The 1st Shanghai Troop of Chinese Boy Scouts, which is under the command of Mr. F.
Robinson, is larger in number than ever, and has a very beneficial effect upon the general tone of the whole School. My colleagues and I desire to express our warm appreciation of the splendid work done by the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters (both being old pupils, by the wey). There were about twenty scouts at this School in 1913, but there are now some ten troops of Chinese scouts in Shanghai with a total of at Toast 500 scouts.
It is extremely pleasant to hear from employers highly creditable accounts of the old pupil: am sure that the regular discipline and study, which the scholars obtain here during the eight years of their stay, helps to make them into really useful and high-minded members of society. The establishment of public schools for Chinese was undoubtedly sound investment, and we hail with delight the foundation of the Chi Chehnieh School, which is to open its doors next term.
Mr. Pearce's Address.
Mr. E. ©, Pearce, chairman of the Municipal Council, sai Ladies and Gentleman, parents and boys: It was two years ago when I last had the pleasure of addressing you; to be able to do so again to-day gives me more pleasure than I can easily express.
To sce the Public School for Chinese occupying such a prominent position in the education of our Chinese youth, is a satisfactory feature, which I am sure all parents here this afternoon will very much appreciate. That position of prominence will, I have not) the slightest doubt, be well maintained under the guidance of the Headmaster, Mr. Kemp, and of those under him.
When this school was founded in 1904, the Council required that the study of the Chinese language and literature should receive adequate attention, and that special attention should be paid to the Ohinese classics. After the revolution in 1911, there was a tendency in some quarters to curtail the time given to the study of Chinese literature; but now, it is interesting to note, the Government Board of Education is providing that more and more time shall be given to literature. I am sure everyone has felt that it would be a misfortune to 307 neglect the study of a literature so grand as that of China. You oan-not educate the youth of any country upon an entirely different mental training from that upon which their forefathers have been brought up, and I am glad that we have maintained a conservative policy and have always seen that Chinese literature should have a prominent place in the Council Chinese schools. There is another point wherein we have been slow change in the Council's schoo I refer to the old fashioned sion of the Chinese school year i to two terms. Some schools experimented with three terms a year for a time, but are now reverting to the old plan, which we have retained ever since the school opened.
When I last addressed you, I strongly advocated the advantages of continuing to study in a University, and 1 specially mentioned that excellent seat of learning, the University of Hongkong. I' am glad to know that two of the former pupils of this school have enter-the University as under~ graduates, and that there is a like-li hood of other pupils proceeding there. As many of you probably know, the President has recently endowed several scholarships tenable at Hongkong, and the Governor of Canton has founded no less than twenty-five scholarships, each of the value of $200.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.