Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China/St. Paul's College
ST. PAUL'S COLLEGE.—This institution, situated in the Lower Albert Road, Hongkong, was founded in 1843 by the first Colonial Chaplain of the Colony, with the object of providing men as native teachers and preachers. It is now the Training College of the Church Missionary Society's South China Mission, and comprises two departments—one for boys and the other for men. In that for boys the sons of Christian parents are received at the age of sixteen, and, after three years training, if they are found suitable, they pass into the day or boarding schools of the mission as schoolmasters, under the supervision of English or Chinese clergy. In the student class, under a separate organisation, men not under the age of twenty are trained as native preachers and catechists. This department was commenced in 1899 by the Rev. C. Bennett, at Shiu-Hing, and later in the same year the students were moved to Canton. In 1900 it was found that Hongkong would be a more suitable centre, and the college was ultimately transferred to its present premises, placed at its disposal by the late Bishop Hoare. Recently there has been established in connection with the college a preparatory school at Kowloon, where an old official yamen is held under the Colonial Government on a repairing lease.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is hon. visitor to the college, and the Bishop of Victoria is the warden. The Sub-warden and Principal is the Rev. G. A. Bunbury, M.A., who is loyally assisted in the work by a Chinese graduate. There are four men in the student class, twenty boys in the training college, and about fifty boarders and day-boys in the Kowloon preparatory school. The curriculum embraces the essential subjects, the aim of the college being directed rather towards thoroughness of teaching than towards variety. The Chinese language is, at present, the medium of instruction.