20. Tripassore, it seems, has long been selected as a favourite place of residence by pensioned European soldiers. Previous to 1829 there appears to have been no provision made by Government either for securing to them any religious ministration, or the means of imparting suitable instruction to their children. In that year, however, owing to the exertions of the Rev. F. Spring, chaplain at the neighbouring town of Poonamallee, measures were taken by Government towards the attainment of both those objects, and a small sum was sanctioned for the establishment of a school for both sexes. Recently, the amount has been reduced, and now stands at a total of 20 rupees a month; the control of the whole is "entirely under the chaplain," and in him is vested the nomination of both master and mistress, with power to dismiss.

21. In 1848, during the chaplaincy of Mr. Posnett, the schools were well attended, the number being 28 boys and 24 girls. At present there are but 11 in the boys' school, and 12 in the girls'; the building has fallen into thorough disrepair; dirt and untidiness everywhere prevail; the instruction afforded is of the most superficial character, and the appearance of the children, their squalor and sluggishness, such as it is pitiable to behold, and most discreditable to the supervising authority.

22. A pensioner and his wife, the master and mistress of the schools, noticed by the chaplain as "well-affected members of the church," have been described by the Inspector "as ill qualified for their posts as any he has met;" and, under all the circumstances of the case, it was recommended that the schools be abolished, and the children directed to attend the new talook school shortly to be opened at Trivalore, their religious instruction being separately provided for by the appointment of a Christian teacher.

23. We entirely concurred in the objections raised to this course by the Archdeacon and the Director. The distance the children would have to travel each day would in itself form an insuperable obstacle; but besides this, and the fact that the education required for these young Europeans of both sexes was hardly provided for in the scheme of study adapted for vernacular talook schools, there were other obvious reasons for setting the proposition aside.

24. While rejecting the foregoing suggestions, it was proposed by the Director, whose views were seconded by the Archdeacon, that the pensioners should be removed from Tripassore, and directed to establish themselves at Poonamallee, or, better still, at Mootoocherry, near Bangalore. To this course, also, we were constrained to refuse our sanction. The regulations in force, we observed, permitted pensioners to reside where they pleased, and any interference with this practice would justly be regarded as an invasion of their liberty.

25. Being of opinion that it would be better to remedy the existing defects at Tripassore, we requested the Director to make arrangements to this end, after consultation with the Collector, and to report the result.

EXTRACT Fort St. George Ecclesiastical Diary to Consultation, 9 September
1856.-Received the following:

From the Venerable the Archdeacon of Madras to T. Pycroft, Esq.,
Chief Secretary to Government.

Sir,

I HAVE the honour to enclose a report of the reverend chaplain of Poonamallee, under date the 25th instant, respecting the schools at that station, after due conference with the Government Inspector, which I request the favour of your submitting to the Right Honourable the Governor in Council.

I have reason to believe that the present chaplain has done all in his power to promote the efficiency of these important schools; but, with teachers imperfectly qualified and already worn out in the military service, nothing like the desired improvement can possibly be expected.

No. 7.

II.

Madras.

I may, perhaps, be permitted to remark that, to the pensioned European soldiers, the provision of a good education for their children affords almost the only hope of their attaming a position to earn a respectable livelihood, and becoming useful members of society.

With reference to the concluding passage of the reverend chaplain's letter, I would beg to add that I have always understood that the schools at Poonamallee were essentially and exclusively Christian, as respects the education imparted in

them.

No. 8.

I HAVE the honour to request the favour of your laying the following statements concerning the Poonamallee schools before the Right Honourable the Governor in Council at your earliest convenience.

There are two schools for boys and girls at Poonamallee, supported by Government at a monthly cost of 50 rupees. The school-rooms and master's house are the property of Government. The schoolmistress receives 15 rupees, and the head and assistant master 20 rupees and 15 rupees respectively; the scholars are the children of the soldiers in garrison, as well as of the pensioners and other civilians residing at Poonamallee, and the admission to the school is not confined to Christian children, but native boys, not Christians, are also permitted to attend. The instruction is not only gratuitous, but once a year each child in the school receives a suit of clothes.

The masters are selected from the pensioners, and the present mistress is the wife of the head master. I cannot speak too highly of the moral conduct of these persons, as also of their attention to their duties; but I regret to say that they are every one of them incompetent to teach children beyond the mere elements of education. The consequence is, that we have boys and girls of 12 and 14 years of age who are profoundly ignorant, and have no chance of becoming better instructed under these present teachers; there is not a boy in school who could pass the examination required of candidates for the medical service.

I have long felt that it became my duty to represent these matters to the Government, but as for some time I have been expecting the Inspector to examine the schools, I thought it better to postpone my statements till after that event. Mr. Thompson has now done so, and made his report to the Director of Public Instruction; and I no longer hesitate to appeal to that report, in support of the opinion I have formed, that it is highly desirable to make a thorough reform in the scholastic arrangements at this station.

I have no doubt that Government schools established at Poonamallee would be well attended by Europeans and natives, but the present system of non-payment for instruction is injurious in every way. Here, as everywhere, a free education is regarded as worthless, and leads to imperfect attendance on the part of the children. The alterations I would respectfully recommend are, first, the substitution of efficiently trained teachers for the present inefficient staff; especially let them be competent to teach the Vernaculars as well as English; secondly, I would recommend the establishment of a school fee; and lastly, the placing the schools under the superintendence of the Church Committee. I assume the willingness of the authorities to permit the teachers (as is now the case in Bengal) to add the Bible and religious instruction to secular learning, in the case of all Christian children, not withholding them from others not Christians if they desire to study the evidences, doctrines and morals of Christianity.

Poonamallee, 25 August 1856.

I have, &c. (signed) Henry Taylor, B. C. L., Chaplain of Poonamallee.

(No. 342.)

THE present condition and requirements of the Government schools at Poonamallee having, it is stated, been brought to the notice of the Director of Public Instruction, the Right Honourable the Governor in Council will, on the receipt of his report, consider the propositions now submitted for the improvement of those institutions.

Fort St. George, 8 September 1856.

Fort St. George, Public Consultation of 26 May 1857.

II.

Madras.

READ the following Letter from A. J. Arbuthnot, Esq., Director of Public Instruction, to the Chief Secretary to Government, Fort St. George, dated 20 April 1857, No. 365.

Sir,

ADVERTING to the extract from the Minutes of Consultation, in the Ecclesiastical Department, under date the 8th September last, No. 342, communicating to me a letter from the Venerable the Archdeacon of Madras regarding the garrison school at Poonamallee, I have the honour to submit, for the consideration and orders of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, the annexed transcript of a correspondence* which has taken place on the subject of this school, and of another of a somewhat similar character at Tripassore.

2. It will be seen from these papers that previous to the receipt of the extract from the Minutes of Consultation above adverted to, I had directed Mr. Thompson, the then Inspector of Schools in the North Tamil Division, to inspect and report upon the school at Poonamallee. As it appeared from Mr. Thompson's report, which did not reach me until the 19th December, that the school was essentially a military school, I deemed it advisable to communicate with the Commander in Chief on the subject before submitting the Inspector's report to Government, and accordingly on the return of his Excellency from Burmah addressed to the Adjutant General my letter of the 2d February last. In reply I was informed that the garrison school at Poonamallee had been inspected under a misapprehension of its position in regard to the Commander in Chief, and that the state of the school, as brought to notice in Mr. Thompson's report, would engage his Excellency's early consideration. In regard to this school, therefore, it is not necessary that I should offer any further remarks.

No. 53.

No. 1.

3. It will be observed, however, that Mr. Thompson's report likewise refers to another school of a very similar character at Tripassore, but which it appears is in no way connected with the army. This school is shown to be in a + See the Adjutant lamentable condition; though not worse perhaps than might be expected, con- General's letter of sidering the salary assigned to the master. Mr. Thompson suggests that it the 13th February, should be amalgamated with a Talook school which, since his letter was written, has been established at Trivelore, a village about a mile and a half distant, and that an intelligent catechist should be appointed to give religious instruction to the children of the pensioners.

4. I quite concur with the Venerable the Archdeacon in considering this arrangement altogether impracticable. The distance of Trivelore from Tripassore is a serious objection; but another still more insuperable is the different character of the instruction required for the two classes of pupils of which, if Mr. Thompson's plan was carried out, the amalgamated school would be composed.

5. To the native pupils for whom the Talook school is designed, the substantive instruction must be imparted in the vernacular language, the instruction in English being confined to the study of that language as a language merely, while for the children of the pensioners the English language must, or at all events ought to be the medium of instruction, and the study of the vernacular a subordinate feature in the course. The further objection urged by the Archdeacon on the ground of the unwillingness which European soldiers would naturally feel to place their children entirely under native control, so far from their own residences, is also deserving of consideration.

6. Under all the circumstances, I am disposed to think that the arrangement suggested in my letter of the 26th February last to the Venerable the Archdeacon, of removing the pensioners now residing at Tripassore and their families to Poonamallee, or, as proposed by the Archdeacon, to Moottoocherry, at Bangalore, and making efficient provision for the instruction of their children at one or other of those stations in the schools already existing, would be preferable to any plan for reorganizing the Tripassore school. The schools established at Moottoocherry for the benefit of the children of pensioners at that station, and under the management of the chaplain of Bangalore, have lately, I am informed, received a considerable grant from the Mysore Government, and are subjected to the constant supervision of the reverend chaplains; they are therefore much better situated than any school at Tripassore

para. 3.

II. Madras.

can be. The same may be said of Poonamallee, if the necessary steps are taken for placing the school at that station upon an efficient footing; though, in point of climate (and this is of course an important consideration in connexion with the education of the children of Europeans), Moottoocherry bas considerable advantages.

7. In suggesting this measure, which at first sight may appear to be somewhat beyond the limits of my proper province, I am guided by the consideration that unless something be done to improve the condition of the adult members of the families who at present form the European community at Tripassore, a community which is described by Mr. Thompson as "sunk in vice and wretchedness," and which, if I am not misinformed, has been in this condition for a long series of years, it is hopeless to expect any very marked benefit to the children from improving the efficiency of the school teaching. (signed) A. J. Arbuthnot, Director of Public Instruction.

To be returned.

From A. J. Arbuthnot, Esq., Director of Public Instruction, to J. G. Thompson, Esq.,
Inspector of Schools, dated 21 August 1856, No. 694.
Sir,

*

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you the accompanying papers relating to the Poonamallee asylum, and to request that you will furnish me with a report on it, and with a statement of the measures you would propose for placing it upon an efficient footing.

2. You were present at a conversation which passed between the chaplain of Poonamallee and myself regarding the asylum in question, and you will probably remember that I then suggested the expediency of amalgamating it with one of the projected Talook schools. I fear, however, there would be some difficulty in carrying out such an arrangement, inasmuch as the instruction in the Talook schools will be principally vernacular, while the children for whose benefit the Poonamallee asylum was established are all of European birth.

(signed) A. J. Artbuthnot, Director of Public Instruction.

From J. G. Thompson, Esq., Inspector of Schools, to A. J. Arbuthnot, Esq., Director of
Public Instruction, dated Vellore, 17 December 1856, No. 352.
Sir,

I HAVE the honour to inform you that, in conformity with your instructions, I have visited the school under the care of the chaplain of Poonamallee, viz., Her Majesty's depôt schools at Poonamallee and the chaplain's school at Tripassore.

2. It appeared to be doubtful under whose control the former schools are, but they were formerly under the orders of the Church Committee; and the members of the present committee, the Rev. H. Taylor, B. C. L., and Colonel Impett, were good enough to accompany me to them.

3. I regret to say that these schools are in a most unsatisfactory state. The children know next to nothing, though some of them have been in the school as much as nine years, as is shown by the following extracts from the registers :

This Register has evidently not been regularly kept, as is shown by the following succession of dates, July 1854, February 1853, January 1853, January 1856, December

1856.

The Register of daily attendance also is so kept that nothing is to be learned from it, except the fact of a boy having been present or absent, and in the morning or afternoon of each day, together with the reason of his absence, if known. How the time of the masters and boys has been employed is not to be ascertained. The master says, the boys take places in class; but their places are not registered.

BOYS' SCHOOL.

4. The studies of the different classes are supposed to be as follows:

Besides this, the head master takes the whole school together to teach them tables, and "useful information;" and they read the Bible, and learn the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the Church Catechism, and the Collects.

Class I.-Boys 4. Head Master, Jackson.

Reading. They read a portion of the "Outlines of the History of England," which they had not seen before, very well, minding their stops, and managing their voices much better than the generality of boys. I was much surprised at this, as the head master had informed me, that they could scarcely read at all.

Writing. The copies of this class are generally good. Many of the copies set are very unmeaning.

Grammar.-They are supposed to have gone through Murray's larger Grammar, as far as the verb. On asking them to parse the following sentence: "Henry returned in triumph to England." I received the following answers.

"Returned," is a "Noun," "Pronoun," 66 Adjective," "Adverb," Adverb," "Verb." What part of the verb it is, was not known. The answer was a guess like the rest.

"Henry," "is a noun," "nouns are either proper or improper," "proper or common," "Henry is a common noun.'

It appeared unnecessary to pursue the subject further. It would have been impossible to chose an easier sentence.

Geography. They are now doing England, having previously gone through Europe; and the master has "described to them continents, islands, latitude and longitude, &c."" The text-book is the "Outlines" of the C. K. Society.

They were wrong in the positions of the countries, rivers, and capitals of Europe, and could scarcely point out anything on the map. If they did point out anything it was only the name, which was found after some study of the map. This was the case even with countries. There is only one boy, the head master's son, who knows anything about the matter; and he makes very bad mistakes.

History. They have read the "Outlines of the History of England," to the reign of William the Conqueror, that is, about 20 pages.

The head master got out of them with some difficulty, the fact that Britain had been previously invaded three times (the periods and such of the circumstances as were given being as often wrong as right), and said that was all they knew. Why William is called "the Conqueror," they do not know.