Under the new management, Mr. Randle's work is being maintained and extended. The past year has unquestionably been a good one for the school, all sections having been kept continuously busy. The carpentry section has executed orders for living and dining room furniture and equipment, study and bed-room suites, cabinets, sideboards, etc., chiefly in rosewood and in the latest modern style.

One of our new ventures is the production of cheap furniture to meet the needs of the Indian village home and for use in the kitchen, verandah or garden. This work is left unpolished and may be painted or left in the rough as is the case with kitchen and garden furniture at home. We feel that this will meet a very real need where highly finished furniture is not required.

Orders have been received for church furnishings of all sorts which we are in a position to execute at very much lower rates than any church furnishing company. We have just completed a set of choir stalls in teak at only Rs. 30/- each, which would be a worthy addition to any parish church in England.

School equipment, standard-size desks, easels, black-boards, lockers, filing-cabinets, have all passed through our hands during the year.

1938 has shown a slight upward trend, though previously there had been a decrease in furniture orders since 1932. The most marked increase in orders) however, has been for house carpentry. Doors, windows, frames, shutters, staircases, roofs and roof-trusses have frequently kept the school working overtime. Work carried out last year includes the new Girls' School Chapel, Nazareth; the reconstruction of the A. I. S. Principal's bungalow; a bank building in Nazareth for the Co-operative Bank; new houses at the Bishop's Theological College, Tirumaraiyur, and the rebuilding of Oyangudi Church in the Mukupeeri Circle. The designs, plans and quantities have been prepared by the school staff under the supervision of the Principal.

Another new venture which will, we hope, be of service to the Diocese is the preparation by the A. I. S. staff of the necessary plans, etc., for submitting to the Property Committee. We are glad to extend this assistance to any who are contemplating building work and who have difficulty in getting plans drawn.

Our blacksmithy department continues to justify its existence. It is the handmaid, very largely, of the carpentry section and makes all the brass and steel fittings required by the major department. A surprising amount of high-class metal work is turned out by this department, from locks and bolts of novel pattern up to elaborate processional crosses and other metal church fittings. 1938 has seen this department launching out into reinforced-concrete work, and the windows of the Girls' School Chapel in Nazareth were constructed in this medium by the blacksmithy boys. The services of this department have been in demand during the year for the repair of cars, often involving the making of spare parts not otherwise procurable.

Our tailoring section has had a varied programme ranging from shirts and shorts, pillows mattresses and mosquito curtains, to church vestments, cassocks and surplices.

1939 promises to be a thrilling year for us. It will, all going well, see the completion of Oyangudi Church where the interesting experiment is being tried of blending Indian temple architecture with more familiar forms of church architecture. An accurate scale model has been made and the effect is as pleasing as it is unusual.

A still further departure from standardized Victorian Gothic architecture, (so-called “Christian”) which is such an unfortunate feature in so many of our Tinnevelly Diocese churches, is now proceeding at the Theological Chapel Thirumaraiyur. Here pure south Indian temple forms are being employed in an entirety novel setting. A lofty gopuram will dominate the scheme and will stand above the Altar. In the first floor, 15’-0” above the Altar the pulpit will appear as a small Indian-style stone gallery. The nave will be in the form of an open air courtyard with roofed-in aisles. The celebrant will take a position facing west to the east of the Altar, thereby reviving a very early Christian practice.

This report has rather tended to place second things first, Above and beyond bricks and mortar, saws and lathes, we exist as a unit for the spread of the Gospel. At the time of writing we have 18 boys ready for Baptism and 26 ready for Confirmation. The school day begins with prayers in the Chapel and closes similarly when the day's work (and play) is over, just as the sun dips down beyond the Travancore Hills. Twice a week the boys conduct their own. services without any help from the staff — and very wonderful and inspiring these services often are. We have had several distinguished visitors to the School during the past year, among. them being:

Bishop Pakenham Walsh

Rev. W. L. B. Caley, Borne Secretary of the C. M. S.

Canon Hyde, of the Church Assembly Missionary Council

The Rev. H. P. Thompson, Editorial Secretary of the S. P. G.

REV. G. E. HUBBARD,

Fellow of the Indian Institute of Architects

Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects

S. P. G. Nazareth,

S. India,

Feb. 1939.