Sept. 30.
Ir has often been said that little is known of the actual working of the University of Hongkong; hence there should be special interest in the series! of articles by Professor Middleton Smith which we have lately published. The University became tangible when Messrs. Butterfield & Swire gave the handsome donation of £40,000 to the endowment fund, and the first occupant of the. Taikoo Chair of Engineering has, since his appointment two yeara ago, been strenuous advocate of "Western learning" in China. When the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain succeeded in forming the University of Birmingham in 1900, he inaugurated a silent revolution in education work Britain. Half-a-dozen other Universities quickly sprang into being, and hundreds of young men and women then found it possible to obtain a University education. The success of the new type of University—the centre of learning provided not only for! the humanities, but also for the "bread and butter" studies stimulated the Colonies. The recent Report of the Royal Commission on the University London strongly advocates formation of Universities in India and the Colonies, the curricula of which should be designed especially to meet local conditions. Tt speaks highly, of the Ho kong University. especially advocates that Universities aware of these local conditions should supervise all school leaving examinations, a recommendation which gives great importance to the new scheme of school examinations outlined by our contributer.
The success of the new universities in England has been due to the fact that they have carefully sought to benefit the industries in the districts in which they are situated. Thus, at Sheffield, metallurgy is a prominent subject; at Leeds, the chemistry and engineering of the textile industry; and at Liverpool, naval architecture. What is the particular need in Chins at present? One answer, certainly, is applied science. China contains vast mineral resources anda remarkably industrious populace. -Yet the country is poverty-stricken. The fairy wand lof science might easily transform the situation. But a training in technology will do something even more for the Chinese than develop the vast natural resources of their country. It will enable them to understand - the meaning of the word accuracy. If 8 youth is properly trained to make measurements, accurate to within one hundred-thousandth part of an inch, to handle a theodolite or to test electrical instruments, we shall no longer hear him say that his age is "about twenty-two or twenty. four." It is not too much to add that every Chinese boy should be taught in the schools some eletnentary science, such as physics or mechanics, so that he may learn, while yet at school, that can do' is not near enough in an age when thousands of lives may depend upon the proper working of a small wireless instrument.
For this reason it is that the University of Hongkong, while paying due attention to the broad humanities in its Faculty very Medical School, has especially developed in the engineering direction so much needed in China just now. Visitor from Britain and Shanghai and Peking have been greatly impressed by the numerous engineering and scientific laboratories and their excellent equipment, which includes a complete electrical generating station, with half-a-dozen engines, dynamos, ete., for supplying the various buildings of the University with current. Hydraulic turbines and machines will enable students to understand how the mighty forces of China's rivers may be utilized, and we may be sure that river conservation and irrigation is a subject of instruction. It is significant that more than one half of the total number of students in the University are taking this practical engineering work. Already, students from Rangoon, the Straits Settlements, Yunnan, ChBngta and Peking are taking courses in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.