78 FISHEEY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OF ALASKA IN 1912. 



on the wagons and hauled to the proper spots. Much of it was 

 thrown back from the water's edge at extreme low tide, to be carried 

 back later. When the Nero arrived August 7, from 8 to 25 men were 

 employed daily thereafter as laborers on the wireless erection work, 

 for which they were paid 25 cents an hour. The Nero left August 

 26 and the Homer arrived two days afterwards. The gang then had 

 to be split up to furnish men to complete the work which remained 

 to be done at the wireless station. 



SCHOOLS. 



One of the requirements in the Government's contract with the 

 Alaska (Commercial Co., the first lessee of the sealing privilege on the 

 Pribilof Islands, was that the lessee should "maintain a school on 

 each island, suitable for the education of the natives of said islands, 

 for a period of not less than eight months in each year." 



And the lease of the North American Commercial Co., which suc- 

 ceeded the Alaska Commercial Co. in 1890, provided that the com- 

 pany should "provide and keep in repair such suitable schoolhouses 

 as may be necessary, and to establish and maintain during eight 

 months of each year proper schools for the education of the children 

 on said islands, the same to be taught by competent teachers who 

 shall be paid by the company a fair compensation." 



In compliance with these requirements schools were maintained 

 on the islands by the Alaska Commercial Co, and by its successor, 

 the North American Commercial Co., during the periods of their 

 respective leases. 



The teachers supplied by those companies were usually, if not 

 always, selected with reference to their ability to perform clerical 

 or other duties rather than for their fitness as teachers. The com- 

 panies seemed to regard the schools as a matter of secondary impor- 

 tance, and required the teachers to devote most of their time to work 

 bearing no relation to the education of the native cliildren. As a 

 result, with a few notable exceptions, the persons who performed the 

 duties of teacher had no special fitness or training for those duties. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that no rational system of education 

 has been worked out to meet the needs of those people and that so 

 little progress has been made. Probably the best that has been 

 done has been through the efforts of the wives of a number of the 

 seal agents, who, although with no pedagogical training, took a 

 kindly interest in the native women and girls and instructed them in 

 elementary domestic science and art. They were taught to do plain 

 sewing, making their own garments, and to do simple coo long. 

 They were also instructed in the care and management of their 

 homes and the care of children. 



