MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 82, 12 May 1843, Page 2

MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE.

On Monday eveninglast, the anniversary ofthe Mechanics’ Institute was celebrated by a soiree and meeting, as previously announced. The evening passed' off very pleasantly, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. We hope to furnish a detailed account of the proceedings in our next: in the meantime we publish the half-yearly Report, as adopted on that evening. Second Half-yearly Report, presented to the Subscribers of the Port Nicholson Mechanics’ Institute, Public School, and Library, Monday. Evening, %th May 1843. In presenting their second half-yearly Report ;to the ' Subscribers and Friends of the Poi’t Nicholson Mechanics’ Institute, Public School, and Library, the Committee beg. to congratulate them that, unlike many of the societies and schemes started in this Settlement, yours has progressed, and is enabled to celebrate its first anniversary. The Institute.— Though the institution, in all its parts, has flagged during the last six months, yet the cause of its so doing your Committee are acquainted with, and hope this evening to supply an ample and permanent remedy. Three lectures only—rthbse on “ Colonization,” by Mr. Hanson—have been delivered. More could have been procured vvith ease, but. the number, of, „ Members has been so very limited, that your Committee have all along deemed it advisable to wait the result of this night’s meeting,, before again introducing lecturers to your notice, in the hope that the measure they will presently recommend for your adoption will Have the effect of infusing fresh spirit into the Institution, and of. . procuring a sufficient number of Members, to ensure good audiences. Your Committee hive to state, that, in reply to the Memorial to His Excellency the Officer administering the Government, alluded to iu the last Report; His Excellency has granted to the Institute a portion r of, ground on the Reserve adjoining Messrs. Willis & Co. f s premises, Lambton Quay, Upon-.the of-, the Raupo Ordinance, the present building to t be removed, biit until that period, your Committee have; Colonel Wakefield's permission to remain on the present " Reserve.

Your Committee have to lay before you, the following Memorial, forwarded to the Court of Directors of the New Zealand Company, through their Principal Agent, in original per .Clydeside, oh the 29th January, and in duplicate per Brougham, on the 11th March last Wellington, New Zealand, January 28, 1843. My Lords and Gentlemen—The undersigned, representing the Committee of the Port Nicholson Mechanics’ Institute, respectively call your attention to the efforts they have been making to diffuse useful knowledge among the settlers of your first Colony. They address you with confidence, remembering that

you have frequently expressed, yourselves warmly respect* ing the desirableness of similar institutions* and the great benefits resulting from them. The Port Nicholson Mechanics’ Institute, Public School, and Library, was established in May last> hav* ing in view two great objects, the education of the child and tiie improvement of the man. To the first of these the Committee have paid considerable attention. The lecture hall is occupied, during the day as a school, conducted in conformity with the plan recommended by the British and Foreign School Society, though in many-of its. parts its machinery is deficient, in consequence of the requisite apparatus, &c. not being procurable. The second object of the Institute has been carried out as far as. circumstances have permitted, by the delivery of lectures, the formation of evening classes, and the establishment of a library. .The,lectures have been principally confined to general literature,, abstract science, and education ; .the absence of. every species of scientific or mechanical, .apparatus precluding the possibility of lectures on the, physical sciences, .through. the want of suitable means for their illustration.

His Excellency the Officer administering the Government, has recently granted the Institute a plot of ground apart from that-on which their present building stands. The Committee regret they can mak6 no immediate use of this grant, their funds being so limited, as totally to preclude their erecting a suitable building on the new site. » The building now occupied -for the purposes of the Institute, and which nine months back they purchased for 50/., will have to be razed upon the “ Raupo Act” coming into force, which takes place very shortly. The usefulness of the Institute being thus seriously injured by the want of funds, the committee respectfully solicit that your Court will render it such assistance as you may feel the urgency of the case requires. Believing that in the efforts here referred to, the exertions and wishes of the Directors of the New Zealand Company, for the prosperity of their First and Principal Settlement, are being carried out. We have the honor to be, My Lords and Gentlemen, Your most obedient servants, (Signed) W. Lyon, 1 Vice-Presidents Geo. Hunteh, / Vlce *^ resjaents - J. H. Wallace, Treasurer. Jno. Knowles, Secretary.

Your Committee have to acknowledge the receipt of several packages of newspapers from a Mr. Samuel Cobham, of Newgate Street, London, addressed to the Secretaries of the late Museum and Exchange, and the Working Man’s Association ; both these institutions being defunct, they have been placed in your library ; and as more parcels are to be expected by each successive ship to this place, your Committee will give their best attention to some plan for making them generally useful.

Your Committee have granted the use of the lecture hall, on the Sunday, to the Independent denomination. Previous to this, it was occupied by the Episcopalians, and your Committee have always been ready to allow its use to any body of Christians, without reference to sect. School. —Your Committee have watched over this department of their trust with the greatest anxiety. They laid the foundation of 4 system of education as beneficial as it was available, and in their last Report they presented a flattering account of its success. The following is the Report of the School Sub-Committee:— The period during which your Sub-Committee have had charge of the schools, has been one of no ordinary anxiety. Commenced under flattering auspices, which speedily proved delusive, the Committee have had the pain of witnessing their apparently flourishing establishment threatened with annihilation; but although they have had to encounter a virulent opposition from without, and have eujoyed but little of the support of professed friends, they have steadily persevered, and if their success has not been commensurate with their hopes, yet while they see that, as the fruit of their efforts, other schools of similar kind have been formed, they can but rejoice that education is being diffused, and so their own object attained. The statistics of the day-school, as gathered from the schoolmaster’s reports, are as follow : There have been admitted, since his appointment on Decembers. 1842, (including those who remained in the school from the former teacher) Boys 61 Girls 29 Total 90 Of these there have left from various causes .... 48 , Leaving now in the school.. 42 The ages of children admitted have ranged from 4 to 16 years; average, 8 years 1 month. The ages’of children left have ranged from 5 to 16 years; average, 9 years, 4 months. Of the 90 children admitted * 8 could read with accuracy, 21 indifferently, 47 small words, and 14 could not read at all-; 13 could write legibly, 38 indifferently, and'39 could not write at all: while in arithmetic, 37 were acquainted more or less with the five first rules, 3 more advanced, 50 entirely unacquainted with it; very few could say any of the ordinary arithmetical tables, and all were very deficient in general information.

These 90 children are. from 53. the trades, professions, or occupations of the parents thereof being as follow: ‘ —Bakers 2,. blacksmiths .3, bricklayers 1, butcher 1, cabinet-makers 2, carman 1, carpenters 8, clerks 4, constable 1, cooper 1, currier 1, gardeners 2, harness-maker 1, innkeepers 5, laborers 4, milkman 1, painter 1, plumber 1, printer 1, sail-maker i, sawyer 3, shoemaker 3, store-keeper 1, surgebn 1, tinman 1, wheelwright 1, waterman 1; in all 53. The weekly course of study approved by your visitor, and sanctioned by the Committee," comprises' 9 lessons in reading, 6 spelling, 5 arithmetic. 4 tables and mehtal arithmetic, 4 writing, 3 grammar/geography, and the physical sciences.

Of the 48 children who have left, 28 remained in the school one'week, 3 two, 3 three, 3 four, 4 five, 1 six, i seven, 1 nine, 2 ten, 1 thirteen; average stay in the school, 2|-weeks. Of the 42 children who remain, 26 were admitted in December, 3 in January; 3 in February, 3 in March, and 7 in April. The average attendance, morning and afternoon; has been with almost undeviating regularity, 33. The statistics Of the Sunday School are furnished by the Superintendent as follows : Since the opening of the school on June 19, 1842, there have been admitted Boys 65 Girls 39 Total.. •• 104 Of these there have left from various causes .... 48 Now in the school 56 under the care of seven gratuitous teachers. Average attendance 451

An effort is being made to record the parts of Eng.’ land, &e. from .which the above children come,, and sa far as is yet ascertained, the majority of. the intelligent children have had the advantage of Sunday School instruction there, and it may be observed, in additiqn, that of the ‘latter class, the distance, of whose-resi-dence (at Karori, &c.)!precludes their attendance at the, day-schools, .are.among, the most constant in,their attendance on Sundays, and many of the otheis, whose parents, like themselves, are total strangers to the blessings of education, would too probably grow up unable even to read, if it were not for the Sunday School. . The system of instruction pursued in the Sunday School is in accordance with the most, approved plans of the London schools, and the aim is, to instruct the children in the truths of Christiahity, drawn purely from their source, the Bible ; no catechisms or books of any denominational character whatever are employed, and at the close of school the children attend such places of Christian worship as their parents may direct.. r.. The Sub-Committee, in presenting the above reports, and thus surrendering into yout hands the trust confided to them, earnestly entreat you to go forward, and having so far succeeded, still lay your plans for .extensive usefulness, and in due season they,feel that success will crown well-directed, zealous, and persevering efforts. • Although a great reduction in the number of the scholars has taken plac'e, it is to' be regarded not as a proof of the failure of their system, but in connexion with the number of schools lately, started on the.same plan,; is to be taken as a great proof of the utility of the plan first adopted and carried out by your Committee, and as an incentive to a still greater reduction in the scale of fees; ' ‘ Your Committee would here allude to the reasons which led Mr. Rule, the late schoolmaster, to tender his resignation, and your .Committee to accept the same, and this explanation is made not with a view, to injure Mr. Rule, but to set the piiblic right oh the subject, and to guard thbm agaiilst statements which have been industriously set on foot by Mr. Rule himself. Mr; Rule’s attention had been repeatedly directed to the careless manner in which his duties as Librarian and Collector were performed. In? stead of any reformation being the result of these directions, they were met 6n the part of Mr. Rule by a dogged sullenness, and frequently gross insolence; as an instance of the latter your Committee think it right to state, that when their Sub-Committee visited the school and re* quested Mr. Rule to explain to them thie method he was pursuing, he told them that he would not answer, any question until the Committee raised his salary. This proposition had never been made to your Committee previously, and the gentlemen appointed by them to overlook the school remained the whole afternoon without the slightest notice being taken of their presence. Under these circumstances a meeting of the General Committee was called immediately, to take into consideration tlie propriety of dismissing Mr. Rule, but before this meeting could be convened, Mr. Rule placed his situation at the disposal of your Committee, and thus saved them the unpleasant task of dismissing him. But this is not all your Committee have to state. Mr. Rule, it appears, visited the parents of the children, and led them to believe that he had been ill-treated, so that parents frequently, from the mere motive of pity, sent their children to his school.

Your Committee appeal with confidence to your sense of justice, and earnestly impress upon you the importance of using your utmost endeavours to support the school and Committee of this Institute.

The Library remains in nearly -the same state as presented to you in the last report. The Committee will continue to give it their best attention, and endeavour to make this portion of the Institute a source of rational enjoyment and amusement. The Library will be open for the delivery of books every Monday evening from 6 to 8 o’clock. Finance. —The Balance Sheet shews 17/. 9s. Id. as the receipts of the past six-months, and disbursements 15/. 3s. Id. leaving 21. 6s. Od. a balauce. •

The number of subscribers during the past half year has been twenty seven. In order to promote an increase the Committee have determined to recommend a reduction in the subscription to five shillings per annum, payable in advance, and hope that this measure may meet with your approval. Your committee cannot conclude their report without alluding to the deaths of two men eminent in the cause of education and the well-being of the labouring population in general. Intelligence has lately reached us of the deaths of Drs. Birkbeck and Channing. Your Committee would express their regret at these occurrences, and pay a passing tribute to fame so nobly earned.