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English: John Thomson: GOVERNMENT Schools for the education of native boys have long been established in different parts of Hong-Kong, and, in conjunction with the schools of the various Christian missions, contain about 2,000 boys, who receive an ordinary English education, such as fits them for useful employment as interpreters, compradores, treasurers, or clerks. The position these educated Chinamen fill in our official and commercial establishments could not well be undertaken by Europeans, for the Chinaman possesses a knowledge of the language and habits of his countrymen which a foreigner can never acquire, while his acquaintance with English is rarely sufficient to raise him above the status of a very careful painstaking copying clerk or accountant ; although, versed as he is in our method of accounts, and quite at home in the equally perfect system of his own country, he proves in our mercantile offices a most valuable acquisition.

I have heard the industry and aptitude of the Chinese school-boy highly praised by those who have had experience in teaching European children and natives of the country side by side; and I am assured that, notwithstanding the obvious disadvantages under which the native labours in having to acquire a foreign language and foreign habits of thought, his capacity for learning is so great that it will sustain him neck and neck in the race with his European rival.

There are a number of schools in different parts of the country, supported by the Chinese Government, in which foreign languages and sciences are taught by foreign and native professors. The most important, probably, is the College at Peking, under the supervision of Dr. Martin. There is also an extensive training-school at Foochow, where the pupils are taught naval architecture, engineering, mechanics, and the science of navigation. In this school the theoretical training is reduced to practice in the construction of steamers on the most approved foreign models, and by employment in actual navigation.