18th April. Tus Jubilee School Proposal is a subject which concerns the present and future welfare of this community to such an extent that it requires to be looked at very carefully, and from every couceivable point of view. Before avy final determination is arrived at, there ate, therefore, many questions that ought to be put by all who are interested in this important affair. Shall the Jubilee memorial take the tangible form of a large school building, or the more comprehensive scheme of a " grant-in-aid" fund? Shall it benefit only the children of foreigners, or shall Chinese children, whether receiving Western education, or merely studying their own language, be also partakers of the advantages? Shall there be a now pass off so pleasantly, become large free school in various grades, supported from the public funds, and available for all children who live within the Municipality, irrespective of nationality; or shall there be a select school, charging such fees as will make it toa t extent, if not entirely, self-supporting, when once a suitable building is erected at public expense Shall the representatives of the different foreign countries and their lan-nages receive equal encouragement so that English, French, German, Portuguese, etc., shall each receive their proportional share of the benefits, or shall they be confined to one or two? Shall the wants of the overwhelming majority of Chinese ratepayers be provided for, and educational facilities given them both to acquire foreign languages, and to study Western sciences, etc., in their own? Shall those natives who prefer to combine the usual curriculum of Chinese classical studies with Western learning, either in Chinese or in foreign languages, be encouraged in doing sv Shall the schools thus aided be entirely secular, or shall religious teaching form part of the curriculum; or shall there be daily religious worship, and if so, of what kind? Of what religion? What denomination? By whom shall the religion be taught, or the worship conducted? Shall the various propagandist societies already represented in Shanghai, and among whom it cannot be denied that competition, if not. opposition, exists, have equal shares in this religious teaching and influence, or shall some be privileged more than others Shall the system of Government capitation grants that is supposed to have worked so satisfactorily in Hongkong under apparently somewhat similar circumstances, be tried here; so that every school that conforms to the requirements and produces so many scholars able to pass an annual examination up to a certain standard, to the satisfaction of "the Municipal Inspector of Schools," shall be entitled to a certain allowance? By whom shall the funds granted be administered, and under what check or control? When once the plan is set-tied and the machinery set in motion, will the Council have an easy time of it; merely having to look quietly on as upon a self-acting, self-regulating contrivance, which will turn out well taught foreign and native children by the po scenes of undue strife, and fierce discussions as to who deserved the " lion's share?" Would the demands increase with the sums given, so that this grain of mustard seed would eventually grow into a tree of such proportions as to become a cause of burden to the community, and a source of endless jealcusies and discords among the rival claimants Before committing themselves to a Jubilee school proposal, would not the community do well to consider the advisability of withdrawing entirely all present educational support, and trusting to the deeply rooted philanthropic spirit, for which the Model Settlement is renowned, for the establishment and carrying on of all further educational affairs? Can religion and education be completely disconnected,—at avy rate in Shanghai under existing circumstances? Should not all schemes for the endowment or building, or aid of anything connected with the matier of education be relinquished, and some other more suitable and popular form of Jubilee memorial be taken into consideration instead? It is to be hoped that this subject will be thoroughly ventilated before the meeting called for the 8th of May. These are only a few among hundreds of questions that might easily be proposed and which it is every one's duty to form an opinion about. It is of course much easier to ask these questions than to answer them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.