TEACHING OF BRAILLE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 83, 4 October 1930, Page 7

TEACHING OF BRAILLE

RED CROSS SOCIETY'S WORK

Excellent work among the blind of Wellington, who number 52, is being done by the Wellington branch of the British Red Cross Society. At present two classes are being conducted by Mrs. Henry Hadfield for tho teaching of Braille writing, and as all tho pupils are rapidly approaching proficiency the secretary of the society, Mr. M. S. Galloway, is arranging for correspondence with other blind people scattered over the Wellington, district. Mr. Galloway said at a meeting of the society yesterday afternoon that he had ascertained the names and addresses of the 232 blind in the Wellington district, and was communicating with them with a view of finding what their abilities were in Braille. Nearly all of them had replied, and had expressed their appreciation of what the society had done and was doing. Not a great number were able to read! Braille, but it was felt that the forma-1 tion of the classes would give them a] real incentive to do so. Most of the younger blind persons in tho Jubilee Institute, Auckland, were learning the art, but the older people scattered over the country were not able to brighten their lives by the pleasures of reading through the knowledge of Braille. Several replies to Mr. Galloway's letters were of particular interest, and showed the tenacity and determination which is characteristic of the blind.'

Writing from Iriglewood, a man of 73 stated that he learned to read Braille about four years and a half ago, and he understood that there were about 72 Braille readers in New Zealand about a year ago. "I now read it myself,in half a dozen, languages—English, French, Spanish. Italian, and Latin," he writes. "French is, of course, the - most highly developed Braille; its third grade, in which my reading matter usually reaches me, is practically a shorthand system. Every month I receive half a dozen magazines from Europe—four in English, one in French, and one in Spanish. Two of the English Braille magazines come from Paris, and are of American editing. . . , Should you think them of any use to your society, 0- for the purpose of passing them on to other blind folk, I should be glad to forward them to you. .. . ." Other letters were received in similar vein.