Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/832

824 management • of his rice estates and ^old niines. and in .prospectinj; expeditions into the interior. Alter the Japanese War the family came to Amoy. and here Lim Nee Kar assisted his father to establish four banks, as well as one each in Honjjkonji, Tientsin, and Shanghai. The death of Mr. Lim See Fu tiK>k place in n)o^. after which his son lk charge of all the businesses. Success followed success. He has visited the Throne at Peking, and was granted a title equal in rank to that of an anibass;idor, and carrying with it the privilege of petitioning the Throne in person. Amongst the many positions he has held as a prominent man of business may be mentioned the chairmanship of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, to which he has tvcen elected three times. In 1906 he was asked by the Government to establish the Sin Vong Corporation Bank, and, at the present time, he is a director of the Fokien Railway Company : superintendent of the Amoy Telephone Company ; chairman of the Shanghai Hwatong Marine and Hre Insurance Company ; and auditor of the Taiwan Bank in Amoy. At the time of writing he is using every effort to secure the construction ol some efficient waterworks on the island. He is a great believer in the advantages of a European education, and his sons, who are now studying under a European governess, show every promise of developing intellectual faculties similar to those which have -characterised their father and grandfather.

THE HOPE AND WILHELUINA HOSPITALS. As early as 1842 medical mission work was begun in Amoy, and to-day the outward and visible signs of its activity are to be seen in the two useful and commodious institutions which stand on the island of Kulangsu. The Ho|-ie Hospital was opened in 1898, the money for its ereclion having been collected amongst Hollanders in the United States through the instrumentality of Dr. Otte. Up to the end of ii)o6, 85,758 in and out-patients were treated, ^.865 oper.itions were performed, and 21 medical students received instruction at the institution. The Wilhelmina Hospital for women was built, and continues to be supported, by friends of the work in the Netherlands, and has been of inestimable benefit to the district since it was opened in March, 1899. Dr. J. A. Otte. M.A., M.D., who has charge of the hospitals, was born in F"lushing, Holland, in 1861. and when five years of age went to America, where he was educated at Hope College and at the University of Michigan. He caine out to China at the beginning of 1888, and was for seven years at Sio-Khe, a place 60 miles in the interior, where he built the Neerbosch Hospital. He speaks Chinese fluently. At the Hope and Wilhelmina Hospitals he has a European nurse, and a Chinese assistant.

ANGLO-CHINESE COLLEGE. Started in 1898 as a Christian educational establishment for residential and day students, the Anglo-Chinese College was taken over in by Dr. A. H. F. Barbour, of Edinburgh, on behalf of the Knglisli Presbyterian Church and London Mission, as a new departure in their work among the Chinese at Amoy. The present principal entered upon his duties in 1900, and had, at the comniencement, titty students under his charge. The scliool buildings were purchased by Dr. Barbour in (or §15,000, and the adjoining boarding- house was erected with money collected by teachers, parents, and students, at a cost of §5,000. Each of the nine class-rooms will accommodate upwards of forty students, and the lecture-hall will seat 350 persons quite comfortably. The special class-rooms for chemistry and physics have been splen- didly equipped through the kind help of

THE RESIDENCE OF LIM NEE KAR.

Dr. Barbour and other friends, and here the accommodation is sufiicient to enable thirty scholars to receive instruction at one time. The school is divided into two depart- ments — junior and senior. The junior section is equivalent to the elementary school in Great Britain, while the senior is equal to the home collegiate standard, having, accord- ing to the bent of the students, a commercial or a science course. The commercial course comprises letter-writing, book-keeping, short- hand, and typewriting ; while the science course embraces zoology, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and mathematics. Music and drill — military and physical — are taught, and sports are encouraged.

The teaching staff numbers sixteen, and comprises two trained English masters, one voluntary English master, six Chinese teachers