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No. 4. A Visit to Sumner Deaf and Dumb Institution. ('Extract from The Lyttelton Times, of May sth 1880J **■***### Mr. Van Asch commenced work at Sumner on March 10th last, and yesterday I paid him a totally unexpected visit. He has now seven pupils under his charge (the seventh arrived yesterday), four boys and three girls, their ages varying from six to fourteen years. With one exception, they have received no previous tuition of any kind. The exceptional ease is a lad who, through illness, became stone deaf about three years ago, and gradually relapsed into a condition of " dumbness." Some of the claims which Mr. Van Asch puts forward are as follows :—To train young mutes (below 12 years, and, in some cases, over that age) to utter articulate sounds, and to read spoken language from the lips of their teacher. To employ this acquired power of speech as a means for the instruction of the pupils; the result of a complete course of instruction (for the full term of from eight to ten years) being, in almost all cases, to enable the pupil to read with thorough comprehension, and to hold oral conversation with relatives, friends, and even strangers. Also, to render effectual assistance to children who, from fever or other causes, have lost the sense of hearing, and who would, in consequence, become wholly dumb. I elected to proceed at once to the schoolroom, whence Mr. Van Asch had been summoned, in order that I might be an observer of the every-day routine, and so, perhaps, gain a clearer idea of the system. Let me at once say that I was absolutely astonished at the results which had been obtained in so short a time, that I received overwhelming proof of the immense superiority of the German system, and that I was convinced of the applicability of the system to all children possessed of ordinary intelligence. As I was in the schoolroom perhaps two hours, and went minutely into the details of the work, it will be evident that the modus operandi can only be indicated in this paper. I hope, however, to convey a sufficiently clear idea of the marvellous science. A little girl is standing in front of the teacher, who is seated. One of her little hands is pressed against his throat, and the other hand is applied to her own throat. The teacher utters sounds such as ah, 00, o, c, and the child repeats them clearly. Then she sounds f, and then come the sounds fah, foo, &o. Next, the combinations are reversed, and the child utters aaf, oof, <fee. The letters are written upon the black-board, they are again sounded to her, and pointed to her at the same time, and then she copies them upon her slate ; the process being repeated for days, weeks, or even months, until the written signs, the muscular movements, and the utterances, are intimately associated. When the vowel sounds have been mastered, and the tongue and throat muscles are beginning to recover from the paralysis of long disuse, the nasal sounds are proceeded with. I saw each of the six pupils who were present fully tested. One of the more advanced wrote one or two sentences, such as "We have tea," uttered them distinctly, and with some amount of animation, though in monotone, and at once indicated by expressive action that she understood their meaning. Yet the parents of this pupil have never had the joy of hearing her utter an intelligible sound. An excercise of simple nouns was tried, to show me the mode of associating ideas. The words leaf, hat, feet, nail, for instance, were spelled, written and uttered, and the objects indicated were immediately pointed out. That absolute deafness existed in every case, and that nevertheless these children were by no means dumb, was strikingly proved by Mr. Van Asch. He stood as far away as possible, in a good light, and moved his lips without producing sounds. His " silent speech" or " lip language " was at once written down, no matter what vowels or or combinations of them he employed. A more advanced pupil could carry out this silent dictation in the form of simple words and sentences. I was much struck with the intense eagerness displayed by the pupils, and could not help commenting upon it. As Mr. Van Asch remarked, the mechanism is used to educate the mind, and then the children feel a light go up into them. To summarise the system, there are four essentials pari passu. These are—l. Beading from the lips of the teacher; 2. Imitating the muscular movements and producing the consequent sounds; 3. Writing the sounds; and 4. Beading them. The lad referred to, who became stone deaf through illness, and subsequently lost the gift of speech also, can already read from the lips, and show that he perfectly comprehends, sentences such as " Would you like to go to Christchurch with that gentleman 1" and.in arithmetic he is as far advanced as the multiplication ■of a line of eight or nine figures by nihe. It may perhaps be of interest to add that the system of sounds used is a purely phonetic one ; in other words, the deaf mute is taught to see sounds, just as a shorthand writer would hear them. In time, the value of the labours of Mr Van Asch in this community will be more strikingly apparent, but I am firmly of opinion that he has already given as convincing proof as can be needed of the immense superiority of the pure German syestem before alluded to, as compared with the cumbrous dactylology which has so largely obtained; and proof also that the Committee of selection secured the services of a gentleman to whom his most arduous undertaking is a labour of love, and who secures for himself the respect and affection of his pupils.

Authority : George Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington. —1880.