Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/102

42 Committee in 1824, it had 25 students who were taught only Persian. This institution does not appear ever to have come under the supervision of the Committee or of any public officer. The report of 1824 further alleges the existence of certain lands at Pundua in this district, which should be appropriated to the support of madrasas, but which have been diverted from that purpose. It is stated to be a well known fact that grants were made to the ancestors of the late Mola Mir Gholam Hyder Mutawali, attached to the shrine of Shah Sufi-ud-din Khan Shuhid at Pundua, together with Mola Myn-ud-din or Mola Taj-ud-din and Mir Gholam Mustafa, private persons who had no share in the superintendence. The grants are said to have specified certain villages or tracts of land to be exclusively appropriated to the support of three madrasas, in addition to those granted for the personal benefit of the grantees. The madrasas were kept up for a generation or two, but through carelessness or avarice were afterwards discontinued. It is added that there were persons then living so well acquainted with the circumstances as to be able to point out the estates that were specified in the grants for the support of the madrasas. The Collector, in the letter enclosing the report, intimated his intention to investigate the matter, and in the event of the alleged misappropriation being substantiated, to pursue the course directed in Regulation XIX. of 1810. The result of the enquiry I have not been able to learn.

Elementary Schools not Indigenous.—Mr. , a Christian Missionary, in 1814, established a school in Chinsura on the Lancasterian plan patronised by Mr. Gordon Forbes, the British Commissioner at Chinsura; and in 1814-15 he established other schools in and about the settlement of Chinsura to the number of sixteen, with an average attendance of 951 scholars. In the last mentioned year these schools were brought to the favorable notice of Government, and a monthly allowance of 600 Rupees, afterwards increased to 800, was granted to enable Mr. May to support and extend the system he had introduced. In 1818, when he died, he had thirty-six schools under his superintendence, attended by above 3,000 Natives, both Hindoos and Mahomedans. In the account of these schools during Mr. May’s management, it is stated that in 1816 he established a school for teachers, but in 1817 the attempt to rear teachers was abandoned altogether, as it was found that few or none of the boys were able or disposed to discharge the duties of instructors when required. Towards the end of the year 1815, Mr. May’s schools excited a rivalry among the Natives, some of whom are said to have formed similar establishments without impeding the success of those conducted by Mr. May. All the opposition that the schools received arose, not from feelings of general repugnance, but of individual interest. The old school-masters finding