ORIGINAL POETRY

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 193, 24 May 1878, Page 2

ORIGINAL POETRY

, APPLE BLOSSOM.. 0, blossom, lightly fluttering from the tree, — White staiiied with pink, or pink relieved with white— Shaped like a shell that mermaid's cup might :be, : Soft to the touch and pleasing to the r<. ■ .■sight! . . What -h thy power that •• canjst me, bear away ' . .' O'er miles and miles of tossing, troubled • seas,Past the sun-lands, where night is long as ! day, . Where noon-heat kills made hotter by the. breeze ? Past southern isles that nestle in.the. deep Large .water-lilies on the ocean's breast, Seeming to dream their souls away in sleep, Lulled by the wave songs to unbroken rest. Not born to toil as have been other lands, But bourn! from birth within the, close embrace, Of seas that suck the strength from out their sands, To breathe a drowsy languor in its place. On from the sun to colder tempered climes : On till I reach true Freedom's Island home— England—the theme of many a poet's rhymes, Sprung Hushed with strength as Venus from the foam. 0, mother-country ! great as thou art small, Great in the glorious children thou hast reared! Thine eyes can gaze with pride upon them all, By other nations bowed down to and feared. On o'er the uplands, green with waving grain, Hay-scented fields with hawthorne hedges bound, O'er many a rivei, wood, and flower-clad plain, Past towns o'erhung with smoke and busy sound On farther on, until my journey ends Within a garden sacred to old days, . To which remembrance dream-hued beauty lends — Youth's fleeting visions gilded with Hope's rays. There is the apple tree, on whose gnarled stem Her dear name I carved side by side with mine, L rather crooked and a straggling M— First of my loves. I twelve, she aged nine— And 'neath the names a somewhat clumsy heart, Symbol' we thought of what we thought wo felt. We have outgrown such rude attempts at art, Eead glibly now the words that then we spelt. ,

And through its branches, rich with flowers and leaves Part of my boyhood's home can just be seen Walls or! time-stained stone, board o'erhanging ea\es, Windows snmll-paned with quaint woodwork between, Old-fashioned porch by roses hid from sight— '. ~ . : •Hoses- to , iije now,.scareeiy smell as sweet— ; ■<..'■ Red as love's lips, 'mid clustering spray* of white, ■' • White as snow-wreath while yet untouched o£ feet. There is the place, unchanged by changing years; I see it now as when I saw it last, But now, as then, strange voices meet my ears, . The old but faintly echoing from the ■ Past. Where once we played are other children now, Our sorrows came as theirs have yet to come ; Death sel his seal upon our father's brow, What he then found was lost to us—a home. 0, apple blossom, fluttering from the trees, Thou art not soft, but Laid, and fell as fate! . How could'st thou set such train of captives free ? ■ ; : How.could'st thou thus throw open memory's gate ? They glide around me, crowd upon me fast, Climb o'er the bars that now are overthrown— Phantoms and figures flitting from the Past Whispering with shadow-lips, " Lone, all alone!" • X. T. P. RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION. DELIVERED BY ' C.-' C: HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S., AT THE ■ NORMAL SCHOOL, CHRISTCHUBCH. Second Course—Methods of Teaching and Organization. Lectures XIX and XX.—Subject — The Kindergarten System and its application to ordinary Infant Schools : How to conduct a school on this plan. The lecturer commenced by stating that had he been aware, when drawing up his list of subjects for the second course, that a Kindergarten mistress would shortly be obtained, and. a complete set of Kindergarten apparatus be imported, he would have omitted this subject from the present course, and have made it the subject of

several lectures at a future time He promised that, after the arrival of the mistress, he would, with "her assistance, give an additional and. explanatory aeries of lectures upon the system. He strongly upon the importance of the subject to both parents and teachers, and felt sure that, though difficult to understand from books, yet its value would be when in use. Tlie system owes its existence to Pastor Carl Frobel, rt'ho, in Germany, more than twenty years ago, endeavored, in the face of opposition and prejudice, to advocate its advantages. The system is being recognised in the training , schools of England and America, and is now made an especial subject for examination. School Boards, too, in England, encourage its use, as being an honest endeavor to adapt methods of edueatifMJ t» nature's own laws. The root idea of the system is that play is a child's business, and nature's intention, and .hence the Kindergarten turns, play to account, and organises and adopts it to certain ends. The earliest lessons in the system embrace what is . termed the uses" Of the six gifts. The 'first consists of six different colored worsted ballfeVonfaihedHn" afsimple slide box, tbgethejr with, sjx colored strings and a few small rods' of ■ white wood. These illustrate fprm,-color, and by manual exercises, motion:tjtod[direcftfpn.j , "The first gift is given ,to very, tiny children, though all the gifts may;be used siiiiultancously, and it teaches, inihe first lesson, to compare things in common; use,; such as a ring, an egg, a pencil, spoon, &c, and to notice the difference' Between these - ami othor resembling objects. The eecorTd lesson'is on color. Three-of the balls, colored respectively red, yellow, and blue, are- first given and by these they are taught, to distinguish the primary *" colors. Afterwards the secondary or compound colors are taught by the use of the remaining three balls—orange, green, and violet. They are then taught to observe the differences in color of different objects in the room. The third lesson consists of manual.exercises in illustration of the laws of motion, &c:, and in investing inanimate things with animal life. Singing little childish songs accompanies this and all the other giffs when in use. The second gift introduces the use of hard solids, and consists of & box containing of a hard ball, a cylinder, two cubes (one of which is perforated), a stick, and some pieces of string. In their use an acquaintance is taught of the properties of these three things and in what respect they differ from the first gift. The.cube is compared with the cylinder and ball, and their similarities and dissimilarities noticed, as, for instance, the cylinder being a con- - necting link between the ball and the cujje, both of which are revolved and twirled from different angles. In the case of the cylinder the children are taught to compare it with various well-known objects, such as a mangle, the garden roller, SSo. t and in all their toys to notice the numberof surf aces, they contain. • (To be continued.)