satisfactory condition of being self-supporting; and when the efforts of the Board of Management to clear off its debt of £500 (already reduced from £600) are crowned with success, it will be free to extend its sphere of usefulness, and to resume the female missionary work in the city. As a society quietly and effectively, but unobtrusively, working for good, it deserves well of the people.
THE KINDERGARTEN ASSOCIATION.
This is the youngest of the Philanthropic Institutions of Dunedin, and its formation dates back only to the middle of the present year (1889.) There was room for it, as the children for whose welfare it operates were not embraced in the aims of the organisations already in existence. No doubt, the Kindergarten system of education, so successful in many other places, would sooner or later have been in operation here, but as a matter of fact its introduction into Dunedin is due to the accidental circumstance of Mr. Mark Cohen having, in the course of last year, received a communication on the subject from Mrs. Sarah Cooper, the foundress of the system in San Francisco. Mr. Cohen readily enlisted the sympathy of the Rev. Rutherford Waddell, and through that gentleman the warm interest of Mrs. W. H. Reynolds was secured. That lady, with her characteristic energy, perused the literature on the subject; and having satisfied herself as to the merits of the system, she accepted the responsibility of initiating the movement in Dunedin. She was joined in the effort by a number of ladies, several of whom had had large experience in teaching the young; and Sir R. Stout, Mr. James Allen, M.H.R., Dr. Wm. Brown, the Rev. A. C. Yorke, the Rev. James Gibb, and other gentlemen, gave earnest support. Advantage was then taken of the presence in the city of Sir W. Fox, who, by request, gave an address on the working of the Auckland Association; and in February of this year a public meeting was held in the Town Hall, at which, with other gentlemen, Bishop Suter, now the Anglican Primate, spoke favourably of the system as he had seen it in operation in America. Curiously enough, the Bishop, previous to his visit to the States, was strongly opposed to the system, but what he saw in the course of his travels converted him to it. Subsequently, Mr. W. S. Fitzgerald, Rector
