The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Saturday, October 11, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 919, 11 October 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Saturday, October 11, 1879.

And this is the way the money goes. There are seventy-two persons in New Zealand who are deaf and dumb. Of these seventy-two more than one-half belong to wealthy parents or to those well able to provide for them. It is quite right that deaf and dumb children of poor people should be in some way cared for, and should receive such instruction as would in later life lighten their misfortunes. It is also quite true that we have persons in the Colony who have made instruction to the deaf and dumb their special study. We have one lady in Gisbome who, in the Home country, was eminent for her method of imparting instruction to deaf mutes. There are, we believe, two instructors of special qualifications in Auckland, and there are three in Christchurch. But bless us and save us, none of these would do for a moment. We have got to send to England for an instructor of our deaf and dumb. We could get a very good teacher in the Colony for about £250 or £300 a year. That is to say, a teacher who would answer all reasonable purposes. But of course giving JB6OO a year to a man, and at the same time paying his passage out, is in the eyes pf our Government preferrable. And Sir Julius Vogel has engaged one Mr. G. Van Asch, who is a German. Of course being a German he is bound to be very much better than either an English gentleman or a lady procurable in the Colony, Sir Julius is very enthusiastic about this German deaf mute instructor. He tells us he (the German) has invented a new system of teaching, which cannot be beaten. Then, we say, as there are sixty-four thousand deaf mutes in England, and only seventy-two altogether in New Zealand, would it not have been much better to have kept Mr. Van Asch at home? But our Government have been dead upon having Mr. Asch, and if he has not already landed, he may be looked for shortly. Sir Julius Vogel informs' the Government of New Zealand ' that it may be necessary to explain that the German system teaches its pupils to converse by means of articulate sounds, and to understand by lip-reading — i.e., by | interpreting the movement of the J lips of speakers, to the exclusion of all signs except natural ones. The introduction of this system into this country is of comparatively recent date. It arose through two or three parents of deaf-mutes being wealthy enough to make special provision for. their children. Mr. Van Asch, for example, came over from Holland to teach an afflicted child. He is probably the first gentleman who taught the system in England. It is twenty years since he came over, and he has devobed himself to teaching a few pupils. The more general introduction of the system is probably due to Mr. St. John Ackers, a wealthy country gentleman, whose only child, a little girl, lost her healing in infancy. Mr and Mr. Ackers travelled all over Europe and through part of America with the object of convincing themselves by observation as to which system would be the best for teaching their child. They arrived at a conclusion in favour of the German system, and first employed an American lady, who, besides teaching the child, trained a teacher specially to succeed to that duty. Mr. Ackers was so delighted with the progress" his child made that he has thrown himself enthusiastically into the cause of promoting the use of the system. A college for training teachers has been established under the auspices of Mr. Ackers and a number of very influential coadjutors. There are also -two or private schools on the system, and of these Mr. Van Asch has one. AH the teachers who are being trained at the college #re

engaged in advance, so that we had no resource there, even suppose we should have been inclined to select a gentleman possessing only a short experience of the system. • All this reads very nice and pretty, but we:think in the very depressed ► state of the Colony to pay a man \ £600 to teach deaf and dumb children | to express themselves is rather high- ' priced, more especially when it is > admitted that more than one-half of our deaf mutes belong to wealthy or well-to-do parents. But this is one of many hundred instances of how the public money goes. Sir George Grey has positively declared that he will not again accept 1 office, and has resigned the leadership of the Opposition into the hands of Mr. Macandrew; This announcement will afford great relief to the Government and the country at large. But it is now becoming apparent % that a deadlock to the legislation of the the countiy is at hand. Mr. Macandrew, last night, give notice of his intention to move a vote of no confidence in the Hall Ministry, and asked that a division should be taken at once. Mr. Hall objected, where upon Mr. Sheehan moved an adjournment of the House upon the Triennial Parliament's Bill until next Tuesday. Mr. Sheehan's motion having been pushed to a division, was carried by a majority of two. This is a defeat for the Government j but it is now known that Mr. Hael and his colleagues do not intend to resign upon an adverse vote. They propose to introduce all the measures promised by the Grey party, and as. the Grey party cannot vote against Bills of their own creation, it is evident they intend to obstruct the business of the country through the machinery allowed by Parliamentary Standing Orders. It is then quite evident that it is not liberal measures the Greyites want, but it is the portfolios held by the Hall Ministry, and this will be resisted. The Oppostion can undoubtedly command a majority of two or three votes now that Mr. Pyke and one or two others have gone over to their side, but it is far from certain that if Ministers resigned and the Macandrew party went into power, the latter would not be put out in a week or two upon a third no confidence vote. So Mr. Hall, speaking for self and colleagues, says he will bring forward all the liberal measures proposed, and shall ask the House to give them force of law ; but he does not mean to resign ; and what Mr. Hall says and does will in all probability meet with the approval of His Excellency the Governor. We fear, however, that a dead-lock is inevitable.