INDIAN BOYS MAKE GOOD SCHOLARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 238, 28 December 1927, Page 7

INDIAN BOYS MAKE GOOD SCHOLARS

FIJIAN EDUCATION NEW CHINESE SCHOOL The Rev. H. A. Favell, who conducts a school for Indian boys at Lombasa, Fiji, has a roll of 50, and there is only one Christian on it. FAVJELL arrived in Auckland yesterday by the Tofua on a holiday visit to the Dominion. He will return to Fiji in the course of a few weeks. Keenly enthusiastic regarding his school, Mr. Favell says that the Indian hoys make admirable scholars for they fire “so very anxious to learn." Indian education, he said, had been somewhat neglected in the past. This was one of the problems which would undoubtedly claim the attention of Mr. John Caughley, who has arrived in Suva from New Zealand to assume the position of Director of Education. There had been considerable improvement in the position of the Indian in Fiji, declared Mr. Favell, and with the granting of extra representation in the council, he believed this would continue. As far as his school was concerned, he said, the different sects worked amicably together. There was only °ne Christian boy in the school. On his return he hoped a boarding establishment to accommodate 20 boys would be ready. The educational work among the Indian people, Mr. Favell declared, was intensely interesting, and he felt that they were “well worth working for.”

Mr. Favell also spoke of the r*ew Chinese school at Suva which had been opened under the auspices of the Anglican Church. It recently drew forth unstinted praise from the Australian Bishop of Goulburn, Dr. Radford. The head teacher was specially brought from Hong-Kong. “I have visited this school several times.” said Mr. Favell, “and there is n °t the slightest doubt that it is fulfilling a long-felt want.”