318 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
sidered as the most important department of 
regular instruction. We have always superin¬ 
tended the schools, and generally taught the 
higher classes. In some stations, the boys and 
the men have been educated in one school, and 
the women and girls in another ; in others, the 
different sexes have been taught at different 
times; and in some, they have assembled in the 
same schools. This, however, has not been 
general. We have been favoured, in most of the 
stations, with valuable native teachers, in both 
the male and female schools. To this method of 
instruction we have looked for the perpetuity of 
the work, of which we had been privileged to 
witness the commencement; and from its influ¬ 
ence on the rising generation, we have derived 
encouragement in reference to the stability and 
increase of the Christian church. 
In the island of Huahine, we had, during the 
latter part of our residence there, two district 
schools, one for the males and the other for the 
females, which we found more conducive to their 
improvement, than the method of instructing both 
sexes in the same school. After the departure of 
Mr. Davies in 1820, the superintendence of the 
schools had devolved entirely on Mr. Barff. The 
female school in Huahine was under the manage¬ 
ment of Mrs. Barff and Mrs. Ellis; and those at 
several of the other stations were also super¬ 
intended by the wives of the Missionaries. 
The habits of the people did not allow of their 
attending school with that regularity which scho¬ 
lars observe in England. Many of the pupils 
being adults, had other engagements. In order, 
however, to ensure as regular and punctual an 
attendance as possible, the principal instruction 
