CAMBRIANS. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1495, 10 July 1880, Page 13

CAMBRIANS. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. )

July sth. Our Saturday mail was not delivered here until Sunday, and then only the lighter portion of it, so that we are still without our papers, the reason, I believe, being the ilooded state of the rivers down country. The weather here has continued mild, except a few days hard frost, until Sunday, the 4th, when it snowed and mined during the whole of the day. The inclemency of the weather, however, did not prevent the Rev. Mr Hobbs from visiting us to hold his monthly service. Mr John Davis and party have had a good washing up, I hear, so the old Welshman's Gully is not exactly done yet. _ Learmond and party, on the north side of Vinegar Hill, have this time about 500oz— not so much as their previous washing (02Ooz), but as they have very little more than half the quantity of ground worked this time, the return shows increasing richness. Some years ago two or three waterr.aces were cut over the ground, and it is worthy of remark that Mr Learmond was a shareholder in, and assisted in the construction of, one of one of them, little thinking that he was working over his future fortune, the ground being only about eight feet deep. Miss M'Naughton has been appointed schoolmistress of our school >here, Dice Mr Stack, resigned. This ap« pointment is, in my humble opinion, a step in tho right direction, for I have long thought that our small country schools, having, say, from 20 to 30 scholarsbeing in reality little more than infant schools— would be far better managed by female teachers, the salary in such cases being too small to attract competent men. Some, no doubt, occasionally find their way to such places. A great many people are prejudiced against female teachers. The British, as a rule, are slow to break through old customs, and we have so long been accustomed to regard muscular power as a necessity in the school room, that it will be many years before femalq, teachers become general. But with their success in America before us, we need not be afraid to venture in that direction. In this country the number of ladies obtaining certificates as teachers is yearly on the increase, so some opening should be made for them— and where better than in our schools? There may occasionally be one or two grown-up boys in such schools, and should they happen to be destitute of that inborn manliness which marks nature's gentleman, whether he be a titled aristocrat or a humble carrier of the hod, it should be the duty of their parents to teach them at least what Christianity and civilisation demands of them towards the opposite sex. To come back to our own case, since the school opened in Cambrians good teachers have been the exception, certainly not the rule, in consequence of which the school is in a very backward state; and parents should assist the teacher in her work by every means in their power, especially in seeing that their children attend regularly and punctually, otherwise they cannot expect success to attend her labours.