Page:The Gesture No 13 1911.djvu/6

 on the left is reading aloud from the Braille page, for they are all three blind, and the girl on the right enjoying the story, smiling sadly as the blind do, is telling it by the finger alphabet to little Alice, who alone sits in the silence.

And little Alice is happy.

Through the courtesy of the Editor of the "Weekly Times," we are able to present our readers with a number of pictures illustrating the progress made at Lake Park since it was puchased by the Committee of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society for a Home and Farm for the aged and infirm and the deaf and dumb of imperfect intellect.

Three years ago, with the exception of the eight acres of water in the centre, the whole of the estate, 70 acres in extent, was all scrub land. Something like fourteen acres have been grubbed and cleared, and there are now ten under cultivation, four of which are

The Gesture No 13 1911 - Blind-Deaf Men Conversing.jpg

occupied by various kinds of winter blooming bulbs. An acre is taken up with roses, an acre by chrysanthemums, and a acre by dahlias, with smaller plots of other marketable flowers.

Our illustrations are of the farm in winter time, when the jonquil, daffodils and violets are in bloom.

The Home is a branch of the work of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of Victoria, and makes the provision for the deaf and dumb of this State the most complete in the world.

The deaf child enters the special residential elementary school on the St. Kilda-road, Prahran, at the age of 7, and remains there until 16 or 17. This school, which has just reached its jubilee, has equipped quite ninety per cent. of the deaf of the State with their education. Now that the Government has, by Act of Parliament, made the education of the deaf child free and compulsory, it is hoped that still better provision will be made, and that the elementary training of the deaf at least will no longer be left to charity.

On leaving school, the work of caring for the ex-pupils is taken up by the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of Victoria, which is quite distinct form and independent of the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution.

This society has its headquarters at the Adult Deaf and Dumb Building, Flinders-street, where every provision is made for their