AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND ESTATE SCHOOLS. 297 



The following course of study will be found a useful one for 

 working men : 



First year Reading, writing, arithmetic. 

 Setond year Composition, grammar, accounts. 

 Third year Accounts, land-surveying, drawing. 



The course of study should be confined to a few months in each year 



that is, in the winter season, when the men are at home in the long 



evenings. Presuming that there is a reading-room, library, and evening- 

 school on the estate, three nights should be allotted for the evening- 

 school, and three for the reading-rooin, thus : 



Monday, School. 



Tuesday, . . . . . Reading-room. 



Wednesday, . . . . ' . School. 



Thursday, Reading-room. 



Friday, . . . . School. 



Saturday, Reading-room and library. 



In the organisation of a night-school, the ventilation of the room, the 

 supply of light, the temperature in winter, and the cleanliness of every 

 part, demand careful attention. The room should be pleasant in its 

 associations, due regard should be had to neatness and effect, and the 

 style of decoration should be simple and tasteful. 



But as it is the man and not the room that makes the school, care 

 should be taken in the selection of a teacher. Some night-schools are 

 taught by unpaid teachers; but such schools, dependent as they are upon 

 gratuitous labour, are often to a great extent precarious. In my opinion, 

 the best plan is to connect the night-school with the day-school, so that 

 the two may help to improve each other. There would thus be three 

 meetings in the day instead of two. In small villages the teacher of 

 the day-school might superintend at all the meetings. But where an 

 assistant -teacher is employed, the principal teacher could take sole 

 charge of the night-school, and be released from duty in the less impor- 

 tant afternoon-school. 



Thus the evening-school might be maintained at little or no expense 

 to the managers. Besides, no small advantage would accrue to those 

 children who are obliged to leave school at an early period of life in 

 order that they may earn their livelihood, or add their quota to the fund 

 necessary to support the family, since by the plan I have suggested 

 they would keep up their connection with the school where they had 

 received their primary education, and be enabled to pursue the studies 

 they have commenced. Besides the class of children I have referred to 

 as attending evening-schools, there are those of maturer years, whose 



