LUNCHEON TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 241, 11 October 1929, Page 11

LUNCHEON TALK.

The members of the Lyceum Club were . entertained yesterday at luncheon when , Mr. A. J. Hutehinson spoke to them on the work done in the Blind Institute. He ■was briefly introduced by Miss Melville, in the absence of the president, Mrs. W. H. Parkes. "There are G3B blind people in Xew Zealand," said the speaker, '"and these can be divided into three classes, the blind, the nearly blind, and the sightless. The blind are those children who are born blind. These are totally blind, without sense of colour. The nearly blind are those who are blind after the age of six, and are trained to remember colour, and the sightless person, who lacks eyes, but can visualise colour and objects, as most sightless people can. They can visualise a room, its furniture, and even whether the walls are papered or not. They are ill a very different position to those who are born blind. And then again there are those old people who lose their sight through age." The Jubilee Institute, which deals with these problems is not only the only educational institute in Xew Zealand for the blind, it is also a home and workshop for its inmates. Every blind person in the Dominion is registered at the institute. The details of where they live, their means and their surroundings, arc all tabulated and this valuable information has been gathered chiefly by the efforts of JJr. Clutha Mackenzie, on his tours. . Blind children are,'under a law in New Zealand compelling them to come to the institute for education, but, in the opinion of the speaker, it is not enforced as firmly as it should be. It was no kindness, he said, to keep a blind child at home. They come into the institute from the age of five. Some arc as young as two or three. The children in the institute are trained under the same system that rules the ordinary child in the school, and the inspector gives the same tests. Besides the ordinary education they are trained in Braille shorthand which they can read as fast as print. They can write from 60 to 150 words a minute then transcribe at a quick rate on a typewriter. Everyone who leaves the institute trained, is provided with a machine. What the institute strove to do was to remove the idea of charity from the lives of the blind and to turn them into capable and useful citizens. To show how successful this had been, the speaker said that in 11)23 Avagcs and salaries of the blind workers were £2123. In 1929 they rose to £0169. This was not because there was an increase in blindness in Xew Zealand—quite the reverse, in fact —but because more people had been induced * to go to the institute and earn their own living. In 1923, goods of the value of c £2466 were produced. In 1928 these had = ■isen to £9000, and this year, they would J reach £11,000. An order for 1200 sea- \ jniss chairs and tables had been obtained , "or a new theatre. The Rotary Clubs, ;he St. John Ambulance, the Red Cross, ind the Agricultural and Pastoral Asso- , liations all assisted the inmates to reach i market with their wares, which now ' vent all over Xew Zealand. •