NEW HEBRIDES. 



537 



328 patients remaining at the end of the year, 

 only 24 had prospects of cure. There were 

 33 deaths during the year. A winter work- 

 shop for the patients is in operation, with a 

 promise of good results. This is the first at- 

 tempt at developing skilled labor among the 

 patients of this institution, and the selection of 

 the kind of labor to be done was experimental. 

 The upholstering of mattresses, the manufact- 

 ure of brooms, the reseating of chairs, tailoring, 

 etc., were the most practical forms of industry. 

 Twelve acres of land have been purchased on 

 the shore of Lake Penacook, four miles distant 

 from the asylum, where it is proposed to erect 

 a summer cottage for such patients as are in 

 condition to be benefited thereby. During 

 the summer camping-parties of men visited the 

 place twice a week. An open field furnished 

 a play-ground. The men were permitted to 

 walk to these grounds, cook their meals, fish, 

 play ball, lounge, or indulge in other amuse- 

 ments, and return at night. Women were con- 

 veyed there in barges to spend the day. 



Education. By the report of the Superintend- 

 ent of Instruction it appears that the number 

 of school districts, under the law of 1885, by 

 system of town schools, has been reduced from 

 1,890 to 275, and that the number of districts 

 organized under special acts is forty-six six 

 less than the previous year. The schools num- 

 bering twelve pupils or less have decreased 

 from 838 to 640, and those numbering six or 

 less from 359 to 166. Thus 494 small schools 

 have been discontinued, which represented 

 chiefly a wasteful expenditure of money under 

 the old system. By the new system the average 

 length of schools in the State has been 22-39 

 weeks, against 20-37 weeks last year. This be- 

 comes more markedly noticeable from the ex- 

 penditure of $454,373.92 for teachers under 

 the old law, against $444,095.58 under the new 

 law. The number of enrolled pupils the past 

 year is 59,690, a decrease of 4,529, a result 

 arising from more accurate returns, and the 

 opening of parochial schools. The care of the 

 schools has required 679 fewer teachers than 

 by the old method. The wages of male teach- 

 ers has averaged $41.03, against $40.22 last 

 year. For female teachers, the average has 

 been $24.46 a month, as per $23.56 the pre- 

 vious year. More normal-school teachers were 

 employed last year than before. 



A year of more than usual prosperity in the 

 Normal School is reported. The demand for 

 teachers that have had some special preparation 

 for their profession is increasing. There has 

 been an attendance in the several departments 

 as follows : Normal department graduates, 22 ; 

 number of different pupils, 63; training de- 

 partment high-school, 44; grammar-school, 

 41 ; intermediate school, 58 ; primary school, 

 50; total, 193. 



NEW HEBRIDES, a group of islands in the 

 Pacific Ocean. They are 30 in number, ex- 

 tending 400 miles from north to south, and 

 have a population of between 100,000 and 



150,000 persons. Scotch Presbyterian mission- 

 aries have made some progress in Christianizing 

 the natives. Laborers have been recruited on 

 the islands both for the Australian colonies 

 and the French colony of New Hebrides. Traf- 

 fic with the natives has been mainly carried on 

 by English traders, while Frenchmen have es- 

 tablished plantations on the islands in recent 

 years. Since 1882 the English interests in the 

 islands have been transferred to French colo- 

 nists, who have purchased 700,000 acres from 

 the former English proprietors, and nearly 

 1,000,000 acres more from native chiefs. The 

 cultivation of these lands has been carried on 

 to some extent by the labor of the islanders. 

 The French corporation, called the New Heb- 

 rides Company, has attempted more recently 

 to introduce agricultural colonists from France. 

 Several parties were taken out and were set to 

 work on railroads leading to the lands that 

 were to be conceded to them. The majority fell 

 sick from the effects of the climate, many died, 

 most of those who survived returned to Nou- 

 mea, and those who had the means went back 

 to France. The colonists were workmen and 

 peasants who were sent out with their wives 

 and families by the Colonization Society, 

 which has furnished settlers of the same class 

 for New Caledonia and other French islands. 



In 1878, when the Australian press was 

 urging the annexation of the New Hebrides by 

 Great Britain, the French ambassador at Lon- 

 don wrote to Lord Derby, saying that, as his 

 Government had no intentions with regard to 

 the group, it would like to have the matter set 

 at rest by a like declaration of the British 

 Government. The British Government an- 

 swered that it had no intention of interfering 

 with the independence of the islands. This 

 agreement was a renewal of an understanding 

 that was come to between the two govern- 

 ments as early as 1840, and took the form of 

 definite promises in 1858. In 1883 the ques- 

 tion of annexation was again agitated in Aus- 

 tralia, and the French Government sent a 

 communication asking whether the declara- 

 tions of 1878 were still adhered to on the part 

 of the English Government, as they were on 

 its own part, because otherwise it would be 

 compelled to insist on the maintenance of the 

 existing state of affairs. Lord Granville, who 

 was then Foreign Minister, replied in a dispatch 

 to Lord Lyons, the British ambassador at 

 Paris, that the agreement of 1878 was consid- 

 ered perfectly valid. A note verbale to that 

 effect was handed in at the French Ministry 

 of Foreign Affairs. Lord Derby had assured 

 the Australian colonies that no proposition for 

 the annexation of the New Hebrides by a for- 

 eign power would be entertained without con- 

 sulting the colonies and securing arrangements 

 satisfactory to them. In January, 1886, the 

 French Government offered to relinquish the 

 deportation of relapsed criminals to the Pacific 

 if it were allowed to annex the New Hebrides. 

 Lord Rosebery communicated the proposition 



