VACATION COLONIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2823, 16 August 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

VACATION COLONIES.

A BOON TO FRENCH SCHOOL CHILDREN. Pekilai'h this is the moment to chaw intention to an aucinical agency of education, which is rapidly extending in France, to say nothing , of Germany, .Spain, France, Italy, &c. " Vaeatiou Colonies," is the name given to a select group of weakly and needy children attending the parochial schools, who, instead of passing the long summer holidays in running about the streets, or graduating as lazzaroni in vitiating alleys, or coupeil up in Black Hole of Calcutta homes, arc taken for a residence of a few weeks to the country, or to some of the mountain valleys of Prance, where Ihe outdoor life, pure air, solid and punctual meals, united to cleanliness* and regular hours, fortify etiolated frames and check the initial progress of grave diseases.

These "vacation colonies'' are then neither scholastic caravans, coaching tours, nor natural science excursions, whose pupils are sound in limb an.l robust in purse. The movement originated in Paris in 1883. An active member of the ninth arioudigiement, collected th« sum of 2,000 francs; nine boys and nine girls were selected by the medicil ollicer from the Hue Blanche School ; the selected were remarkable for their pale faces and general misery. Under the superintendence of their respective master and mistress, this colony of IS, wiis conducted to the Valley of the Marne, and during ono mouth, the pupils were accustomed to greeu field*, brilliant sunshine, bathing in tho river, walking, and out-door games. At tho end of the mouth, the colonists returned ; their weight increased, some eight pound*, the luug-capacity augmented ; spiiits developed, -and new life and courageous hope, infused into all. Cost, 3 francs, por day. During tho following year*, other colonists were able to puss a hygienic vacation in tho valleys of the Yusnes. The Municipal Council now took up the open-air cure for weakly children, and out of its special funds, allocated, grants for travelling. Private subscription * provided the kits, etc. Tho delicate pupils wore ."elected by the official doctor and tho teachers, and tho caravans s.;t uiit for the district of the Jura. The children of both sexes, play and eat together, and tho association mutually sultuns manners. They are lodged among iho peasants, who fit up rooms ; or the local school houses being , then free, arc prepared an temporary residences. The children are subjected to every sanitary care; are taught orderly habits ; to mix with tho peasants, to write to their parents, and to keep diaries of thoir doings. In ISBS Paris sent to the couutry I|.) girls, and I'Ai boys, in charge of ,'->7 mistresses, and IS-t masters—'22 of the: latter were accompanied by their wives, making a total of 932 persons. The cost of tho months'outing was o.j sous per day, per person. The pupils selected ranged from nine to thirteen years of age. the colony is sub-divided into groups of nut less thau ten, and not more than twenty, each group being in charge of a teacher. Another plan—the work of some Calviuist ladies—consists of billetiug at Jfr. a day sickly pupils for three or four weeks", with peasants in the suburbs Paris, a lady undertaking to visit eaeli pupil daily, ami arranging for i.h-ii i,-of-doov exere.iso and occupation. Tho pupils of rich f lmilies make it a point t.n contribute seme of their jwekf. money to the geu-rul fund, and their mothers and sistois i-i'iid trills of clothing, made by (heir own I'and.i. The sea-side is a favourite spol for a vacation colony to settle; down, particularly when it is remote from a fashionable resoit, Siuca

1887 Spain has taken up tho colony idea, while preferring tho soa-side; so has Italy, where the numbor of scrofulous children is immense. Zurich cluiins tho honour, {or Pastor Bion, of founding theso regenerating vacation colonies in 1870, though Denmark, ainco 30 years, hns sent its anemical scholars to lodge for some weeks in the country with peasants, and tho Danish railways carry such children free. The summer cure applied to delicate children is associated with their moral and intellectual development, and is most efficacious in the colonial form. Lifo is in common, play in common, prayor in common, and excursions in common. Theso aro the great agents for physical amelioration, and for moral regeneration. Teachers, as well as pupils, loam to know each othor ; ao do rurals and urbans. The mind runs in healthier groovos, and the body moves on sanitary linen.