sions. As to the story concerning 'boils' of all sorts being treated by the Government as symptoms of plague, it may have its origin in a careless rendering by newspapers or in popular conversation of the word 'Bu-bonic' (plague).
5. Measures
I do not think anything very effectual can be done to remove the sug-gestions of native malice to native ignorance and suspiciousness. Distrust of the Government is still rampant among the lower classes of Chinese. Education will remove it in time. I have however gone through most of the schools in town exhorting the Children not to believe such silly ru-mours, and the Attendance Officer is doing the same in all the schools. Tomorrow, I shall visit the out-Stations for the same purpose. As the schools afford in most cases good ventilation & healthy occupation for the children, I am sure it would be a mistake to close the schools, or such a measure would scatter the children in the streets or the already over-crowded houses and thus increase the risk of infection.
14. Newspaper reports of politics in the classroom, with a vengeance.
As might be expected, the case of Yeung Chu Wan became something of a 'cause celebre'. It transpired that the murder was committed at the behest of the Police Chief in Canton and that the Acting Viceroy had earlier issued a proclamation offering a reward for the apprehension of Mr Yeung, 'dead or alive'. This involvement of the Imperial Chinese
271
Government led to a furore over the 'gross and daring violation of British territory', which
was only pushed out of the press headlines and correspondence columns by the death of
Queen Victoria. A reward of$500 was offered in Hong Kong for information leading to the
arrest of the assassins. The question of the role of the Chinese Government was discussed in
all local newspapers, most heatedly in the China Mail, in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, and in official correspondence with the Foreign Office in London.69 Eventually (on 5 April, 1903) one of the assassins was caught, was put on trial in Hong Kong (20 -21
May 1903) and executed (17 June 1903).
(a) Hong Kong Daily Press, Saturday, 12 January 1901, p. 2.
MURDER ON THURSDAY NIGHT
Schoolmaster Shot Dead
.. . It appears that shortly after six o'clock when teacher and pupils were engrossed in the studies of the day, a man suddenly entered the room, which is situated on the first floor at 52, Gage Street, and before Mr. Yeung70 had recovered from his surprise at the unexpected intrusion, or had time even to utter a word, the man whipped out a revolver and fired four shots in rapid succession at the unfortunate school master, who fell to the ground. Every one of the shots had taken effect, one entering the head and the others penetrating the left shoulder, chest and abdomen. The murderer, on completing his diabolical work, turned and fled from the room, trampling over frightened scholars who obstructed his path. Ac-cording to the statements of some of the older scholars, not a word was spoken on either side, the whole affair occupying just a few seconds .. . The murdered schoolmaster was 34 years of age and well known to his compatriots in the colony as a political reformer. Indeed, in this fact will probably be found the motive for the crime as, apart from his political views, he was on good terms with everyone ...
(b) Hong Kong Weekly Press and China Overland Trade Report, 19 January 1901.
.. . In a futile attempt to shield himself, Mr. Yeung had evidently made use of the class-book he held in his hand at the moment of being shot. One bullet had completely pierced it, while a second must have first struck it before entering the body of the victim...
69.
For example, see FOl7/1718, pp. 523 ff. For comment about the political significance of the murder and for further information about the background and repercussions, see Chen Man Yu, "Chinese Revolutionaries in Hong Kong" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1963), pp. 128-34.

70.
Yang Chu-yun, alias Yeung Ku-wan or Yeung Hop-kat. He was the founder and first President of the Fu Jen Literary Society. See Chronicle for 1892 above.


15. Some documents related to the discussion of separate education for the different races in Hong Kong.
The extracts presented below are related directly to Evidence 21 of Chapter 1. They may be compared with both earlier and later facts and opinions.
(a) Hong Kong Daily Press, Wednesday, 30 January 1901, p. 3, report on Bishop Hoare's speech at the Annual Prize Distribution of the Diocesan Boys' School, headlined 'Bishop Advocates European Schools for Europeans'.
. . . There were one or two things mentioned in the [annual school] report which he might call attention to. One was the great improvement in the playground, which he was sure was a very important thing. The thing which people suffered from in Hong Kong was want of room to exercise and amuse themselves in, and he was sure they were all agreed that if the school-boys were to do good work they must have good play-grounds71 .. . There was just one other point in regard to the school which he wished to mention. As he came there year after year he was very thankful for what he saw; but there was one thing he did not like to see, and he thought they should get it altered. That was the mixing of the races in the school �X that was to say, the Europeans and Chinese. He thought he could say this without giving offence to either race. Of course he was an Englishman, but as they knew he had really spent more than half his life teaching Chinese boys. Therefore he did not speak in this manner through lack of sympathy with the Chinese. He loved the Chinese from the very bottom of his heart, and they had seen that day �X and certainly it was borne out by his experience �X that the Chinese boys were as capable of studying as European boys, and could compete with them successfully .. . He did not believe it was a good thing to put two races side by side in the school. He did not think they mixed. There was a gulf between the
71. Earlier, Frederick Stewart had also emphasized the importance of school playgrounds, especially in the context of overcrowded schools and classrooms. See his 'Annual Report on the Government Schools for 1874', in Hong Kong Government Gazette, 1875,27 February 1875,
p. 60, and Gwenneth Stokes, op. cit., pp. 21 and 57. Concern about the lack of space devoted to recreation grounds for the general public was also expressed at the time that the Po Leung Kuk applied to build a Chinese City Hall and Museum at what was then the 'Chinese Recreation Ground' at Possession Point (1882). See CO 129/199, pp. 211 ff. and CO 129/206, pp. 290 ff. Other early indications of interest in public recreation include the opening of the Botanical Gardens in 1864, the reservation of land as the Queen's Recreation Ground in Causeway Bay as a part of Hong Kong's commemoration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the negotiations between civil and military authorities from 1899 to 1902 which led to the establishment of a public park (named 'King's Park' to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII) in Kowloon. See Chronicles for the relevant years in Chapter 3 and this chapter.
Chinaman as a Chinaman and an Englishman as an Englishman, and he did not think it was a good thing for English boys to be educated side by side with Chinese boys, and he felt that it was not a good thing for Chinese boys to be educated side by side with English boys. He thought they wanted to train up the Chinaman to be a Chinaman and not half a Chinaman and half an Englishman. He liked to see a Chinaman an edu-cated man, but a Chinaman, and he would like to see the Chinese edu-cated separately. He must say he considered it a great blot on this colony
�X and a very serious blot on this colony �X that it provided no school where European children could go without this mixture ... It was a good thing to govern Hongkong fairly, and to govern our colonies with all due consideration for the people who formed practically the bulk of the popu-lation, but it did not seem to be a good thing to govern a colony to the neglect of the education of the children of their own race; and whilst the claims of the Chinese to a school of their own where they could get a good education ought not to be neglected, at the same time it should be one of the first duties of an English Government in an English colony to provide an education for the sons and daughters of its own people.
(b) Editorial in China Mail, Wednesday, 30 January 1901, p. 2.
... The worthy Bishop, probably unconsciously, is repeating what we have written in this column over and over again. It seems incredible that in the twentieth century British subjects living in a British Colony should have to plead for facilities for the proper education of their children. On previous occasions, we have pleaded the cause of the children from different points of view, but chiefly for the children's sake and on the plea of public expediency . . . We assert, and we are prepared to prove our assertion (though not in print) that European children in this Colony have been ruined irretrievably by intercourse with and contamination from the mixed races with whom they have had to associate in the elementary schools...
(c) The correspondence column of Hongkong Daily Press, 7 February 1901, p. 3, letter signed by Wang Chung-yu.
The speech made by the Bishop in the Diocesan Home had created quite a commotion, as will be seen from the correspondence columns of the paper. I, being a born subject of Hongkong, naturally feel myself interested in any question pertaining to the welfare of my own people and that of people of other races; and therefore feel myself under obligation to express my opinions, however meagre and puerile they may seem to others in regard to this all-absorbing topic �X for all educational questions are important.
.. . The Utilitarian philosophy of Bentham can help us greatly in this
question: whether the good accruing from excluding Asiatics in certain schools can counterbalance the evil resulted therefrom. If so I am exceed-ingly glad to see this carried out to perfection for the sake of mankind at large, even at the expense of my own people; if not, I hope the Bishop and those who have followed in his wake and hailed 'the Bishop as the leader in this absolutely essential reform' will consider the matter again.
.. . Now to exclude Chinese from certain schools means to go against the law of nature and to aggravate the hatred between Chinese and foreigners...
My experience goes to show that, as a rule, European boys in school generally depreciate things Chinese, and therefore there is no need to fear that European boys may learn any bad method of thinking peculiar to the Chinese...
As Hongkong is the emporium of the Far East, it seems to me quite strange that it has not a Technical Academy, much less a University, where Chinese and foreigners can go and have equal rights and an equal footing. I would like to suggest that Queen's College might be changed into such72...
(d) Extract from a letter by the Colonial Secretary, Mr J.H. Stewart Lockhart, to Mr (later, Sir) Robert Ho Tung, 15 February 1902, in CO 129/311, p. 105.
.. . Lately, however, the Government has been induced to regard the question in another light and has arrived at the conclusion that an educa-tion given in schools attended indiscriminately by the children of various races and languages is not efficient, and that the best interests of the inhabitants of the Colony will be served by the establishment of separate schools in which the children of each race can obtain the education which is specially suited to their needs.
72. The idea that Queen's College should be open to all races harks back to the early days of the Central School (see Chronicle for 1866) and the suggestion that it should be elevated to post-secondary status was Henness/s reason for establishing the Education Commission of 1880-82. Bateson Wright, the Headmaster of Queen's College was also adamantly against his school being restricted to a Chinese intake, stating that 'personally I view the provision of different schools for different nationalities as opposed to elsewhere universally ap-proved Educational and Imperial policy, and as liable to produce racial ill-feeling, now happily unknown' and arguing the ill-effects of restricting the 'advantages' of Queen's College 'to boys in Chinese dress' at length (in his memorandum to A.M. Thomson, the Acting Colonial Secretary, of 23 April 1902, in CO 129/311, p. 70). Wang Chung-yu's letter is also interesting in that it contains an explicit reference to the need for a university, made by a locally born Chinese before the publicity given by the China Mail in 1905. See Chronicle for 1905 and Evidence 18.
(e) Extract from a letter by Mr (later, Sir) Robert Ho Tung to the Colonial Secre-tary, Mr J.H. Stewart Lockhart, 17 February 1902, CO 129/311, p. 105.
.. . It is hardly within my competence, speaking from the point of view of the educationist, to enter into any discussion on this latest decision of the Government, but I cannot refrain from an expression of my very sincere regret for so radical a change in policy and one that is so opposed to the spirit which prompted my offer of the school to the Colony .. . It will be remembered that I attached the utmost importance to the stipulation that no distinction should be drawn as regards either the nationality or creed of any scholar applying for admission to the Kowloon school... On the other hand, I have no desire that my gift should be hedged in by conditions not capable of reasonable modification. I am prepared, therefore, though with much reluctance, to yield to the request of the Government to waive my original condition to the extent desired. I do so, however, on the definite understanding that the Government, on their part, undertake to appoint for the new Yaumati school for Chinese, at least one properly qualified English master and to maintain the standard of education there on the same level as that in the Kowloon school for European children.
16. The Report of the 1902 Education Committee, signed by A.W. Brewin, Ho Kai & E.A. Irving'.73
As the Chronicle for 1902 makes clear, there was considerable dissension within the Education Committee as originally appointed, leading to the resignation of its chairman, Bishop Hoare. It is interesting to note, however, that Ho Kai, still the only Chinese member of the Legislative Council, signed the Report. As mentioned earlier and demonstrated in Evidence 17(a) below, the Secretary of State for the Colonies was not happy with several of the implications of the Report.
97. ... The Hongkong Government has never pretended to supply educa-tion to all the children within its jurisdiction, never having asked the rate-payers for the very large sum which would be needed, were it so largely to increase its responsibilities. It is equally unnecessary and undesirable that such an extended provision should be made. A very large number of the Chinese resident in Hongkong prefer to send their children to be educated in their own country: they do not pretend to be citizens, or anything more than strangers in the land; yet it would be impossible to discriminate so as to avoid taxing them for an education which they would never take advantage of. Moreover it would be necessary under the conditions contemplated to put narrow limits upon the courses of
73. See also the Chronicle for 1901 and 1902, above.
study. To suggest, for instance, that taxation should be extended in order to pay for a ten years7 course for every child in the Colony would be a 'reductio ad absurdum'.
Thus, the argument that provision should be made for the entire population leads naturally to the conclusions, firstly, that taxation should be largely increased in order to provide a smattering for the children of persons who neither ask for it nor desire it; and, secondly, that no attempt should be made to provide a thorough education ...
17. Documents illustrating differences of opinion between the Governments of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
It was neither the first nor the last time that the Government of Hong Kong differed
with the British Government over an educational issue, but the extracts included here have
the virtue of making the dissension very clear.
(a) Despatch by the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Joseph Chamberlain) to Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Hong Kong, 12 September 1902, in CO 129/311, pp. 48 ff.
.. . but I am not at all prepared to accept as a general principle that education should follow the lines of race; and I cannot consent to exclude any nationality from the main school of the Colony, the Queen's College.
.. . Thus the expression of opinion that in the case of the Chinese, thorough teaching of the few should be attempted rather than the more widely spread education, coupled 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 con-clusion that Government money would be better spent if withheld en-tirely 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 pp. 10 and 12 of the report, intended to carry on boys from the private Vernacular Schools to the Government or aided Anglo Chinese Schools. I do not say that such a solution would recom-mend itself to me. Sir C.C. Smith [former Registrar-General in Hong Kong] lays down in his memorandum that 'the first duty is to maintain Vernacular schools' and certainly it would need very strong grounds to justifying withholding Government assistance from Vernacular educa-tion in a large native community such as exists at Hong Kong, thereby presumably excluding the very poorest from the benefits of education.
... Unless a definite educational principle is laid down upon which all who have interest in or knowledge of the subject are practically agreed,
and on the basis of which work will be steadily carried on year after year, I would prefer to leave matters very much as they are, gradually adopting such improvements in detail as are obviously practicable and above all taking any steps which are likely to secure good teachers.
(b) 'Special Reports on Educational Subjects, V. 14: Educational; Systems of the Chief Crown Colonies and Possessions of the British Empire, including Re-ports on the Training of Native Races, Board of Education, London, 1905', pp. 79-80; Hong Kong section written by Mr E.A. Irving, Inspector of Schools.
.. . What becomes of the hopes of those who aspire to raise the stan-dard of education in Hongkong to a uniform high level? As well hope to raise the standard of education in Charing Cross Hotel!74
... Or to consider the matter from the pecuniary stand-point, the tax-payer of Hongkong can hardly be held morally responsible for the chil-dren of alien and not over friendly fathers who have elected to make their livelihood here during a year or two.
.. . The conclusion is, that except as regards an infinitesimal agricul-tural population and an inconsiderable number of naturalized British subjects, the Colony is under no moral obligation to supply education free or nearly free.
.. . The question is one of expediency pure and simple. Answers are required to the following questions: What sum spent on education will be a good investment for the business community of the Colony (Chinese or foreign), that is, the tax-payers? What political advantage can be gained for the Empire by a more extensive course of education? To what extent is the Colony fairly chargeable with the expenses of such extended course of education? The third of these questions lies outside the scope of this report.
As to what sum spent by the tax-payer would seem in his eyes to be well invested, in the first place, he has little interest in the vernacular schools. They keep the children off the street and out of prison, and so save him from taxation to a certain extent, but the flux of the population prevents .. . any possibility of great improvement in the intelligence and honesty of the people as a whole. For the same reason, a merchant who is solely alive to his own profits would look askance on votes for reformato-ries and industrial schools. He would, on the other hand, require intelli-gent clerks, and would therefore pay willingly for schools which turned
74. This comment may well be in the mind of a later Director of Education, T.R. Rowell, when he wrote in the 1946-47 Annual Report, 'For the considerable semi-permanent popula-tion little can be* done educationally. It would be rather like "setting up a school on Victoria Station for those who pass through"/ (Education Department, Hong Kong, Annual Report for 1946-47, p. 20).
out a good stock of these, both Portuguese and Chinese, with a thor-oughly mercantile education. The Chinese clerks would also have a work-ing knowledge of their own written language. He would probably be wise in his generation in objecting to pay for training a mere smattering of English, as the necessary minimum of pidgin English can easily be picked up by shop boys and domestic servants out of school. In other words, he woruld prefer to an even but low standard, an education which aimed at advancing the more promising pupils.
On the other hand, an imperial policy may demand more of educa-tion than this. It may regard the Chinese boys and girls who leave the Hongkong schools every year as so many pro-English missionaries. And, for my part, I believe that no child can have spent two years in a Govern-ment or Missionary school without having acquired a glimmering of respect for English men and methods. But multiplication of schools means addition of taxes.75
18. The proposal to establish a university in Hong Kong.
As the works of Harrison and Mellor make clear, there were two principal 'models' for possible university development by the British in or near China during the early years of the twentieth century. One might be linked with a Christian and Oxbridge approach, the other with a secular and the newer British 'civic' or 'provincial' university approach. It was the latter which gained ground in Hong Kong. As will be seen below, considerable emphasis was placed on British Imperial rather than Hong Kong colonial interests in the aim to 'serve China'.
(a) 'An Imperial University for Hong Kong', editorial in China Mail, Friday, 15 December 1905, p. 4.
.. . On careful examination it will be found that the education pro-vided in the schools of Hongkong is of an elementary nature. To judge from the reports of the various headmasters this is to a large extent the fault of the boys themselves in that they leave school too early to proceed to a higher standard of work. But if the British Empire intends to hold its own and spread its influence equally with its rival of the North [Japan] something far more than elementary education is needed.
What is needed is a regularly established system of higher education in Hongkong �X or, in other words, a University. If such an institution be
75. The paramount place of finance in Irving's mental set was long-lasting. In 1921, near the end of his career, he commented as Director of Education, about a proposal from a member of the Commission on Child Labour for the introduction of compulsory education in Hong Kong, 'The first point to be considered is the money7! See also Chapter 5, Evidence 4.
set up so near to him the Chinaman of the Southern provinces, and probably some of the Northern ones, will prefer to take advantage of it rather than of his own universities, for there is no doubt as to the eager-ness of the rising generation of Chinese to absorb Western ideas and Western civilization. Such an institution could not be expected to pay its own way at first; there we are at a disadvantage when we compare the small salaries of the Japanese professors and teachers with the much heavier ones necessary in the case of Europeans. The fees must of neces-sity be low, at any rate in the earlier stages of its career. But a university established in Hongkong would rank as an Imperial asset and public money spent on it would be to the full as well spent as far as the prosper-ity of the Empire is concerned as, say, the yearly subsidy which provides the Ameer of Afghanistan with guns to defend India .. .
(b) Letter from Geo. H. Bateson Wright, in China Mail, Monday, 18 December 1905, p. 5.76
.. . If there is to be a Hongkong University it must be a first class article, no sham. For a site, three or four acres of fairly level ground would be required, this might doubtless be found in the New Territory. Apart from a Lecture Hall, Classrooms, Dining Hall, Laboratories, &c, there should be five residences for as many professors each capable of accom-modating at least 30 boarders. A non-resident University in Hongkong would ipso facto be a failure. The Chinese must live in an English, not a native atmosphere, their food, manner of living and daily surroundings should be thoroughly English ...
Twenty years ago, Sir George Bowen founded the biennial Govern-ment scholarships, value �G200 per annum for four years, this attained an annual maximum cost of �G450 including the Passage Money. If the idea of giving Chinese boys European University education is seriously enter-tained, the Government might be approached upon the desirability of restoring these scholarships. Even if their number were increased, the cost would be more reasonably within the means of the Colony; and the suggestion certainly enjoys this advantage, that it can, if necessary, be suppressed at any time without leaving the Colony saddled with an awkward and inalienable incubus.
76. It should be noted that an alternative project that had received the support of Sir John Pope Hennessy (see Evidence 4 and f.n. 52, as well as Evidence 7) and several others (in-cluding the correspondent, Wang Chung-yu, in 1901 �X see Evidence 15(c)) was to provide some form of higher education in Hong Kong by elevating the status of the Central School/ Victoria College/Queen's College. The opposition of Bateson Wright, the Headmaster of Queen's College, to the proposal for an Imperial University by the China Mail may, ^here-fore, be partly the result of his feeling that his own school was being spurned.
(c)
'Imperial University at Hongkong', editorial in China Mail, Monday, 18 De-cember 1905, p. 4.

. . . We are not in favour of running a University on the lines of a steam laundry �X to pay dividends. We are not endeavouring to belittle the usefulness of existing institutions, we are only endeavouring to ex-tend their utility �X and enhance the prestige of the Empire ...

(d)
Letter from 'Pro B. Publico' to the China Mail, Tuesday, 19 December 1905, p. 5.


.. . [The correspondent summarizes and then responds to the points made by Bateson Wright] Why should we saddle ourselves with the education of John China-man? The finest and noblest poem I have ever read begins with
'Take up the white man's burden Send forth the best ye breed'
That should be an all�Xsufficient answer...
(e) Letter from H.N. Mody to A.H. Rennie,7719 February 1908, in 'The Conception and Foundation of the University of Hong Kong, 1908-1913', Miscellaneous Documents, No. 3 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Library).
I have gone carefully through the Governor's letters and the docu-ment signed by Francis Clark [of the Hongkong College of Medicinel, and have also perused the plan, and wish you would kindly inform His Excellency that I do not approve of the site named by him [in Taiping-shan]. I have left the matter entirely to your good judgment, as you first suggested the idea to me, and I have eyery confidence in you, my good friend, and you may have a lak and a half of dollars for the building of a University if you are satisfied with the site and all other arrangements. I do think that when a private citizen offers to expend some $150,000 for the benefit of the public, surely the Government could arrange endowment of this most necessary institution.
I saw in yesterday's paper that the Germans are thinking of teaching their language in a University in Kiauchau, why cannot we get in ahead of them?
77. Alfred Herbert Rennie established the flour mill at Junk Bay in 1907, entering into a partnership with Sir Paul Chater and Hormusjee Nowrojee Mody. On the failure of this business venture and in the midst of the negotiations between Mody and Lugard, Rennie committed suicide by drowning himself in Junk Bay.
I cannot see any use in meeting His Excellency on this subject, as I leave everything to you. Please apologise to the Governor for my not going to see him.
(f) Sir Frederick Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong to the Governor General, Canton, 20 January 1909, in 'The Conception and Foundation of the University of Hong Kong...', No. 74a.
Your Excellency,
You are aware that this British Colony has at all times exhibited a desire to act in friendly cooperation with your Government, and to afford any assistance in its power. These intentions have been evident from the effect given to applications for the extradition of criminals, from the fact that the Government has declined to allow revolutionists to reside here, and (since I have been here) by the enactment of laws to prevent the publication of seditious literature, and to prohibit the trade in prepared opium. In these and other ways this Colony has endeavoured to press its friendliness. Soon after I came to Hong Kong the idea occurred to me, that in no way could we show our sympathy with the desire of China to educate her students in western sciences, than by establishing here a University where students might be able to obtain degrees in no way inferior to those granted in Europe and America, and equally recognised by all nations. This would enable Chinese scholars to acquire degrees without being put to the great expense entailed by going to foreign countries. They would study here among their own race and not become denationalized, and separated for long years from their families �X re-turning perhaps with revolutionary ideas, and having lost their pride in their nation and their patriotism. .. . We need considerable funds to enable us to give effect to the scheme, and I trust Your Excellency will shew your approval and interest in it by subscribing to them.
19. 'Report of the Director of Education for the Year 1912', in Administrative Reports, 1912, Appendix N, pp. N3 ff.
Barlow's Report certainly hastened the drafting of an Education Ordinance to effect some form of control over the Chinese schoob, especially those in Kowloon and the New Territories about which little had hitherto been known. It also reveals other facts and opinions.
... Report by Mr. [R.C.] Barlow ... Vernacular Day Schools (Boys)
During the recent inspection of the Private Schools (Chinese) in Hongkong and Kowloon I was, with two or three exceptions, courteously received, and had very little difficulty in obtaining the information I sought; the exceptions were inclined to be suspicious and gave particulars unwillingly. 1 or 2 schools closed very early, no doubt to avoid inspection. In many cases the pupils were under the impression that Hongkong was Chinese Territory, and apparently no effort has been made to enlighten them; it would appear in some instances that the idea had been fostered. It would be quite an easy matter to imagine some of these schools to be situated in the heart of Canton. During the trouble in Canton many people came to Hongkong for shelter and opened schools, and it seems as if they did not wish to recognize that they were under British protection. Some of the children were quite amazed at the idea of a foreigner being able to speak and read a little Chinese. The disrespectful terms applied to foreigners were heard on a few occasions.
Several of the schools appear to be run by people, who, for the time being, are out of employment, and have therefore turned to teaching. In some cases the teachers appeared to have outside employment, and only spent a short time in school; not that this makes much difference, as in many cases the children would have been better off left to themselves.
In many schools not the slightest effort is made to advance with the times, the methods applied 100 years ago being considered quite good enough. A number of teachers thought that if they included 1 or 2 Kwok Man Readers78 and a little badly-taught arithmetic in their course of studies, they were quite abreast of the times; generally in these cases the Kwok Man Readers were scarcely used; sometimes it was difficult to find them, or the boys who were supposed to study them. Many of the teach-ers had not the slightest idea of classification ...
The parents should be made to see very clearly that their children are wasting about three-quarters of their school-time, and wasting it in some cases in dark and evil-smelling places. In many instances little effort had been made to keep the places clean and in some great effort had been made to exclude the light of day. It may be safely said that some of the premises are only cleaned when the Sanitary Board 'cleansing' takes
78. The 'Kwok Man Readers' (or to adopt more modern romanization of putonghua rather than an older form of romanizing Cantonese, the 'Guomin bidu' �X 'Basic Reading for Citizens') were patriotic primers, which emphasized the value of education, the military spirit and loyalty to the state, first appearing in Zhili province under Yuan Shikai in 1906. They were associated in the minds of many Chinese with modern ideas about mass education. See Sally Borthwick, Education and Social Change in China (Stanford: Hoover Insti-tute Press, 1983), pp. 90,113 and 122.
283
place. Some of the schools were positively unhealthy, being used as living and sleeping apartments, and in some cases coolies were asleep in the bunks that occupied 2 or 3 sides of the room; some of the premises are also used as workshops. In some instances it was noticed that the teacher was not at all particular about his appearance, and his pupils followed his example.
Supervision is very badly needed in the majority of the Private Schools; with even a casual supervision and a workable and useful syllabus many of these schools would improve by 50 per cent in a short time ...
20. The Education Ordinance and reactions to it.
Even if the language of official legislation is pedestrian, it reveals much about the intentions of the legislators. But the expression of opinion within correspondence pages of the local press or in Colonial Office minutes can be even more revealing.
(a)
'An Ordinaftce to Provide for the Registration and Supervision of Certain Schools (Popularly Known as the Education Ordinance), 1913', in Hong Kong Government Gazette, 8 August 1913, pp. 344 ff. (Illus. 4.4).

(b)
Extract from The Liberty of the British Subject', by F.B.L. Bowley,79 in the Correspondence Columns of the South China Morning Post, 16 July 1913, p. 6.


I have been surprised to see no comments in the press on the manner in which the liberty of the British subject in this Colony is being more and more restricted by a Government which, whilst no doubt actuated by the most laudable intentions, seeks to gain its objects by most autocratic and inquisitorial legislation.
.. . Imagine a ritualistic or atheistic governor, or a creature of Lloyd George in charge of local affairs.
He might close all the denominational schools unless they chanced to follow his own particular sect; or he might close all the undenominational schools: he might prohibit the reading of the Bible or the 'Descent of Man,' or place Shakespeare on the Index Expurgatorius.
... It is no doubt most desirable to prevent the teaching of sedition or immorality, but surely there are other means available than this sledge-hammer legislation?
This Colony is remarkably strong in educational experts and enthusiasts...
79. Bowley was a prominent barrister who was active in the local government reform movement attempting to secure greater autonomy from Britain basically for the British inhabitants of Hong Kong. His letter also appeared in the Daily Press (p. 3) on the same day.
344 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, AUGUST 8, 1913.
HONGKOKG.
No. 26 OF 1913.
An Ordinance to provide for the r ^istratiun and supervision of certain schools.
I assent to this OrdiDunce.
^ F. H. MAY, V ' ) Governor.
[8th August, 1913]
B E it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, us follows :�X
PART 1.�XPBELIMINABY.
1. This Oidinance m.y be cited as the Education Ordinance, 1913.
2. For the puipoi-es of this Ordinance : �X
"Diiector" means the Director of Education ap-pointed under the provisions of section 4 of this Ordinance.
"Exempted Srhool" means a school which has obtained a certificate of exemption fiom supervision under the provisions of Part III of this Ordinauce.
" Existing School" means any school in existence at the date of the coming into operation of this Ordinance.
" Government School" means u school entirely maintained and controlled by the Government.
"Inspector" means an inspector appointed under the provisions of section 4 of this Ordinance.
"Manager" means any person taking port in the management or teaching of a school. The master of a school or if there be more than one master of such school then the head master or if there be no head inusier then the master who is in the opinion of the Director the master in oh urge of such school shall in the absence of proof to the contrary be deemed to be the muuager.
"Military School" means a school entirely maintain-ed and coutioiled by the Military Authorities.
"New School" means a school stnrted after the dat. of the coming into operation of this Ordi-nance.
" Register" means the Register of Schools kept under the provisions of section 18 of this Ordinance.
" Registered School" means a school registered in accordance with the provisions of this Ordi-nance.
" Regulations" mean regulations made under the provisions of section 12 of this Ordinance.
" School" means a place where ten or more persons are being or are habitually taught whether in one or more Clashes.
"Sub-Inspector" means a snb-iuspeotor appointed under the provisions of section 4 of this Ordi-nance.
Illus, 4.4 'An Ordinance to Provide for the Registration and Supervision of Certain Schools, 1913'.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, AUGUST 8, 1913. 345
3. The provisions of this Ordinance shall not applv to : Schools to (a.) Government Schools. �G.�G ^ (b.) Military Schools. does not
app y*
(c.) Such other schools as the Goveruor-in-Couucil may at nny time by notification published in the Gazette direct.
4.�X(1.) It shall be lawful for the Governor to appoint Appoint-
^ent of
such person as he may think fit to be Director of t . Education for the purposes of this Ordinance. Education.
(2.) It shall be lawful for the Governor to nppoint such Appoint-peisons as he may think fit to be Inspectors and .Sub- ment of Inspectors of Schools for the purposes of this Ordinance. Inspectors
Inspectors
of Schools.
(3.) The Director of Education, the Inspectors of Payment of
^irector>^
Schools and the Sub-Inspectors of Schools shall be paid
such remuneration as the Governor may from time to time and^'ub^
determine. Inspectors.
5. Subject to the exceptions contained in section 3 of this All schools
to Ve
Ordinance every school in the Colony whether such school
is in existence at the date of the cotniug into operation iegl& ei
of this Ordinance or whether such school comes into
existence after the date of the coming into operation of
this Ordinance shall be registered under the provisions of
this Ordinance and any school not so registered shall be
deemed to be an unlawful school.
6.�X(1.) Any person who is the manager of an unlawful Penalty for school shall beguilty of an offence against the provisions of maintenance this Ordinance and may be prosecuted before any Magistrate school*"* " upon the complaint of the Director and shall be liable upon summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $500 and to a further fine of $20 in respect of each day during which such unlawful school shall remain open after the date of such conviction.
(2.) Any Magistrate upon the complaint of the Director Closing of shall order that any unlawful school shall be closed unlawful
scbDo1
and it shall be lawful for such Magistrate to give effect -
to such order in such manner as he may deem fit.
PART II.�XREGISTRATION OF SCHOOLS.
A.�XExisting Schools.
7. After the first day of July, 1914, it shall not be Existing lawful for any person to manage, teach in or maintain any schools existing school in this Colony to which the provisions of m.stbc this Ordinance apply unless and until such person shall have applied for and obtained a certificate of registration of such school in manner hereinafter provided.
8.�X (K) In order that an existing school may obtain a Registra-certificate of registration referred to in section 7 of this tion;how Ordinanre it shall be irecessary for the manager of such applied for. school within six months from the date of the coming into operation of this Ordinance to apply to the Director for a certificate of registration. Such application shall be in the form and giving the particulars prescribed in form 1 of the Schedule to this Ordinance.
(2.) In the event of the manager of any such school pena]ty if referred to in sub-section (1) of this section failing to application make such application within such period such school shall not made. at the expiration of such period become"and be an unlaw-ful school within the meaning of this Ordinance.
(3.) If the Director is of the opinion that any school Registration in respect of which an application for registration is made when under the provisions of this sectiou should be registered he ��ranted-shall register the same and shall issue to the manager of such school a certificate of registration which shall be in the form set forth in form 2 of the Schedule to this Ordinance.
Illus. 4.4 (Continued)
34G THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, AUGUST S, 1913.
And ween (4.) If the Director is of the opinion that any school refused. 'm respect of which an application for registration is
Appeal to Governor-
in-Council.
ln.nminfMl.
New schools must be regis ere opening.
Procedure when apply-new school1
Kcgistration: when granted.
And when refused.
Appeal to Governor in-Council.
Exemption froin supervision,
When granted : "ffVt*
Cancclla-non of exemption, made under the provisions of this section should not be registered he shall give to the manager of such school a notice in writing specifying his objections to the registra-tion of the school, and requiring the manager within one month from the receipt of such notice Jo take such steps as may be necessary to remove the eauaes of such objec-tions and informing him of his right to appeal to the Gov-eruor-in-Council.
(5.) If the manager shall not within the said period of on e raontu either comply with the requirements of such
. , . . \ J . , * . ,
notice to the satisfaction of the r Director or appeal to the Governor-in-Council, or if on appeal to the Governor-in-Council the decision of the Director shall be upheld, such school shall become and be an unlawful school within the meaning of this Ordinance.
B.�XNew Schools.
9- It shall not be lawful for any person to open, start, manage, teach in or maintain any new school in this Colony unless and until such person shall have applied for an-d obtained a certificate of registration of such school in manner hereinafter provided.
10.�X(1.) Any person desiring to open, start or maintain a new school in this Colony shall make application for per-
miss on so to do in tn e 10rQ1 an<*
' giving the particulars prescribed in form 3 of the Schedule to this Ordinance.
(2.) If the Director is of the opinion that any school in respect of which an application is made under the pro- visions of sub-section 1 of this seetiou should be registered he shall register the same and shall issue to the manager of such school a certificate of registration which shall be in the form set forth in form 2 of the Schedule to this Ordinance.
(3.) If the Director is of the opinion that any school in lespect of which an application for registration is made under the provisions of this section should not be registered he shall give to the manager of such school a notice in writing specifying his objections to the registration of the school, and calling upon him to meet such objections either by amending his application or otherwise and informing him of his right to appeal to the Governor-in-Couneil.
(*�E) If the manager shall not. after receipt of such notice meet sirch objections to the satisfaction of the Director or if, o n appeal to the Goveruor-in-Council, the decision of the Director shall be upheld, such school if opened, started or maintained, shall be deemed to be an uuiawful school within the meaning of this Ordiuauce.
PAIIT HI. �XEXEMPTION OF SCHOOL FROM SUPERVISION.
11.�X(1.) It shall be lawful for the manager of any rc- gistered school to apply to the Director for exemption from supervision of such school.
(2.) If the Director is of opinion that any school in res- pect of which an application for exemption from supervision
*ias ^eeQ maue un(*er tue
provision of this section should be so exempted, he shall in his discretion exempt the same, and shall issue to the manager a certificate of ex-emption from supervision in the form set forth in form 2 of the Schedule to this Ordinance and snch school shall thereupon become subject only to the provisions of sections 12 (a), (b) and (e), 14 (2), 18* 19 and 20 of this Ordinance.
Jt sna11 ue
(30 lawful for the Director at any time and at his discretion by notice in writing to withdraw his certificate of exemption from supervision referred to in this section ; and thereupon such school shall cease to be
an exempted school.
Illus. 4.4 (Continued)
CONSOLIDATION, CONFLICT AND CONTROL
287
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, AUGUST 8, 1913. 347
PART IV.�X CONTROL AND SUPERVISION OP SCHOOLS.
12. It shall be lawful for the Governor-in-Council to Power to make regulations and from time to time to resciud or -\ ary .overnor-in-, �X . ,. e J Council to
the same providing for;�X mak c (a.) the hygienic character and the proper sanita- regulations
tion of schools or school buildings ; relative to
c schools.
(6.) the methods of enforcement of discipline in schools; '" (c.) the prohibition in registered schools of the / use of any boot, the use of which appears undesirable. {(J.) the proper keeping of school registers and books of account at;registered schools ; (c.) any other matter regarding the proper conduct and efficiency of schools.
13.
All regulations made under the provisions of the Regulations preceding section shall be published in the Gazette and t obe. shaJl be of fall force and effect as from the date of such Publ'sh^

.... in (razette. publication.