Description | Sends quarterly report; has appointed extra person (former schoolmaster) to Palamcotta schools, who daily checks number of absent scholars then goes to their homes and "if the reason [for absence] appear not a sufficient one [is] to send them to school"; inspected Protestant churches "to the Southward" and supplied needed schoolmasters; appointed Marnuppirakarsum to Mothelloon, and other men to Mookupurkuderippoo and Situmburapuram; established girls' school at Puryoor, and proposed girls' schools at the two main stations; hopes to open school in Tinnevelly pettah in Roman Catholic district; asks for more help and money, the opportunities are overwhelming; has received supplies of testaments from Tranquebar, but only four or five are left; considers the Serampore Tamil testaments have "one great fault that might easily be remedied and that is the separation of the words, which causes precisely the same confusion to the natives that we should experience on reading an English sentence with the words all joined to each other. The Tamil always runs, as the natives call it ..... all notes of interrogation and admiration, also, are quite superfluous and tend only to increase the confusion"; has employed Mr. Graham and Mr. Lyons to examine all the Tamil schools at least once a week (their own schools open 9am to 3pm so it is easy for them to take on this extra task); academy for catechists continues; the forteen and fifteen-year-olds would normally be earning and because of this sometimes miss their studies, suggests paying them half a pagoda a month to remain in full-time study; asks if Schnarre may visit Tinnevelly to inspect schools [Thompson adds note relating to Schnarre's length of absence from his own work if this were agreed to].
|