, 1865-06-06

81. 46. so. A. Al. 81. 81.
Wesleyan schools:
70 50. AS. 46. 50. 76. 90. AS. OK one closed in 1663.
The grant of Government for these schools in
1868 amounted to about GS24, or nearly $4,000;
of course, not including the salary of the Go
vernment inspector. There are many more
children on the lists, but as the attendance is
voluntary, most of the nOn-attenders stay away
entirely, and therefore do not trouble the teach
er, or the school.
Taking all that has been said together, we
come to the conclusion, that if that part of the
educational endowment of our Country schools,
which in any reasonable sense can be called
liberal, is comparatively wasted" it is done |,
By unduly limiting the schOol-time. 2, BY dis
missing the children at too early an age. 3,
BY the great indulgence shown to parents etc.
who, contrary to law, keep their children from
school, and consequently deprive them even of
those benefits which they might enjoy, and
which are not limited to reading only. 4, By
the overcrowdedness of most schools, for a
school which has on the list more than hun
dred children, wh0 attend, (f irregularly 50
much the worSe) is overcrowded!
1t is quite evident what kind Of reform in our
present SchOol-system we want let those evils
which here again have been stated, as often be-
fore, be first removed, for no man can reaSona-
bly, deny that they are absolute, or unquestion-
able hindrances to the success of the schools,
and then, fnecesSary, we may speak about me-
thod, or system of teaching. To attribute to
the latter what plainly and sufficiently is other
wise accounted for, would neither be wise nor
just We have strictly followed the injunction
of the Apostle "Proye all things hold fast
that which is good" In former years, when
sewing and writing were not taught in the
Country schools, and when consequently we
could devote much more time to reading, when
at the same time the attendance was very good,
we were not able, by the good old rote system,
to make as many good readers as we have made
later, by the phonetic system, under far less
favourable circumstances it would therefore
be folly and unfaithfulness to return to the
former, and to give up intellectual teaching for
parrot work.
The report of the Minority contains a great
many things which do not require any refuta-
ton, or reply: a desire of the Rev. writer to
c~riticise, and to find fault, is quite manifest
more particularly in one case, viz. when | say
that the children are early trained to transgreSs
the laws of Government; l deny that these
words convey the meaning there put upon them.
The only aim of the parents is, to keep the
children at home, the means which they use,
and the consequences which attend the latter,
are Of necessity if these people could gain
their point without making their children re-
peatedly transgress the law, and without thus
training them to do it, they would not make
themselves guilty of the latter. Moreover, the
report betrays a great want of acquaintance
with the subject of which it treats; an instance
of this is the strange view, that in an overcrowd-
ed school the evil is remedied, when only one
half of the number of children in attendance are
present at one time as if it were no harm,
when the teacher has every day almost a new
set of children, who have stayed away long
enough to forget what they have previously
learnt, and who constantly are a draw back to
those who attend more regularly not to speak
of the disorder into which by such attendance
the school daily is thrown, and the time which
is wasted in daily arranging the classes anew
Bad attendance does not remedy the evil of
over crowdedness, but it aggravates it.
A suspicion has been thrown upon the cor
rectness of the statistics in my reports to the
School Commission, against this l decidedly
protest, and also against the accusation, that
children who have died, or have removed to
other school districts, or islands, are still num-
bered, and this to such an extent "as to make
the evil of irregular attendance appear still
greater than it really ISL My reports are made
with cara Int IT, cannot ha or nacted that nevAr