G. H. Bateson Wright

“ It is the custom in China for the first two or three years of a child's school-life to be spent in the acquirement by heart of several volumes of native literature, without any explanation whatever of the subject-matter, which is perfectly unintelligible to the scholar. ”

“ The discrepancy between the estimated number of children of school age in the Colony, and those attending school is largely accounted for by the boating population; though even these are not indifferent to the advantages of Western education, as Queen's College and Yaumati Government School can testify. From whatever cause, however, there has been in the last few years a very perceptible decrease in the number of children seen toiling up the hillside with loads of brick and earth.
Chinese boys are for the most part docile, well-behaved, and, to some extent, eager to learn. ”

“ THE ELLIS KADOORIE CHINESE SCHOOLS SOCIETY.—This society, whose work extends through Hongkong, Canton, and Shanghai, was formed at the suggestion of the well-known merchant whose name it bears. Its chief object is to overcome the difficulty felt by the Chinese poor of obtaining a sound education on Western lines, and at the same time to see that the Chinese language itself is taught. Six schools have been opened—one in Hongkong, two in Canton, and three in Shanghai—having, in all, over a thousand pupils. ”

“ A keen interest is taken in out-door games, and in the shield competition every year the school holds a high place. A football and cricket club has been established in the college with a view to encouraging these games, the teachers recognising that "all work and no play maketh a dull boy." When unable to pursue their accustomed out-door amusements, owing to bad weather, the pupils retire to the club-room, where the time may be passed pleasantly at a game of billiards or chess, or in the perusal of interesting literature. ”

“ It is now the Training College of the Church Missionary Society's South China Mission, and comprises two departments—one for boys and the other for men. In that for boys the sons of Christian parents are received at the age of sixteen, and, after three years training, if they are found suitable, they pass into the day or boarding schools of the mission as schoolmasters, under the supervision of English or Chinese clergy. In the student class, under a separate organisation, men not under the age of twenty are trained as native preachers and catechists. ”

“ The growth of education in this Colony has been unostentatious and slow. Like a germinating plant, it at first followed the lines of least resistance, but as it matured it became firmly rooted, and the buffets of conflicting circumstances have only proved beneficial. It is now hardy and weather-proof. As we have seen, the Government began by encouraging missionary efforts. It remained for a missionary to be the prime factor in rousing the Government to a full sense of its responsibility in the matter of taking a lead in the education of the Colony. ”

“ It is a day-school, so that all attempts to teach English conversation are necessarily confined to school hours, after which all the boys immediately revert to Chinese thought and expression, and no supervision can be given to preparation of work. Again, fully one-third of the boys change annually, and this has always been the case from time immemorial. Four hundred boys leaving and four hundred new boys being admitted annually is a very serious obstacle in the way of obtaining a large and efficient upper school. ”

“ Wright as local secretary, Oxford proving more amenable than Cambridge in granting concessions to Hongkong on account of its great distance from England. The Chinese College of Medicine was inaugurated, and proved an unqualified success. With the exhibition of so much educational energy, a friendly spirit of rivalry was excited amongst the schools of the Colony that continues to the present day with very beneficial results. School sports, which previously had been confined to individual schools, were re-organised and amalgamated into one annual function known as the Hongkong Schools' Sports. ”

“ He never wearied of endeavouring to impress upon the Government that it was futile to attempt to apply the experiences of England and India to the conditions of Hongkong. Few people will be found ready to deny that a sound substratum of fact underlies the idea; but it is equally certain that for many decades Hongkong suffered from undue regard to the conviction that English methods could not solve Chinese problems. ”

“ Queen's College is fortunate in the possession of an excellent staff. Of the English staff, apart from the headmaster, there are three trained certificated masters, the remainder are graduates of universities—three from Cambridge, two from Trinity College, Dublin, one from Oxford, and one from Aberdeen. The senior Chinese masters leave nothing to be desired, and most of the junior are satisfactory. The native masters are trained under the charge of a normal master. ”

“ High marks are generally obtained by the boys of the college at the Oxford Examination for this most important subject. The school curriculum also includes religious instruction, French, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, and hygiene. In addition the boys receive a special course in freehand, model, geometrical, and architectural drawing, from a thoroughly competent master, and the school has always enjoyed a high reputation for the success it has achieved in the teaching of this branch of education.
The physical training of the pupils receives due attention. ”

“ Prima facie, it would appear probable that Education would naturally be one of those subjects in which great, if not insuperable, difficulties would be encountered in dealing with a large, mixed, cosmopolitan community, the bulk of which belongs to the most conservative of nations on the face of the earth—the Chinese. ”

“ There are four men in the student class, twenty boys in the training college, and about fifty boarders and day-boys in the Kowloon preparatory school. The curriculum embraces the essential subjects, the aim of the college being directed rather towards thoroughness of teaching than towards variety. ”

“ Are there not, as a matter of fact, nearly 99 per cent. of them incapable of remembering, after the lapse of a year, the salient points of any subject (say history) in which they have passed an examination successfully? Again, though like most Eastern nations, the Chinese show a greater aptitude for the acquisition of knowledge in arithmetic, algebra, and trigonometry, than is possessed by the average Western schoolboy, they can hardly be credited with the mathematical genius accorded to them by popular opinion. Their memory is not accretive ”

“ When these boys leave school they will have the advantage of knowing both English and Chinese. To facilitate the imparting of instruction, and to enable the pupils to derive full benefit from it, the Chinese boys of the lower standards are separated from the others, and receive instruction suited to their capacity. ”

“ There is a handsome stage at one end of the hall, where the students have an opportunity of developing their debating powers. The majority of the classrooms are on the ground floor, and can accommodate forty pupils each. They are furnished with all teaching requisites and have a very cheerful appearance. On the third storey are three class-rooms specially set apart for Chinese boys, and these are also equipped with the necessary appliances for the instruction of the pupils. ”

“ Outside the Education Department are a number of private schools where a good education is provided in English and Portuguese. In this category are also the Kaifong schools, promoted by the native gentry, for the study of vernacular by the poorer classes; and schools for the study of English, endowed by the liberality of gentlemen like Messrs. ”

“ Beside British and Chinese, there are in Hongkong boys of all nationalities—American, Hindu, Japanese, Parsee, Portuguese, &c. For many years there was a great agitation amongst the British ratepayers to found a separate school for the exclusive use of boys and girls of British parentage. ”

“ Mody brings to the turf that integrity and steadfastness of purpose which have served him so well in business, and the enthusiastic manner in which his many victories have been acclaimed testifies unmistakably to the high place he occupies in the public esteem. ”

“ Scholarships were granted giving free education at the Central School to boys from the Government District Schools, and an annual Government scholarship of £200 a year for four years was founded to enable Hongkong boys to proceed to England for the further study required for a professional career. ”

“ Hundreds of young men educated in the college have attained honourable and lucrative positions in different parts of the world by the application of that knowledge and of those principles of right and honesty which were instilled into them during their early days. ”

“ In England, from 1850 to 1870, the only elementary schools were the National Schools, under the ægis of the Established Episcopal Church, the British Schools supported by the Nonconformist denominations, and the Roman Catholic Schools, all of these receiving bonuses from the Government, with special consideration to the Established Church. ”

“ As a rule they are lacking in initiative; they can repeat the same mathematical exercise provided the conditions are the same, but will be at a loss if a slight change is introduced requiring the exercise of independent thought. In spite, however, of these points of adverse criticism, Chinese, taking them all round, are more apt and willing pupils than European boys. ”

“ Twenty years ago, when the salary was only $4 a month, the head boys of the school were eager to be monitors, now that they receive $20 rising to $35 a month great difficulty is experienced in finding suitable boys to be articled pupil teachers, though by this course of training their market value is considerably enhanced on account of their greater proficiency in English. ”

“ Besides providing an impartial test of the educational work done in the Colony, unmarred by local bias on either side, they have been of great service to Hongkong boys in procuring for them admission to English and American schools and universities, and in obtaining exemption from professional preliminary examinations. Queen's College has always had a difficulty to cope with in presenting candidates. The majority of these boys after promotion at the commencement of the school year have in March to begin to prepare for the examination in July. ”

“ It was suggested by this journal that the nucleus of the university should be the Medical College and the Technical Institute, that the endowment fund should be raised by the public, and that a grant of land should be made by the Government. ”

“ By this sudden practical doubling of the number of students, the vast majority of whom were naturally admitted to the bottom classes, one would have thought it self-evident that the work of the next three or four years would be exceptionally arduous, and that the steady progress of the previous eight years must, as a matter of course, be retarded. ”

“ Adjoining the dormitory are private rooms for students who wish to devote more time to their studies. On the second floor is the boarders' study hall—a spacious apartment, capable of affording sitting accommodation for over 120, and in which are held public meetings on certain occasions during the year. ”

“ They have, however, a disposition to be eclectic. If, for instance, they do not see the present advantage of the study of geography or geometry, they neglect these subjects as far as the rules of the school may permit. ”

“ Lessons are given on animals, plants, history, and geography, while not the least interesting and instructive is a work dealing with the composite parts of various characters and their meaning, hitherto a sealed subject to the average Chinaman. ”

“ MR. H. N. MODY, whose munificence is referred to in the foregoing paragraph, comes of a well-known Parsee family, is one of the oldest residents, and one of the most striking personalities in financial circles, in Hongkong. It is more than forty-seven years since he came to the Colony to enter the service of a firm of Hindoo bankers and opium merchants. ”

“ MR. EDWARD ALEXANDER IRVING, Inspector of Schools, Hongkong, was born in 1870, and at the age of twenty-one joined the Perak Civil Service as a junior officer. Whilst in the Malay States he qualified in law, and acquired a knowledge of Malay, Hakka, and Cantonese, and filled various appointments in Perak and Selangor in the Mines Departments and Chinese Protectorate. ”

“ Stewart remained Inspector of Schools, during which time the number of Government and Grant-in-aid Schools swelled considerably, and the increase in school attendance and the extension of proficiency in English were thoroughly satisfactory. ”

“ The staff consists of twelve thoroughly trained European masters, who have devoted their lives to the work. There are also two competent Chinese teachers to give a regular course of instruction to Chinese boys in their own language. ”