Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/116

46 Catholic church, and another to the Catholic church, Boitakhana, but there are no published accounts of them.

The St. James’s district schools are day-schools for the instruction of the children of indigent Christian parents, and are four in number—the boys’ school, the girls’ school, the infant school, and the sabbath school, in which about 160 children of all ages are taught. I have not found any very recent notice of these schools.

During the last four years a district school has existed in connection with the Old Mission Church. There are present 55 boys’ names on the books; but the average attendance during the hot weather is not more than 40. The system pursued is Dr. Bell’s. The school is supported by the contributions of a few of the Old Church congregation, and of late an annual sermon has been preached for it. The monthly cost is about 55 rupees, but no school-rent is paid. The object of the school is quietly and unobtrusively to promote the moral and religious improvement of the scholars, and the expectations formed by its supporters have been answered.

In 1834, a school which appears to have been established by some other means, was taken under the patronage of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The school is situated in the Chitpore Road, near the Old China Bazar, in a place called Sukea’s Lane. It is under the care of a master and a mistress, and contains about 100 boys and 30 girls who are principally of Portuguese extraction.

The Martiniere, for the support and education of a prescribed number of indigent Christian children, for the establishment of which large funds were bequeathed by the will of, is at last, after a delay of more than 30 years, about to be carried into operation. A large and commodious building has been erected, a committee of gentlemen of different religious professions has been appointed by Government, and the rules for the management of the institution are now under consideration.

Native Female Schools.—The first attempt to instruct Native girls in Calcutta, in organized schools, was made by the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society, which has subsequently assumed the name of the Calcutta Baptist Female Society for the establishment and support of Native female schools. The