Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/132

124 and bamboo groves. The site was admirably adapted to the purpose, being equidistant from the two extremities, east and west, of the city of Victoria, to supply whose educational needs was its object. A building in the shape of a letter H was erected, affording accommodation for about 350 boys. The central bar was a sort of hall, in which rows of benches rose one above another, tier upon tier. Two classes were taught here, and three in each of the adjoining wings. Screens were impossible, so that instruction, under the conditions, suffered considerable disadvantage.

There was at first some difficulty in inducing Chinese to see the benefit accruing from Western studies. Fees, of course, were quite out of the question, and a few years later the charge of fifty cents a month was not made without much apprehension. However, in four years 222 boys were on the annual roll. In 1876 this number had risen to 577. It became necessary to use the four basement rooms of the headmaster's and second master's quarters as classrooms, and the need for erecting a much larger building providing a separate room for each class became apparent.

Though only reaching the borders of what is understood by Secondary Education, the Central School turned out an immense number of well-educated pupils of all nationalities, as can be testified by many Chinese, English, Indian, Parsee, and Portuguese gentlemen now in the Colony upwards of forty-five years of age. In 1877 an attack was made on the work done at the Central School in a pamphlet, popularly ascribed to the pen of the late Mr. J. J. Francis, Q.C., and entitled "Does the Central School fulfil its raison d'être?" A commission was appointed by Sir John Pope-Hennessy to inquire into the possibility of providing a better system, and to consider whether the erection of five Government schools under European headmasters, one being a collegiate establishment, would not prove more beneficial to the needs of the Colony than one new large building. The report was published in 1882, the commissioners disapproving of His Excellency's scheme, which later experience, however, would seem to have shown highly commendable. The Government thereupon resolved to build what is now known as Queen's College, the foundation of which was laid by Sir George Bowen in 1884.

In 1881 Dr. Stewart, at his own request, was transferred to the post of Police Magistrate, and in November of the same year the present headmaster, Mr. (Dr. in 1891) G. H. Bateson Wright, was appointed by Earl Kimberley. Immediately on his arrival in January, 1882, Mr. Wright held the annual examination of the Central School, and, though not in a position to write a report on a year's work with which he had no personal acquaintance, he stated in a speech to Sir John Pope-Hennessy at the prize distribution that he was much struck with the attainments in the English language of the Chinese boys, and that the results of the examination reflected great credit on the management of the school and the labours of the masters.

The following changes were immediately effected. A half-yearly examination was instituted and has been maintained ever since, to secure the efficiency of the work in the first half-year and to minimise the evils of cramming in the second half. The power to administer corporal punishment was restricted to the headmaster, and all forms of assault were strictly prohibited. The study of grammar and geography was extended to two lower classes, and algebra, geometry, and mensuration were restored to the curriculum. In the preparation of examination questions every care was taken to obviate the possibility of answers that were simply feats of memory without any evidence of the exercise of intelligent effort. The consequence was that for the next eight years, while the headmaster (in so small a school) was able to take an active part in tuition, the Inspector of Schools, who held the office of Annual Independent Examiner, in his reports published in the Government Gazette, spoke in the most complimentary terms of the work done at the Central School. In 1884 Walter Bosman was elected the First Government Scholar, and proceeded to England, where he had a brilliant career at the Crystal Palace Engineering Institute. He has since been in the Government service at Natal as Director of Public Works at Eshowe and Durban. The thanks of the Imperial Government were accorded to him for delimiting the Portuguese frontier, and a couple of years ago he was aide-de-camp to the Colonel in charge of the expedition to suppress the rising in Natal. In July, 1889, the premier Government institution migrated from the old Central School to Queen's College, erected on an open spot, insulated by four roads, a little higher up the hill. In January, 1889, there