I am less eager about Arrah, though I cannot agree with Mr. Sutherland that we ought to do nothing at a place, because we find that the friends of education are already doing something there from their private means. As Mr. Dent says that Mr. Macleod the master, who appears from his letter to be a person of respectable qualifications, is well known to some members of our Committee, I should be glad to learn what they think of him.
I defer making any proposition about the disposal of the rest of our surplus, till the financial statement comes before us, which I hope will be very soon.—[Book N. page 118.] 2nd August, 1837.
Payment of the alleged arrears of the personal allowance of the Saugur School Pandit.—I cannot quite agree with Mr. Trevelyan. Whether the personal allowance made to Kessen Rao was too great or not, was a question to be considered when it was determined. To give it him,[1] to omit paying it, and then to tell him that we do not mean to pay arrears because the sum is so large, seems to me a very slovenly and not a very fair mode of proceeding. If his allowance is to be reduced, let it be reduced prospectively, not, as Mr. Trevelyan proposes, retrospectively. The arrears are a debt and cannot be withheld. What is to come may perhaps be under our control.
I agree with Mr. Trevelyan’s other propositions.—[Book K. page 22.] 30th January, 1836.
Saugur School.—If the Saugur fund will not pay the whole of Guru Churn Mitra’s salary, the deficiency must be made up out of our general fund. Any thing is better than to keep him at Benares doing nothing. If the Saugur Fund can afford him only 75 Rs. we shall have 50 Rs. a month to pay. And this is both a cheaper and better arrangement than to give him, as we now do, 100 Rs. a month without any equivalent.—[Book K. page 48.] 8th March, 1836.
Saugur School.—I do not very much like either Mr. Shore’s plan or Mr. Sutherland’s. If we are to lay out upwards of 400 Rupees a month at Saugur, I should think that our best course would be to send thither a master competent to give a really good English education, and to allow him 250 Rupees a month. This is the course which we have followed at Patna, Dacca, and other places: nor do I see why Saugur should be placed under a different system. We shall expend on that district a sum as large as would support one of our best Schools; and
- ↑ Mr. Trevelyan explains that the increase of salary was promised on the condition that the Pundit should serve in the proposed English School. The English School was not opened so soon as it was expected, and therefore the increase was not earned.—H. W.
