DUNTROON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1165, 10 January 1880, Page 2

DUNTROON.

(from our own correspondent. ) January 6. The School Committee here held their usual' monthly meeting at the schoolhouse on Monday evening. Present —Messrs. E. 0. Smith (chairman), Woonton, Snow, and M'Bean. . The minutes of the last meeting. were read and confirmed, and the outward correspondence read and approved. Amongst the outward letters was one to the Education Board, pointing out the great falling off there would be in the income of the Committee since that body had declined to allow committees to remove desks and forms for the purposes of entertainments, A letter in reply was received from the Secretary of the Education Board, announcing that the School Committee would be allowed to remove the school furniture for one more entertainment, the proceeds of which, added to the funds in hand, would enable the School Committee to fence in the schoolhouse and master's residence, for which the sum of L3O was required. The Treasurer's report showed the present balance in hand to be L 22 odd. . It was resolved tha,t a vote of thanks be accorded to those ladies and • gentlemen who so materially contributed to the success of the Christmas picnic. The following'is the schoolmaster's report for the quarter ending 31st December, 1879 : Boys. Girls. Tl. Number of gcholara at the eqd of previous quarter... 16 14—30 Admitted during this quarter .... ... ... ... 1 2 Now in attendance ... ... 17 16—-33 Boys. Girls. Total. Largest attendance on any half day ... ... 17 16 —33 Strict average attendance: ... ... ...15.74 12.44—28.18 Number of times the school was, opened during the quarter, mornings and afternoons counted separately ~. 121

Hr, —Tl;e ab.PYO. outline £urnislies an idea of the present state .of the school in point of attendance. I believe the number could very easily be made up to 40, if I would consent to discharge the office- of drynurse to many of the interesting, little specimens of humanity, of the. advanced age of four ,years and 1 under in Duntroon. 'i'h'at office ie without 'dispute, a mtost im-portant-one in social science, bearing as it does so largely on the peace of the domestic circle, and the evil consequences that may arise from its infraction. Yet, "believing that my services are paid for with a very different end 'in view, I wish it to be distinctly wndeyeteQd t&at I roust positively

decline to receive any child under the earlier JH the EdnoatitiS Act, viz., fivfe years. I writo this becauae lH am continually being iisked to admit metJH babies, whose mothers, finding them a bothtj and a trouble, seek to relieve themselves ( w some responsibility in wishing me to cotfl bine the dissimilar functions of a godfatheigi adrynurse, and a schoolmaster. I polite]|S decline the attempt, and have the honor n be, &c. , 9 T. H. Mkekiko, I Schoolmaster. | Duntroon, 2nd January, 1880. | After some minor business, the meeting closed with the usual vote of thanks to' the chair.