AT THE HOME FOR THE BLIND, AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 66

AT THE HOME FOR THE BLIND, AUCKLAND.

After spending a pleasant hour or two in the beautiful gardens of the Domain —near the entrance to which we passed the fine new museum now in process of building—my companion took me to see the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Parnell, at which she has been a frequent visitor. The institute is a large pile of brick buildings, with courtyards, children’s playground, and some garden ground in which vegetables for the inmates are grown. The main building -contains the large dining hall, the schoolrooms, and various small rooms, while on the upper floor are the women’s and children’s sleeping quarters. At the rear are the workrooms (a large new working department is about to be constructed) and the men’s quarters. Adjoining the main building and fronting the street is a shop filled with the products of the inmates’ industry. At this time of the year most of the inmates, including all the children, are absent on holiday visits to friends, and the teaching staff likewise, so that one cannot see much of the ordinary life of the inmates, but what I saw of their home, and the conduct of the establishment, greatly interested me.

My friend left me in charge of a young girl, blind from birth, and an inmate of the institution for 14 years, who showed me all over the premises with the exception of the men’s department, and explained everything to me. The institute is a true home evidently, and a happy one for this young girl, rather fragile in appearance, and pathetic with the pathos of blindness, who threads her way so easily through the passages and turnings, up and down stairs, and places her hand unfailingly on any object she wishes to show or explain. It is a world of touch she lives in, of touch and hearing. She and others like her having never depended on sight move about with an easy certainty, and have clear knowledge of everything about them through the other senses. The inmates of the home are very happy, she tells me, and have lots of fun among themselves. Then many people come to visit the home, and entertain the inmates with music, singing, and addresses.

All are busy too. In the main workroom, through which my guide took me, there were some half dozen inmates at work, and she showed me the basket on which she herself was at work when summoned to act as cicerone. Basket work is the main industry taught here; it is readily learned, and there is a good market for the wares produced. In a back room are large troughs in which willow wands for the work are. soaking to make them sufficiently pliant for weaving, and I noticed some portions of baskets, etc., also soaking in readiness for the joining and finishing process. Electric power is provided to drive the mechanism required for various kinds of work, including stitching. One branch of industry undertaken is the repairing of cane-seated chairs. In the shop I was shown some chairs which had been re-seated, and people also send work baskets to be mended. Besides baskets in endless variety, various articles of furniture are made, chairs, tables, stands, children’s carriages, etc. Door mats are a very important item. Hammocks are netted also; my guide told me that one of the present inmates who netted a hammock shown mo Was a fisherman before the misfortune of blindness fell on him. Naturally, the pupils vary greatly in aptness. Some learn slowly, and never

attain proficiency in the more skilled kinds of work; others are deft-fingered, and take to the work naturally. Many of the workers, perhaps the majority, have lost their eight after attaining maturity. Here are former miners, and men from other classes of workers, who have been blinded through explosions, or some of the many accidents that so often befall industrial workers. For people bereft ol the sense of which they have mainly depended through life, the process of adaptation to a sightless life must be slow and difficult. In the Jubilee Institute they have everything to render their great deprivation endurable—companionship, aid. and instruction, which will enable them to employ themselves fruitfully, and attain at least partial self-support. With all alleviations, their affliction is among the greatest to which human life is liable. Those blind from birth, on the other hand, do not, when well tended as here, consciously suffer through their blindness Yet, I can never feel that they are less to be pitied than the former class of sufferers. They have missed so much! In the main building my guide took me first upstairs, through dormitories. The girls’ and the boys’ dormitory each open on to a pleasant sunny balcony. In. the girls’ balcony a brightly coloured canary was hanging in its cage—my guide’s canary, which she bought herself, and which, as I was told, seems to talk to her, mistress and canary being close friends. A third dormitory accommodates the older girls and women. The absolute blankness of the walls was a reminder of the sightlessness of the inmates. This being the time for housecleaning, while nearly all are away, the beds were stripped of their coverings, and mattresses turned back. . A large bathroom, with several baths at the two ends, and fitted-in wash basins in the middle completes the upstairs accommodation.

Downstairs the most striking feature is the dining hall, with its long table, and at one end a slightly raised stage and a pipe organ. Music, of course, plays a large part in the life of the inmates. On the walls are various pictures, chiefly photographs connected with the interests of the institution. Close by is the big kitchen, with extensive ranges at one end. My guide tells me that the present number in the institution is about 100, so the housekeeping and cooking are on a large scale. No one was in the kitchen or in any of the other rooms except the workroom; presumably nearly all concerned in the work of the institution are now on holiday. One of the sitting rooms has a piano, and in another I saw a gramophone; my guide also possesses one of her own. One of the most interesting departments is the library, with rows of shelves filled with large volumes in Braile. Some volumes were lying on a table, and my guide opened one and read me a few paragraphs, from an early chapter of “ Jane Eyre.” Her fingers glided lightly over the embossed page, and she read at the speed of an ordinary unhurried reader. To the uninitiated, seeing person like myself it appears wonderful that the slightly raised dots or horses showing little difference - in form and grouping can be so readily sensed as significant words and phrases by the fingertips of the blind. The paper used for the

IBooks is thick, and the volumes, of course, are many times the size of books holding a corresponding amount of reading in printers’ type. “ Nicholas Nickleby” in Braile will extend to a dozen or more big volumes. What an incalculable benefit the invention of Braile has been to the sightless, opening to them the world’s heritage of knowledge and imagination, of which, wanting it, they could enjoy so little! The production of Braile works must lie costly, and persons of means who desire to do good might well let one form of their munificence consist in paying for the transcribing and publication of Braile’s editions of suitable books. It may, however, be an advantage to the blind that they cannot read discursively and hastily masses of inferior fiction and other literature of no particular value. Thi books produced in Braile have been chosen for their educative and literary merit, and the blind person who cares for reading will profit by it more than the undiscriminating reader of hosts of novels and cheap magazines. In another room I saw something of the needlework, knitting, etc., done by the girls, bead work. I should much like to visit the home when the activities are being carried on in the ordinary course. I gained the impression, though I may be mistaken, that the present accommodation is somewhat overtaxed. And one misses flower-gardens and grassy lawns for the children to play on. The blind little ones would delight in smelling and handling flowers, though they could not enjoy their gay colours, and older inmates who have lost their sight might find pleasure in recognising by their odour and form the flowers they loved in their seeing days. But in a main thoroughfare of the city land space is limited. And near at hand are open spaces, particularly the extensive grounds and gardens of the Domain, whither I imagine the children are often taken by their teachers. Having shown me over the Jubilee building, my guide left me at the shop, which is managed by an interesting-look-ing grey-haired lady, who wears large coloured glasses. She calls it her shop, she says; she feels such a strong personal interest in it. The walls are hung with all sorts of baskets with handles, while on the floor space are ranged bulkier wickerwork articles—clothes-baskets for washing day; tall baskets for soiled linen, trays, waste-paper baskets, etc., and door mats. Everything is of excellent quality, strength and neatness being conspicuous qualities of the workmanship. The lady in charge was at work on a small standing basket which had been brought for repairs. In answer to my inquiries about the younger inmates, she said that many are handicapped by some physical weakness in addition to their blindness; many have come from poor homes originally, and suffer from the effects of early malnutrition, •which better conditions cannot fully overcome. And one would suppose that many of those who have lost sight through accident or illness would be physically enfeebled; The blind, even when trained to some remunerative occupation, can seldom be economically on a footing with the seeing, and must require special provision,

Setting down somewhat hurriedly impressions gained by a brief visit to the institute at holiday time, I have doubtless omitted much that I should like to say about its work, but this article will serve its purpose if it interests anyone in what is being done for our blind, and leads them, if they should visit Auckland, to see the home for themselves. HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS. A thick iron frying pan can be used instead of a girdle for baking scones. Allow half a pound of meat or fowl (before roasting) for each person. One 101 b ham thinly sliced will serve 30 people. Shortly before making pastry wash the hands in hot water, they are inclined to be A fresh haddock is excellent stuffed with veal stuffing and served with anchovy sauce. A little lemon juice will remove any strong flavour from dripping used in baking Silver will seldom need any special cleaning if it is washed once a week in warm water to which a little whiting and ammonia have been added, rinsed in clean water, and wiped dry at once with a clean dry cloth. Paint the tips of shabby brown shoes with iodine. Scum will not discolour cauliflowers if they are boiled with the stalk uppermost. To renovate a shabby umbrella brush it well with a solution of ammonia and warm water. A pinch of borax added to a jug of water is excellent for watering indoor plants. When preparing coffee add a pinch of salt. It helps to clear it, and improves the flavour. It is not necessary to grease a paperlined baking tin when a rich cake is being baked in it, and tins in which pastry is baked need not be greased either. Washing crepe is useful for little girls’ frocks and overalls, and does not need ironing. Some washing frocks require ironing, but this should not be done until they are dry, as the dampness gives them a rough-dried look afterwards. A little salt and sal volatile will remove the stains from discoloured ivory. When making sandwiches in which mustard is required spread the mustard on the bread and butter first, then add the meat. Fried fillets, etc., will not taste greasy if the fat into which they are put is hot enough to form a casing on the outside of the fish or whatever is being cooked.

HOME INTERESTS. NEWER WAY WITH CHICKEN. Here is a tasty way of cooking a chicken. Skin it carefully, and having removed all the bone, inince the meat, and mix with peas, beans, chopped up carrots and onions. Add about two ounces of butter, and salt and pepper to taste, place in a small baking dish, cover with breadcrumbs, add a few small dabs of butter, and bake tilt nicely’ browned. A TASTY SAVORY. Chicken liver, flavoured with the merest dash of lemon, then minced and baked, and served on hot buttered toast, with plenty of pepper and salt, can be a very good savory. GARLIC—ITS DANGER AND ITS SERVICE. ' Garlic is a dangerous thing in the hands of the novice, but a chicken which has been previously wiped (no more, and very gently) with garlic becomes much improved, and, of course, a salad should never be placed in a "bowl which has not been ever so slightly smeared with garlic. CENTRAL AFRICAN METHOD. The most fascinating way of cooking any bird is a method followed in Central Africa. The bird is drawn and stuffed, but the feathers ars left on. It is then wrapped round with a good clay, and baked. When cooked, the clay is broken, and the feathers come away. Then you have a bird which has retained all its flavour, instead of decanting it into the baking dish. Chicken cooked this way, especially when stuffed with raisins, is a dish that Lucullus might well have desired. A SAVOURY METHOD OF USING UP COLD MEAT. Grease a small round cake tin and line the bottom and aides with short pastry, being careful not to stretch it. Mince up cold meat and mix with some cooked macaroni, the latter chopped into rather small pieces. Add also a chopped hardboiled egg, and a little tomato sauce, and catsup to flavour. Season with pepper, salt and mace, and moisten with a little good gravy. Put it into the prepared tin —there should be sufficient to fill it. Roll out a' piece of pastry and cut a round to fit the top, placing it_> on neatly. Damp the edge to make it adhere. Make a hole in the centre, and decorate round it with leaves of pastry, if liked. Brush over with milk and bake for about 45 minutes. The oven should be hot at first, then lessened as required. Turn out of the tin and serve cold. PRESERVE. Pumpkin—as required. To each pound when prepared add: One pound of sugar, one lemon, and half an ounce of lump ginger. Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds, and cut it into fairly small oubes. Put it into a large basin, and add the sugar. Leave for about 24 hours. Bruise the ginger, and tie in muslin. Grate the lemon _ rind finely, squeeze them and strain the juice. Turn the pumpkin, etc., into a preserving pan, add the ginger and lemon juice. Let it cook slowly until the sugar is dissolved, then . bring to the boil and remove the scum.. Add the grated rinds, and boil all together until it will jelly when cold. Remove the ginger before potting the preserve. . BLACKBERRY JAM. Blackberries —as required. To each pound of fruit allow: Three-quarters of a pound of sugar, and half a gill of water. Pick over the fruit, and put intp a preserving pan with the sugar and water. Cook slowly until the sugar is dissolved, theft bring to the boil and boil until ’ it will jelly when cold, keeping it skimmed and stirred as required.