FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF SCHOOLS, &C. 303 
free schools had fallen very low in the matter of 
funds, and that the Kirk Session resolved to make 
a colle€tion on their behalf, which colleétion, amount- 
ing to 1155 guilders, the Reverend Moderator was 
ordered to divide equally between these charitable 
institutions. In 1830, and for some considerable time 
previous to that date, there were also two slave 
schools in Georgetown. In addition to the aid volun- 
tarily given to the free schools by the Church, a sum 
of £150 was annually voted to them by the Colony. 
The Master and the Mistress of these schools received 
about £100 a year each for their services. Inaddition to 
the free public schools for the poorer children, there were 
several private ones in different parts of the Colony,— 
two in the parish of St. Mary, and one in each of the 
parishes of St. Matthew, St. John, and St. James, in 1830+ 
From a pamphlet published by the late Mr. KETLEY we 
learn that a school was commenced by a Mrs. LEwis at 
Providence Chapel in 1832, Thanks chiefly to the 
efforts of the London Missionary Society, the state of 
public education seems in those early times to have been 
more in advance in Berbice than in Demerara. JOHN 
and LyDIA FISHER had kept a public free school in New 
Amsterdam for several years. And every year in almost 
the same words they reported for the information of the 
Governor that the school was supported by voluntary 
contributions and conduéted upon religious and Christian 
principles, that it was opened and closed with prayer, 
that Master JOHN taught the children reading and 
writing, while Mistress LyDIA imparted a knowledge of 
plain needlework, and that each of them received 
4107.3.4 for their pains. Times became rather hard 
QQ2 
