The London Academy of Music, St. George's Hall, Langham Place, Regent Street, is designed for vocal and instrumental students, amateur and professional, desirous of receiving a complete musical education in this country from the best London professors on the moderate fees of the Continental institutions.
Students can select either harmony, pianoforte playing, singing, or any other branch of the art, as their principal study, and receive individual instruction in that branch from one of the principal professors; they will in addition receive instruction in two other branches.
The year is divided into three terms, each term consisting of twelve weeks' instruction. A lesson is given once a week in each branch of study, students residing at a distance can receive all their lessons on one day. The fee for each student is 5 guineas per term. This includes a whole course of instruction necessary for a complete musical education. French, German, Italian, elocution, and deportment, are all extras. The fee for each is £1 1s. per term. A fee of £3 3s. is charged for students desirous of attending the operatic class and the drawing and painting class.
All fees are required to be paid in advance. Candidates for admission as students must show that they possess sufficient ability to profit by the course of study, and are required to attend at the Academy before the commencement of the term at which they desire to be admitted in order to be examined by the principal. The examination fee is 5s. There are several scholarships; these entitle their holders to one year's free instruction, or to two years' instruction by paying half fees each term.
Further particulars can be obtained at the office, St. George's Hall.
Printing.—A women's printing office has been established at 21B, Great College Street, Westminster, where only female apprentices are taken. In answer to my questions, the girls said they liked the work much, and found it very interesting; it is necessary that they should read and spell well, and have some knowledge of punctuation. The apprenticeships are for three years, and the premium is £2, which is returned in wages, as they commence after the first month, at the rate of 2s. 6d. per week, rising to 10s. by the end of the three years; after that time the amount earned depends upon the worker's industry and quickness; the average earnings are from £1 to £1 10s. a week. The hours of work are from 9 till 6.30, with an hour's interval for dinner; all the workers, including apprentices, are paid extra for overtime.
Several other printers employ women, but when men are employed as well the women are not usually paid at the same rate, and the premium in most cases is £5. Messrs. Bale, of 87 and 89, Great Titchfield Street, have taken girl apprentices for many years, and Mr. Bowden, of Red Lion Street, has done the same. Miss Emily Faithfull was the first to introduce printing as an occupation for women in England, and has employed them for some time at her Victoria Press, in Praed Street, Paddington.
Dressmaking.—A lady, trading under the name of Grace and Co., has recently started a business at Albany House, 259, Vauxhall Bridge Road, S.W., with the following avowed objects:—
I. To provide work for ladies who do not desire charity.