ASIATICS IN CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19625, 2 May 1927, Page 11

ASIATICS IN CANADA.

STANDARD OF INTELLIGENCE.

equal to THE whites. REPORTS FROM THE SCHOOLS. [from our own correspondent.] TV 4. u Van couver, March n. I hat the Japanese in British Columbia have entirely adopted social and living standards 0 f Canadians, and are equal and superior to the whites at school, are generally accepted views formed from the recent survey concerning the growth of the Oriental population to the province, which has been the subject of fruitless attempts in the Legislature to prevent by statute their further progiess in industry and on the land. A Japanese boy obtained the highest marks in the provincial high school examination last year. A Chinese boy obtained the same distinction in 1925. In the public school attended by the largest number of Japanese in Vancouver, Japanese children held first place in seven classes out of sixteen. In the intelligence tests, under the Pitner-Paterson method, five-sixths of the Japanese boys exceeded a score which was exceeded only by half the white children, and 80 per cent, of the Japanese reached the median score of the . whites.

The inspector of schools opposed the suggestion of segregation, the subject -of one of the bills before Parliament, as he held the opinion that the Oriental children were in no way a detriment to the white children in the schools. The principal of the senior school in Vancouver reported that ho never had to complain about the conduct of the Oriental children.

There are four Japanese kindergartens in Vancouver, to which all Japanese children go at tender age. Teachers say there is no difficulty in imparting education to them at the beginning, and that they are as easily trained as Canadian children, whose progress they in no way hinder or retard.

A query sent to school principals, whether the presence of Orientals was detrimental in the school was answered in the negative in all cases. The school medical -officer says there is less malnutrition and more good health among the Orientals. Of two singing choirs in one school of boys and girls 30 per cent, are Japanese. Sixty per cent, of the senior and junior baseball teams are Japanese. Japanese girls, on the contrary, are shy, and not active in sports, "but," says one authority, "they are better conducted than flappers." \