THE GORE LANE SCHOOL

has gone on improving in numbers and efficiency since its foundation. For some months, these essentials to prosperity proceeded at an equal march. But, afterwards, the attendance of younger children became numerous enough to interfere with the tuition of the elder. This serious inconvenience was beginning to be felt at the publication of the last Report. However, at the very crisis, the Trustees of the little British and Foreign School at the bottom of the Lane, ingenuously acknowledging the decided preference manifested by the parents of the children for the teaching of the Church, and finding the impossibility of maintaining, with any adequate return, their own establishment, with praiseworthy liberality offered it to the Vicar, under an impression that he might still render it useful, by converting it into an Infant School. Although an assent to this proposal involved an immediate acceptance of liabilities to the amount of £100, the necessary funds were advanced through the Treasurer of the Trust, in the conviction that, when the circumstances of the transfer became known, so great an obligation would not be suffered to rest on the generosity of a single individual. Thus, an Infant School, and playground as well as a Master’s House, are secured to the present Trustees, at a small annual rent of £5. The result has, in a great measure, justified the anticipations of the Promoters of the transaction. The Christ Church Congregation, to which these Schools are peculiarly attached, have partially accepted the responsibility. The whole juvenile population of the Lane avails itself of the opportunities afforded to it. Fifty Infants attend the Lower, one hundred boys and girls the Upper School. Their pence have increased

from £1 14 6 in 1851,
to £10 16 4 in 1852.
The Subscriptions from £18 11 0 in 1851,
to £42 12 6 in 1852.

£92 have been contributed in donations, and a new item in the income, arising out of the sale of the girls’ work, [19] returns as the profits for the last six months £2 3s. These are encouraging features of the prospect, but when it is considered on the other hand, that the very large and special expenditure involved in the purchase of the New School, and the reduction of its share in the Collection at St. Mary’s, from £30 to £14 should have fallen in the same year, it cannot be a matter of surprise that the adverse balance of the last account is more than doubled in the present. Whilst, therefore, the Managers would return to those many friends who have assisted them with gifts of clothing, and other prizes, for the pupils, they would earnestly press upon the congregation of Christ Church, and the residents in the Gore, the duty of yielding to the Schools of their Church and neighbourhood, a regular, a liberal, and a conscientious support. It is a pleasure to add that this call has been responded to by several; were all to act in a like spirit, as God has prospered them, there would no longer be an occasion for these appeals.

In passing from the juvenile to the adult members of the labouring classes, the Visitors are bound to keep the same principle in view of helping them to help themselves. Whilst either are capable of so doing, it is the truest charity to withhold all other aid. In children, this is effected by insisting on their receiving an Education adapted to their future prospects: in adults, by fostering providence and forethought. “Frugality,” said Goldsmith, writing to his brother, “in the lower orders of mankind, is true ambition; it affords the only ladder for the poor to rise to preferment. Teach then, my dear sir, to your son, thrift and economy. I had learnt from books to be disinterested and generous, before I was taught from experience the necessity of being prudent.” This homely but difficult truth is becoming year by year more generally acted upon. It influences the whole social body. Insurances on life and against accidents are its forms amongst people enjoying wealth and competence. With others, possessed of smaller, but permanent incomes, the savings’ banks develope its latent energies. Provident funds remain for those who live from hand to mouth. Of these last, there are four in St. Mary Abbott’s, having for their objects the safe keeping of weekly deposits, to be appropriated respectively to Coal, Clothing, Rent, and other minor expenses, at the end of each year.

The last Report recorded a falling off in 1851 in the contributors to the Coal Club; it has been amply compensated for by the present large increase. The accompanying statement shows the comparative numbers in each year:—

Depositors.

Deposits &premium.

Coals distributed.

1851

367

£181

17

1

145 tons

1852

425

209

2

10

174 tons 5½ cwt.

A similar table indicates a similar satisfactory advance in the Clothing Fund, which has never retrograded since its establishment:—

Families depositing.

Amountdeposited.

Amount spent.

1849

73

£36

19

4

£42

14

7

1850

124

55

17

5

65

8

5

1851

157

66

15

0

72

12

6

1852

190

78

14

1

91

19

9

In the Winter Club, on the other hand, there has been a large diminution in the number of Depositors, consequent on the reduction in the interest which, in former years reached the excessive rate of fifteen per cent. on the sums received; the result was, a disproportionate accession of members, some of whom were not entitled to avail themselves of its benefits. By means of the Visitors these impositions were detected, people depositing in false names and residences exposed, and instances of fraud from one person holding several cards prevented. By lowering the interest about one half, the temptation to deception has been lessened; and so healthy is the present condition of the Club, that no case of artifice occurred at the recent repayment of the principal. Its statistics now are—

Depositors.

Deposited.

Withdrawn.

Paid.

308

£309

6

0

£40

3

6

£289

2

5

Of its 308 depositors, 89 were also depositors to the Coal and Clothing Funds.

The Provident Club, instituted for the reception of small sums, from one penny upwards, is also doing its best to strengthen the same practical thrift. Though open all the year, its chief receipts are taken, as might be rationally concluded, during those months when the other funds are not in operation. In one District, where the Visitor herself collects the weekly savings, the comparatively large sum of £8 has been set aside. As no interest is allowed in this Club, such a fact goes far to confirm the opinion that it is safe keeping, not usury, that the poor desire. Nor could a more pleasing proof of their confidence in their Visitors be adduced, than that afforded by the simplicity and good faith in which they trust their money to their charge. The statistics of the Club may be thus condensed:—

Depositors.

Sum deposited.

Balance from1851.

Withdrawn 1852.

Balance.

128

£24

6

4½

£7

11

5½

£20

12

8½

£11

5

1½

In aggregating the result of the above economical agencies, it appears that they have been used during the past year by upwards of a thousand families, the sum of whose united deposits ranges between six and seven hundred pounds. Were there no ulterior benefits connected with the Society, this alone should ensure it the commendation of intelligent philanthropists.

But it is not only by pecuniary transactions that a preparation for the future is presented to the mind of the prudent housewife: she is invited to insure against the cold.