There is very little news to chronicle from this region. We have just had a change of officials. Our hsien has gone up to Wuchang, to await a new and better appointment. Our now official comes from the neighbouring county, Wuchanghsien. Rumour has it that he was sent here because he went too fast in his reforms when at Wuchanghsien. He wished to push on with the building of the county college, but the workmen could not get bricks. He sent to some kilns not far away and ordered the bricks to be carried in at once. But the bricks were bespoken for one of the new schools at the provincial capital. Of course the building of that school could not goon, and there wasa row. The result is we have a now magistrate, who is even more advanced in his ideas' than our late mandarin, But one cannot be sure that the above story is the true one.
The County College here is almost finished. The main buildings are finished, and the workmen are building the houses for the professors. The number of buttons to be given at the next examination has been reduced by thirty. Each year will see a reduction of these buttons, and the programme for the future is one of progress from the elementary schools into the hsien School, from the hsien School to the Fu College, where the students will take their B.A. degree; and from the Fu College into the Provincial college at Wuchang, where students will complete their course and obtain their M.A. degrees. This is a very good scheme if only it be carried out, But one never knows what may be the next change in the educational programme.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.