THE MANCHESTER CITY BANK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 331, 19 February 1863, Page 4

THE MANCHESTER CITY BANK

This Bank stopped payment on the 21st October. On the Esth the shareholders and creditors held a meeeting to hear a statement of affairs from the Manager ; he was just about to speak when he was arrested and conveyed to prison. He is charged with having abstracted and pledged securities held by the bank : involving a loss to the proprietors of about £1 The City Bank of Manchester was originally started by Mr Andrews, the manager, on his own account, but with a very insignificant capital, as a savings’ bank, the persons who lodged their money in the bank becoming, under the scheme of Air. Andrew, proprietors, and lending theii money at high rates of interest. The shares were fixed at £SO each, which might be paid in one sum or in monthly instalments of £ 1 each. The proprietors were divided into and worked in classes, each class appointing a committee to act on its behalf, and receive and deal with applications for loans under the advice and with the assistance of Mr. Andrew, who received for these servii es £SOOO per annum, and was in fact the manager. The proprietors, who consist of all classes, appear to have had almost unbounded confidence in their manager, and he had consequently access to all the securities held for loans, and some of these amount to £7OOO. Of the antecedents of Mr. Andrews we have not heard much, except that he has been a Methodist local preacher, and professed to be a teetotaller and a vegetarian. He is not known to to have lived extravagantly, or to have speculated largely, and therefore people are at a loss what he can have done with the property of the bank. He had lately built a residence near Ashton, but it is not supposed to have cost more than a man with a salary of £SOOO a year might reasonably afford. A fter his arrest several shareholder’s in the bank visited him in the lock-up, and tried to ascertain from him the amount of his frauds. He admitted they were to the amount of many thousands, but could not tell how many. Bail was taken for the prisoner, and the bank accounts are under investigation. — Manchester Ezaminer.

OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS.

Besides the statistics of the Privy .Council system of Education for the year, the blue-book annually issued by the Committee contains a vast mass of information’ on -educational topics in the shape of : the reports , of. her -Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools. For schoolmasters and others practically interested in edu cation we do not know any volume more full of instructive matter, certainly none that could be pm-chased for the small charge of four, shillings. And, though more general readers might find it tedious to pick their way through fifty reports, full of technical observations and suggestions. there are portions of these documents of a more general bearing and import which it is a pity to see consigned to the oblivion that inevitably overtakes most Parliamentary papers. No one can peruse these reports without being struck with their high average ability, and the intelligent zeal and practical knowledge tliev generally display ; while the ir.fereuce is obvious and satisfactory that t e teachers of the inspected schools cannot fail to reap great advantage from being brought, yearly or more frequently, into contact with men in authority in their own sphere, so full of experience, and so well fitted to communicate its results

Two remarks strike one from the frequency of their occurrence in these Reports. One is a complaint of the rarity of good reading.; another an objection to the teach in" of Grammar as at present practiced. It has been contended, it appears that the cause of'the bad reading is the excellence of the schools ; that is that so much attention is in some cases rriven to higher branches that this elementary one suffers. The assertion is, it is affirmed by several Inspectors, as untrue as it is paradoxical. Dr Morel! especially and emphatically contradicts both the general asset tion and the allegation as to its cause. He declares that in many of the schools he has inspected “ the number of children who can read fluently is, I fully believe, as great as could attained by any system of instruction whatever, even though devised to accomplish this special purpose ; and I should not hesitate to put them in competition, as to reading power, with any class of popular schools in any other country ” Mr. Norris and several others, recommends newspapers as school books ! It would, he urges, give the much-needed variety to the reading exercises were “ a newspaper, library book, printed.circular or manuscript letter passed occasionally round the class.” Mr Middleton, reporting on schools in the north of Scotland, making similar complaints, tells us that the newspaper is already at work as a remedial agent in school no less than as an intellectual stimulant out of it

And Mr. Wilson, also reporting on Scotch schools, makes it an additional source of regret that reading with “ fluency, ease, and emphasis, and proper expression,” is not a mere common accomplishment, because “ a paragraph in a newspaper, now happily within the reach of all, to be intelligently understood, must be read with fluency ai.d ease.’’ Indeed Mr. N orris has, it appears, been in the habit of regularly making the Newspaper a test of easy, correct and unprompted reading. Of the complaints about the. grammar as being unintelligeutly taught, and as occupying uselessly time that could be much more profitably taken up, the opinion of Mr. Alderson may be taken as a summary. He says:— “ I confess I should be glad to see this study discontinued. As at present taught, it exercises the memory at the cost of loading it with a mass of technical phraseology, but it wholly fails to make a scholar speak and write more correctly.

But there is balm in Gilead ; Dr Wood ford has, he tells us, found out a mode ot teaching grammar which is not only not repulsive but attractive ; and as a proof ot its success mentions ‘.hat a class in one of the industrial schools at the end of thirty of his lessons of between half-an-hour and three-quarters each, commenced “ syntactical parsing, using the ordinary terms and that when it was proposed at one lesson to stop at the end of an hour they expressed a wish to go on. From grammar to spelling—orthography, “as every schoolboy knows,” bei g part of 'grammar—is an easy transition. Mr. Middleton gives some examples of spelling, in the highest class in some schools in which he tested it, which would / e very amusing were it not for the sacredness of the subject-matter so strangely mutilated :

“ ‘ Thy will be done on earth as teas in heaven,’ = it is ; ‘ in tuthn tation,' into temptation ; ‘ and past your gun,' = in pastures green ; ‘nor sittetli in his corner chair,' the scorners chair; ‘ but placeth his daylight,' delight ; ‘ nor let my hoop be lost,’ = hope ; ‘ for though art with me on the road, and staff thy confert still,' = thou, and, thy, rod, staff, they comfort still : ‘ God is a spirit finil, internal, and changabl,' &c., = infinite, eternal, unchangeable, &c. &c.” Well may the inspector exclaim that “there is surely something more than spelling concerned here,” and ask,“ What sort of iclicjimis knowledge is this ?” it is for the preservation of such religious knowledge —so taught as a mere adjunct to the secular instruction —that the sects fight against a national system which, excluding such routine teaching of catechism, would leave upon parents and pastors the responsibility of furnishing children with something like an intelligent religious teaching. What they fight for is, when examined, found to be a \ery perfunctory apology for such religious instruction as they ought themselves to provide by special and fitting machinery, instead of leaving it to he attended to as a “ by-job ” by the already overworked ordinary schoolmaster. From every document, bearing on the educational question practical aVguments

in favour of a national system may be drawn-even from this report recording, as it does, the success of the Privy Council scheme. It is, as we have often pointed out, the chief defect and weakness of the system that it aflords help to the active and strong, and holds out no adequate encouragement to the indifferent and weak. One of the English inspectors unintentionally points to this evil when he says:— “ Many people are, in their secret hearts jealous of the education of the poor, but are not candid enough to own it. They point to the lialf-ruined school buildings which have been neglected for half a century, and complain of the requirements of the Council Office that the roof must be mended and the rooms floored ; or they denounce as excessive the teacher’s salary, which in many cases is far less than that of a butler or lady’s-maid.” Another details how the efforts of a clergyman who has been endeavouring for years to establish a school in an educationally destitute district are thwarted by the apathy and opposition of the squires and farmers. One of the former, asked to contribute for this purpose, replied that, as the applicant knew his “opinion respecting the educating the poor orders,” and knew he had refused last year, he was “ surprised at the application.” A farmer in the same district, more liberal than the squire, wrote that he was “ willing for the low class of peopel to learn to read the Bibal, and to right,’’but “ anything more than that I consider to be a great injury to them.” This is not a solitary case. “ Whatever may be done to extend aid,” says the inspector, “ I fear that there are many parishes in my district which will not stretch forth their hands to take it.” Neither the Privy Council system nor the “Voluntary” one wi 1 meet a case like this, where the poor suffer so grievously from the niggard and narrow spirit of their superiors, a comprehensive national scheme would.

Still, imperfect and limited as it is, the present system is bearing good fruits. The dimunition of juvenile crime, which is so pleasing a feature in the prison statistics of la e years, has been, pei’haps, too exclusively attributed to the beneficial action of ragged schools and reformatories. With these, it can scarcely be doubted the ordinary elementary school, as strengthened and extended by the aid of the Privy Council grants, lias powerfully cooperated. The moral results of extended schooling are as satisfactory as those which we may call economical or social. One English inspector gives the particulars of a very careful inquiry into the present condition of the women who, as girls, had passed through five of the best schools in his distrietwithin the five years of 1850-1856. Erom these it appears that out of the whole number of 397, only eleven have fallen ; the accounts of the great majority being not only satisfactory, but; highly so. And as manners have been dignified with the title of “ minor morals,” it is worth noting that in this respect also the extension of education is acting as a powerful civilisor of the people. In one district, it is reported that only two years ago the scholars were so rough and uncouth they they thought nothing even of the enormity of “ addressing the clergyman by his first name ” —think of even the genial Guthrie being saluted by one of his ragged scholars as “ Turn mas !”—and where one heard almost nothing bnt oaths and curses, “it is no uncommon thing for the children who attend the schools to greet you as you pass with a bow or to offer to run and to show you the way.”— Scotsman.

A Disagreeable Woman. —You must not allow me, even if hereafter I am so inclined, to renew my iutimacy with Lady which always leaves little stings ; and she chooses, I know not why, always to try and lower those I esteem and love, or whom she thinks I esteem aud love ; while my happiness depends almost entirely on raising them. Those constant complaints of her poverty, intended to prove by the Rule of Tluee that they are paupers, may perhaps help to keep one at a distance. Ido not allow that this flows from any false shame one would have of their being poor, if it was really the case. But it is a rule in polished society not to remind one of being ugly, or old, or poor, or low-born ; and though one would not blush at any of these circumstances, one thinks oneself not treated with sufficient respect, when they are constantly hinted at as having fallen to one’s lot. Mrs. Trench's Remains.

Rather Unpleasant.—T got into a sort of scrape by introducing myself last night by Lady 0 Burke to Mrs. C -, who had, I thought, mentioned to you a wish for my acquaintance. I supposed 1 was doing a very civil thing toiler, as she had made the first step, in making the second ; but she gave me that vacant illbred stare, which the lady, whose protegee she was, reserved for her female friends, and seemed to think I was doing myself too great an honour. Perhaps she was out of humour at the moment; for, a few minutes before, a gentleman approached her with winning civility, saying, “ Don’t you dance 1 ” “ ometimes,” she replied with that encouraging smile which forms

the dii’ect contrast to the stare bestowed on me. “ Much too hot tor it to-night,” says he, turning on his heel. This was so like a caricature jiut into action, that it amused me.— lbid.

\ noting — : — ’s fair one is two-and-thirty, and has been hawked about 1 ondon and Dublin for many years, and sent here to be young and naive. What might be liking, if she had known him long .enough, or if she had been young enough not to know the meaning of the various things she has done and said, or if she was a great parti , and thought she must make some advances, lest he should not

1 magine he would be accepted, changes its character when one knows it is so convenient for spinsters of that age to be established.—lbid.

Bishop Colenso. —The Patriot says it is no secret that one object which the Bishop of Cape Town had in visiting England was to institute a prosecution against his brother Bishop of Natal for heresy: 1 We have heat'd it said,that Dr. Colenso came to England at the same time to oblige him, and give him every facility for such a prosecution, but even with so complacent a defendant Dr. Gray has found such difficulties in his way that he has not been able to set the machinery of the ecclesiastical courts in motion. These difficulties have arisen not from lack of proof that Dr Colenso has contravened the Articles by his published opinions \ if the Rev. H. B. AN ilson has done so, as. Dr. Lushington says he has, certainly Dr. Colenso has done it too ; but the hitch lies in the fact of Dr. Colenso being a bishop. It was never contemplated by the framers of the Church Discipline Acts that a bishop could be a heretic. The Rev. Robert Moffat, the African missionary, died near Kuruman on the Nth August last. The Zambesi Oxford and Cambridge Missionary party had retreated through fear of more fighting with the natives ; and Dr. 1 .ivingston and the l:ev. Mr. Rowley were in dispute as to tire blame of tire fighting. The Rev. Mr. * ozer, appointed to the head of this mission in room ofthe late Bishop Mackenzie, was to proceed to the Cape on the 6th January.

Local Wit. —The following has been sent us as remarkably funny. Those who know the circumstances may see the joke which must be to others a little obscure : “ Mr. Editor,—l am alive since I was born, and who knows lrow long before. And the like of this 1 have never seen before. A genkeman here called on a woman one day and said, ‘ Mrs. , you come to the Courthouse with me to swear against a bull running at large. I shall get five pounds, and I will give you the half.’ ‘ You are a gen tlenran every inch of you,’ replied she, ‘ but begone from me, my children never shall have to say that I informed on-any man’s bull, the only beast that gives us our daily milk.’ The bull being wiser than the gentleman, and knowing that if he had nothing in his belly, lie had five pounds on his back, started to run, and if he did not stop, he is running still. The bull belonged to Mr. J. Murray up the river. I remain, Ur. Editor, your obt. Servant and observe;-, Peggy Mallet.”