18th April.
'Tae rapid growth of the foreign community brings us face to face} with the question whether it is not possible tha': the commercial ranks may be recruited, at least to a very much greater extent than is the case at present, from the youth of the Settlement. There are. several points to be considered before swer to this question can be reached, but probably the most important it that of education, It is commonly stated that the school training to be obtained lolly is not of a sufficiently high standard to fit a boy for entering a firm with any prospect of attaining an important or responsible position in it. It is further urged that before a man can undertake euccessfully the responsibilities which fall upon the shoulders of senior members of firms in Shanghai it is necessary that he shall have served an apprentiesship at home. The latter statement may be to some extent true, and as far as true, unavoidable, but a little reflection will serve to convince us thi The W.-C. Herald and S. C. & C. Gasette, Aras 20, 1906. many of our local business houses flare now of such a size us to afford an opportunity for the training of juniors which perhaps is not ea very far behind that afforded by many of the houses from which our recruits from home are drawn, Many of the men who come on under agreement are 80 young they can have lind very little time between their leaving school and their arrival here for gaining practical experience or to render them more valuable as business men than local youths of the same age, provided, of course, that the scho.l training obtained in Shanghai equal that obtained at home. The Cambridge Local Examinations afford a standard of comparison which is worth attention. The Oxford and Cambridge Locals at home are universally adopted by schools, and our Shanghai leading schools now enter candidates for the Cambridge examination. The results of the examination which have lately been received show that at least as far as the work goes, the education to be obtained in Shanghai is as good as that to be obtained in most schools in England. We may call attention to one point in particular, and thab is, that while of the whole number of entries the percentage of successes (about 80 per cent) is most commendably high, comparatively few of those who have been successful in the prelim-mary or junior section remain at school long enough to enter for the senior. This last year the only boy in Shanghai to enter for the senior passed with Honours; roughly speaking boys enter for the preliminary up to the age of 14, for the junior up to 16, and above that age for the senior, yet while at home boys remain ab school long enough to enter for the senior, in Shanghai they generally leave school at the age of 16 or even 15. Now this a matter which may be commended to the consideration of parents and taipans, A boy who can pass the Cambridge senior in has brought his work fully up to that of a boy who has been successful in the same examination in England. A boy's mind at this age is extremely ible to influences; is it bee " i Lraeone shall develope, during this period, at school under the care of experienced teachers and where he may acquire knowledge and precepts and be turned into the world with a character and convictions formed, or that he be given the freedom and independence of man, guided and controlled by what can only be an unformed character and a child's power of judgment?
There can only be one answer to question like thi, but it may be tly said that to keep a boy ab)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.