Page:Europe in China.djvu/409

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THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON.
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in Shanghai, the Governor appointed (December 29, 1862) a Sanitary Commission (Chief Justice Ball, Colonel Moody, Surveyor General Cleverly, Hon. J. J. Mackenzie, Doctors Murray, Home and Mackay, with H. Holmes as Secretary). This Commission was in session all through the year 1863. The Commissioners became the object of much ridicule when they offered (March 9, 1863) a prize of $400 for the best scheme for the drainage of the town, without fixing a limit of expenditure. It was generally considered that the paltry reward offered was on a par with the understanding the Commissioners appeared to have of the gigantic nature of the problem involved. The year 1864 afforded, however, evidence, satisfactory to the Government, of the continued healthiness of the Colony, and it was pointed out that the Police Force, though more exposed than any other body of men in Hongkong, enjoyed remarkable immunity from disease.

The paralysis which, during the preceeding period, had come over the educational movement among Protestants and Catholics, was succeeded, from the commencement of the administration of Sir H. Robinson, by an extraordinary revival of energy. On the Protestant side. Bishop Smith started (in 1859) the Diocesan Native Training School, which had a prosperous career until the close of the present period and was located (in autumn, 1863) in the newly-erected buildings on Bonham Road. St. Paul's College also received a new lease of life under the tuition of Mr. (subsequently Dr.) J. Fryer and prospered as long as he remained in charge. Quite a new branch of educational work was started (in 1861) by Miss Baxter who, beside much Samaritan activity among all classes of the community and valuable zenana-work among Chinese women, commenced to labour for the education of the Eurasian children in the Colony. For this purpose Miss Baxter established, in Mosque Terrace and in Staunton Street, schools which were subsequently amalgamated and located in Baxter House on Bonham Road (now No. 8 Police Station). At the same time Miss Magrath laboured in a similar direction, while Miss Legge and the ladies of the Berlin Foundling House