A SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 826, 5 December 1878, Page 2

A SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Wellington, Dec. 4. It will be remembered that Parliament last session voted a sum of L4OOO for the preliminary expenses in connection with the establishment of the proposed Colonial Deaf and Dumb Asylum. The Government are desirous of establishing an institution, to be partly self-supporting, partly supported by voluntary contribution, and partly maintained by the Government. Instructions have been sent to Sir Julius Yogel to send out as soon as possible a high-class experienced teacher of the '■ articulation" system. A salary of LGOO a year, with permission to take private boarders, has been suggested as the remuneration which the Government would j pay to the teachers. There are at present between 50 and 60 deaf and dumb children in the Colony, with no means of obtaining an education. Of late years a system has been perfected in England by which the necessity for a deaf and dumb alphabet is entirely done away with, pupils being actually taught to speak, and though hearing cannot be given to them, they can, by watching the movements of another person's mouth, tell what he io

saying. This seems almost incredible, but Mr. Green, M.H.R. for Port Chalmers, who has taken a very great amount of interest in the subject, introduced to Ministers a young gentleman who has been deaf from his birth, but who has been highly educated under the " articulation" system, and can hold intelligent conversation with anyone.