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248 CHINA MISSION YEAH BOOK.to starting schools of their own. The existing theological colleges in the Canton province are eleven innumber. These are : in Canton city the colleges of theAmerican Presbyterian Mission, the American SouthernBaptist Mission, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, theBerlin Mission, and the Church Missionary Society and;in other places the of collegesthe American ReformedPresbyterian Mission in Takhing (west of Canton), ofthe Rhenish Missionary Society in Hongkong, of theBasel Missionary Society at Lilong (North of Hongkong), of the American Baptist Missionary Society inSwatow, and of the English Presbyterian Mission inSwatow and Wukingfu (Hakka Mission).THE STUDENTS.The theological college of a mission is usuallythe highest of a series of schools and colleges, risingfrom lower to higher grades, and it is satisfactory tolearn from the reports that the large majority of theological students have actually passed through the preparatory schools of the mission to which they belong, that isto say, have had as complete a preliminary training asthe mission has so far made provision to give them. Itis a point of first importance that the standard of thispreparatory education be raised as high as possible.At the same time there will be room in the Chinesechurch for a long time to come for men of earnest pietyand evangelistic gifts, who, though deficient in generaleducation, are yet desirous of becoming preachers. Allthe theological colleges above mentioned, with theexception apparently of the American Board College inFoochow, receive such men as students, modifying thecurriculum in some respects to meet their special case.To a question whether the number of theologicalstudents is increasing, the answer given is, in most cases,in the negative. Only four missions give an unqualifiedYes in reply. The Centenary Conference recommend-