The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-07
THE WOMEN'S
BOARD MEETS
Short But interesting
Session Of That
Body.

Out of respect to the memory OF
Mrs. Frances f. Hebron and to allow
the members Of the Women's Board
of the Central Union Church to at
tend her funeral the regular meeting
of that board adjourned at an early
hour yesterday, the reports of the
various departments being omitted. In
| making an announcement to this eff
feet the president spoke feelingly of
the loss to the'board through the death
of one who had been a member since
it's formation and who had always TAX
| en- an earnest part in the work.
A letter of farewell from Mrs. Kin
caid was read and the secretary was
instructed to reply and convey to the
writer the regrets of the board at her
departure for her new home.
Three interesting papers on the edu-
cational institutions in Japan were
read showing the wonderful advance
made in the Japanese empire durin 6
the past thirty years. Mrs. Cox dealt
with the education of the japanese
boys, for whom the first Christian
school had been established in 1874,
or "All Purpose School," blished
by Joseph Neesima and modelled on
American lines. Of such colleges there
We're now IA with 2097 pupils.
The education of the girls was de-
scribed in a paper by Mrs. Hodput
who told also of the general primary
school system of the country. In their
treatment of women the japanese were
ahead of all OrientaIs and the first
public school system established in
1872 provided for the education of
girls in the primary classes. Above
these grades their education was TAX
en- up by the missionaries, by whom
much of it is still done. The different
Christian schools We're referred to at
length in the paper.
In kindergartens the educationalists
of the West might go to school to
Japan so far as the hygienic arrange
ments of their schools are managed,
said Miss Uecke, in her paper, descrip-
tive of the child teaching of that coun-
try. The japanese school system was
founded on the best from the German,
French, English and American sys-
TENS and in adopting it the Emperor
had said that he did not want "a viii
lage with an ignorant family nor a
family with an ignorant member"
Miss Belle L. Pettigrew, who is visit
ing in Honolulu with Mrs. u. Thomp
son, on her second trip around the
world, gave her personal impressions
of many of the schools referred to in
the papers, confirming the reports Of
the great progress being made in the
public and private schools of Japan. A
visit to the girls institute in the Dec
can. India, established by Pundita
Ramabai. to which the board had made
large contributions, was described.
Ramabai whom the speaker thought
the greatest woman in the world. had
1850 orphan girls in the institute whom
she was keeping and educating. The
disposition of these girls when grown
up had been a matter for serious
thought. being solved by Ramabai
through the founding of a home for
boys near by, to the inmates of whom
she had promised a trade, Christianity
and a wife. The first marriages be-
tween the inmates of the schools had
taken place shortly before the visit
of the speaker, a graduating class of
the girls having been introduced to
some of the boys on April 1. resulting
in happy marriages on the 14th of the
same month.