Due to the general uncertainty caused by the outbreak of War in Europe, the Art Industrial School was very adversely affected just at first and for several weeks received no orders at all. By November conditions were improving and from December onwards the school has been working at top pressure, often working overtime to cope with the work in hand.

  The reason for this activity is twofold - (1) two or three quite exceptional orders were received in December and (2) the big reduction which I have made in the number of boys in the school. It is easy to lose one's sense of proportion by the intensely busy time through which the school has just passed and to be tempted to think that perhaps, after all, it might be wiser to keep up the number of admissions more. To do so would be a mistake and to lose sight of the fact that the market for which the A.I.S. primarily caters is steadily declining.

  The A.I.S. is largely dependent upon the European market and must therefore rise and fall with this market as long as it caters for European tastes.

  A sister-institution in the Diocese - the C.M.S. Blind School at Palamcottah, receives its full meed [reward] of praise in the March number of the Tinnevelly Diocesan Bulletin because it "follows a very sensible policy in producing a great variety of articles for which there is an Indian market. The day of the Industrial Mission which depends on an European market must soon be done; there is a great future for the Mission which is firmly based on Indian desires and needs."

  Whether this is intended to be a reflection upon the policy of the Art Industrial School, I cannot say, but it can quite easily be interpreted as such. With regard to furniture, Indian "desires and needs" are cheapness first and cheapness last. It follows then that if the A.I.S. is to produce articles for which there is an Indian market it will have to lower its present high standard in order to cater for this market.

  What do we mean by the A.I.S. having to "lower its present high standard?" The A.I.S. has always stood for honest work, good design and finish and the avoidance of the miserable cheap-looking "botched-up" work which is so characteristic of the village carpenter when he makes European-style furniture. In order to sell it must be cheap, and good joints and finish make it expensive. Furniture design not understood in the slightest. Cheapness at all cost is the village carpenter's slogan.

  Personally, I have no intention of reducing the quality of A.I.S. furniture even if the market for it is declining. Let the number of boys in the school decline. No matter. Such boys as are in the school will at least be taught honesty in their work.

  It might of course be argued that the A.I.S. could still teach "honest work" if it started making ploughs, cart-wheels, water-lift stands, and similar farm and village implements. The village carpenter makes these quite nicely and there is no need for him to go to an institution like the A.I.S. to acquire the necessary training for learning how to make them. This he can pick up in his village quite easily. If the A.I.S. began making these things it would at once enter into most unfair competition with the village carpenter because the A.I.S. (with its Government, S.P.C.K., S.P.G. and diocesan grants) could make these much more cheaply than the village carpenter could possibly hope to. Certain people in the Diocese have recommended that such work be included in the school syllabus. This is quite absurd because a third-year boy of the A.I.S. could easily make such things, none of which requires very specialized training.

The school prepares boys for either blacksmithy work combined with car driving and maintenance, carpentry or tailoring. No boy who has not passed Std. V is accepted, and every boy must have reached the age of 12 and a half years and must produce a poverty certificate signed by his village tahsildar [a collector for, or official of, the revenue department]. After admission, the boy's education is continued up to Std. VIII by the end of the third year. Boys in the tailoring department undergo a three-year course and work to a Government Syllabus. At the end of their course, they are given a School leaving Certificate. Those who join the blacksmithy department have a four-year course and finish with a further one-year course of car driving and repair.

By far the largest proportion of boys enter the carpentry course which lasts for five years. The boys are given a School leaving Certificate in which their progress and conduct in each succeeding year is most carefully recorded. At the end of the fifth year the Government Inspector of Industries tests the workmanship of each boy before signing the Certificate. From the second year of their course the boys are given a small remuneration for work done. Part of this is deposited in their Savings Bank book and part is retained by the School for the purchase of a set of tools which is given to each boy at the end of his course, to enable him to practise his calling on leaving the school.

  The boys pay no fees but their boarding expenses are met out of income. Apart from profits made from the sale of articles of furniture, etc., … the school receives certain annual grants. The following list shows the value of grants received 'during the year which ended on 31st March 1939:

These reductions coincide with the fewer boys now in the School. Since I took over, the School strength has fallen from 122 (in February 1938) to its present level of 86 (in March 1940) and, with the decline of the European market, further reductions can be expected.

  All the members of the staff are Christian and the boys enter the school quite irrespective of their faiths. No preference is given to Hindus or Christians. The non-Christians usually receive Baptism before they leave the school and 17 boys were baptized last year. The school follows Clayton’s graded Bible lessons, and weekly devotes five periods of 30 minutes each for religious instruction. The Confirmation candidates receive a thorough grounding in the Church Catechism.

  The working-day begins with prayers in Chapel. On Sundays, Holy Communion is administered twice monthly in the school chapel and on the intervening Sundays the boys attend the Parish Church. Morning Prayer, conducted by members of the staff, is also held every Sunday in the Chapel. Day closes with informal evening prayers which, twice a week, is conducted by the boys themselves.

  There are 8 full-time members including one full-time writer (head clerk) and two part-time writers. The latter combine office work with teaching in the literary classes. They also, together with the school draftsman, take the Scripture period which immediately follows morning chapel. Once a month each member of the office staff preaches at Morning Prayer in the school chapel.

  The school has been working at a loss for several years. In the year 1938/39 in the boarding department there was a deficit of Rs.400/-. Since last March. I have made cuts in salary and in other ways tried to reduce this deficit on the present year's working. Unfortunately drought conditions are now prevailing in Nazareth and the price of rice and condiments is rising, and everything points to a still higher deficit by the end of the financial year which ends on 31st March 1940.

  On the running of the school (apart from the boarding), Rs. 1320/- was spent out of Capital in 1937/38. corresponding figure for 1938/39 was Rs.337/-, which is a considerable Improvement on the previous year's deficit. In spite of this it is a deficit, and the fact is that the A.I.S., in spite of its grants (see previous page) and in spite of its profits from the sale of articles made in the school workshops, is not paying its way. Its reserve fund, instead of growing, has to be drawn upon year by year.

  I can suggest no remedy for this state of affairs. It is quite clear that the A.I.S. has had its day.

  From the foregoing description of the school it will be noted how very much the evangelistic side of the work is taken out of my hands by my staff. This applies not only as regards the conduct of services and the Scripture periods but also in the even more important matter of preparation of the boys for Baptism and Confirmation. This is done by my writer who has had no special training as an evangelist and was formerly an office clerk in a neighbouring tea estate. My writer, excellent man that he is, impresses me much more for his business capacities than his ability as an evangelist, and I find it most unsatisfactory to be unable to have the evangelistic side of things in my hands.

  Of course the whole trouble is my lack of Tamil. This is a real handicap to my work, happiness and usefulness out here. In the school I am little more than a figurehead and at services merely a silent spectator. Often I long for a return to the Home Church.

  I find life at Nazareth very lonely due partly to the fact that I cannot speak Tamil and partly that my churchmanship does not find me too happy with my fellow missionaries in Nazareth. I am very conscious of being the "odd man out.” It does not increase one's happiness to feel one is head of a declining institution - for such the A.I.S. most certainly is. Randle (my predecessor) made a splendid job of the school but he had the advantage of the European market at its very best time. During the last few years of his time as manager of the school, decline had set in - and I was sent out to run a declining institution. To argue that new ideas and new management might arrest this decline is merely to shut one's eyes to the causes of this decline, which is mainly the Indianisation of the country and the falling off of European orders.

  History, I suppose, will record that under the management of the Rev. G. E. Hubbard, the A.I.S. rapidly declined as a diocesan institution. I hope however that my five years in the Diocese will also be remembered for the many building schemes for which the school was partly responsible in what may prove to be its closing years.

May I enumerate these?

1, The rebuilding of the S.P.G. bungalow at Nazareth finished in 1938.

2, The new chapel of the Nazareth Girls' School. This building was a complete break with usual church design and follows indigenous principles. It was finished in 1938.

3. New Bank Building for the Nazareth Co-operative Bank, finished in 1939.

4, First Section of the Bishop's Theological College Chapel at Tirmaraiyur. This building makes free use of temple 'motifs' in its stonework. First Section finished in 1939.

5. Warden's Bungalow at Tirmaraiyur. Built in 1939.

6. Oyangudi Church, commenced In 1938 and still being built. This is a large church in which I am blending the more familiar 'gothic' of the pioneer missionary with the architecture of the country. Will be finished in 1940.

7. The new chapel of the St. John's C.M.S. College at Palamcottah. Indigenous principles followed in its design and Hindu-style stone pillars, capitals and lintols used. Will be finished in 1940.

8. New Parish Church at Vikramasingapuram. This building is about to be started and will probably be completed in 1941.

9. The new chapel of the Union Christian College, Alwaye, Travancore. This building is shortly to be commenced and will probably be completed in 1941

10. Possible additions to a certain cathedral. At all events a certain Bishop has approached me about this work and I am not prepared to say more than this for the present.

  Chaplaincy work takes me to Tuticorin [Holy Trinity Church] once a month. I much enjoy my visits and a weekend in Tuticorin is in welcome contrast to the dreary Sundays spent in Nazareth. I am glad to be able to report a marked improvement in the number of communicants and of those attending Evening Prayer. I think that this is largely due to my arranging the services and service times to meet the people's needs.

Nazareth, S. India.

21st March 1940.