hah 
FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF SCHOOLS, &c. 315 
enable them to impart such information as they possessed in the manner 
most easy to themselves and most conducive to the advancement of 
their pupils. 
In the Church of England schools here, the masters are of all degrees 
of attainments and qualifications, from one or two who have received a 
Normal School education, and are as competent to teach as any in the 
Colony, to those who are utterly illiterate—unable to utter a gram- 
matical sentence, to spell a line correétly, or to write a decent hand. 
The same diversity exists among the masters of the Wesleyan scbools, 
some of whom are among the best, a few among the worst in the Colony, 
Here the great want of a Normal School is felt. Not a few of these 
very men, whose intellectual attainments are so much below par, 
possess, what is invaluable in a teacher in this land, high moral qualities ; 
and a year or two’s Study and training would probably render them 
efficient masters. One fact that greatly affects the average charaéter of 
the Church of England teachers, is the Clerks and Catechists being 
required ex officio to aét as schoolmasters. This I pointed out in my 
former Report of July last as an evil, and subsequent experience has 
confirmed me in the opinion that it would be highly desirable to sepa- 
rate the two offices, and to allow the Clerks and Catechists to receive 
extra pay as schoolmasters, if found on examination competent to aé in 
that capacity. 
The masters of the Presbyterian schools do not present such a wide 
disparity in attainments as in the cases just mentioned. A few are un- 
questionably very superior to the rest, and, save their want of acquain- 
tance with the modern methods of teaching, would take no inferior 
position among their class at home. But on the average they are, I 
think, higher in point of attainments, as far as I have been able to judge 
from my limited intercourse with them, than the masters of the Church 
of England or of the Wesleyans. Several cannot write well, or spell 
accurately, but there is not one so miserably deficient in intellectual 
qualifications as are to be found in conneétion with the said religious 
communions. 
Among the striking defef&ts of many schoolmasters in this land, is 
their wretched creole pronunciation, and their inability to articulate 
several of the sounds in the English language- These defects, which 
are common also to their pupils, the masters are unable to remedy, and 
they become confirmed by the sanction of example. 
I cannot conclude this subject without expressing my opinion that the 
