CHRISTCHURCH KINDERGARTENS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2426, 12 September 1900, Page 68

CHRISTCHURCH KINDERGARTENS.

By Edixii Seabi/u Gbosssianx. II.— BREAKING-UP DAY AT A FREE

KINDERGARTEN,

To-day is a gala day for those children who are not accustomed to fiequent seaside picnics and drives and birthday feasts and children's parties; wlio ha-vc not cakes and fruit daily, nor picture bookb and toys and pets to pmuse them : nor gardens to run about in. To-day they are to have a taste of rich children's joys — an anticipation of the even rarer treat provided for them at Christmas. And it is Spring, and Nature is kind — kindest of all to little children, who respond as readily to her sunshine and soft wind ab the fresh leaves and new-fledged birds.

St. Albans is a two-faced suburb, the western half leading through leafy lanes with overshadowing willows just budding now into green, and tall bare silver birches and oaks of park-like avenues and shrubberies, the "family mansions" half hidden amongst them; or neat villas amidst smooth-clipped lawns and beds of half-opened violets and primroses and narcissi ; and trellised arches leading into leafless oichards. As the lane winds now right, now left towards tho east, the gardens shrink and almost disappear ; the houses become smaller and closer, until you find yourself in the street of a suburban township with a few stores and shops and hotels. This is Knightstown, the poorest part of Christchurch. The poverty doqa not strike you as resembling that in the small streets of Melbourne or j-Sycliiey, or even of Wellington. The people here do not oil belong to the same class. Some pretty villas are to be seen ; there are even some more pretentious two&lorey houses. But most of them are bald, flat-faced, wooden cottages, containing from two to six rooms. They do not look dirty, lor are they necessarily unhappy homes. Nearly all have their front windows draped >vith white lace curtains, and behind them are borne visible attempts at ornament. Many have a strip of fiowerleFS garden in front. They are not huddled closely together as in Wellington. An apple oi chard, a deep ditch, or a s.trip of rough grassy land which makes a break between them. Only a few yards off from the stores aie ploughed fields, and potato or turnip patches. Yet taken as a whole, the district is dreary and depressing. Scores of these featureless cottages on this flat give an aspect of poverty, though not of destitution. If you look closely you will see amongst them an occasional two-roomed hut with newspaper pasted before the window instead of curtains, and with a suggestion of neglect caused by something worse than want. In the wide road and grass-edged lanes the little children sit and play winter or summer ; ragged, dirty, often bare-footed, but not ill-nourished or unhappy ; skipping, trundling iron hoops, "playing Fchool" m rows along the ditch; or whirling round till they are giddy. After all, they have found a better playground than their small backyards. The one wide street, the Caledonian road, empties itself into narrower lanes, that lead us right up to tho bare-looking hall, once the St. Albans Library, with the superscription " Free Kindergarten " above it. Already a troop of little boys and girls- in their very best attire is waiting round the door. We .have not been seated long before the room has as many as it will hold, leaving the floor space for the pupils to march and drill and dance. Forms are ranged all along three sides of the wall, and on them are seated admiring elder brothers and sister^, and mothers nursing limp and heavy infants in their arms. They -have the look -of the neighbourhood— half-country and half town ; some ruddy, sunburnt and stout, others thin taid careworn ; but all marked off by something indefinable from the few visitors from other suburbs— slim younggirls and well-dressed matrons. On a table are a few specimens of the children's work, some woollen balls, patterns, and letters traced out, some needle books and some cards formed by plaiting coloured papers. At the farther end of the little hall a green baize screen has been drawn, and in front are decorations of coloured cards, texts, and a few early flowers and evergreens ; at this end are the children, seated on formssome, especially the mere babies, a_ little /solemn, but most of them bright with the delightful shy happiness of unspoiled children going to a party. There is no mistake about their enjoying the afternoon's performances. They are all ages, from two to six. While we are waiting a stray baby or two wanders across the floor and is carried in the teacher's aims back to its own place. With the chil-dren-of the. well-to-do, it seems rather a mistake to shut tip such little mites away from the sun and air for so many hours ; but for those that hove no proper care at home, it is better to be here. The teacher's manner is a perfect mingling of gentleness and authority. It is prett/ to see the little three-year-old when lifted up to a chair springing up to her arms as naturally as if they were those of a kind mother. .One of the clearest impressions left on my mind was that the good done depends on the teacher's personal character. The influence of a woman who has the rare gifts of control and sympathy _ must be the nearest possible approach to the possession of an ideal mother. And how can we expect ideal mothers amongst these over-burdened women around whose whole energies tire spent in washing, cleaning, mending, or minding the store or shop all day? The little ones are not badly dressed. One or two are bare-footed and have shabby tunics or frocks, but most of them are neat, and some are decked out in bits of finery. One fairhaired little doll is dressed in white mu&lin with cheap lace and wears dainty white socks and tan shoes — evidently tiie pride and joy of some fond mother's eyes. Another has a string of pearls round her neck. Many aie wearing clothes sent to the school by membc/s of the Children's Aid Society, and as soon as the3 r get home, will put on their old rags again. A better test of their condition is their faces, and the=o look rosy and bright enough, as healthy as those you will see at the most fashionable kindergarten in town. "ft is a pretty f-ight, this gathering of the children, the bright young eyes fixed on the teacher, the fail hair or brown locks toaseel backward or forward in their toy drill, the little feet thrust left and right, tho little flower-like hands and arms waving in the air or describing circling motions to command. Perhaps more fa?cinating than their success are their -funny little failures— little Mabel,, .wlwe .slew hands had only got down to her toes jvhoji tho others held theirs above their heads; little Aggie weeping because she had lost her place in the ranks; little Georgie.- -stood up on the chair to recit.e ""Dapple Grey," hanging his shy he K ad, thumb in mouth, all mute with infantine stage-fright. I cannot -think what the Peace Society will say to their teacher, for she instructed them not only to march, but to perform military evolutions and to "shoot" with imaginary guns ! - They formed in rings and in involved figures, waving aloft little Sags of gilt and coloured wall papers. Then.

they sraig with the most comical "actions," songs about- the "Merry baker" and the "Honect blacksmith," about father coming home from work, and about what "Mothers are doing to-night." The prettiest performance was the Swedish barn dance, danced by a picked number of children, with scarcely any confusion. Exercises over, there followed a little fea=l of fruit and cakes and buns, sent by friends. Then the fete day of the Knightstown children was over. It has given them some happy hours to look back on in the "lives of labour" that they sang about so cheerfully as lying before them in the future.