OUR WOODVILLE LETTER.

Evening Post, Volume XLIV, Issue 45, 22 August 1892, Page 2

OUR WOODVILLE LETTER.

(Our Own Correspondent.) Woodville, 19th Augnst. It has heen raining during the past few days, but the weather of the previous week was all that could be desired. So far, the lambing season has been one of the best known for healthy offspring, but the percentage is likely to fall short of last year's return. With the coining spring, sheep are hardening in price, but the opinion is generally expressed that the prices of last year will not be again obtained. _ The craze for poisoning dogs Btill continues. Two more dogs were poisoned in M* Lean-street this week (nearly all the poisoning occurs there), yet there is still no clue to the perpetrators. It is necessary that the farmers around should look out for stray dogs, as the ravages among sheep from this source have caused uneasiness, and will increase until the lambing season is over, but poisoning cannot possibly prove an effectual antidote when administered in the haphazard manner that it is. At Danovirke, also, dog-poisoning is rampant, even dogs on chain being poisoned. There is still a growing feeling in Hawkes Bay that parents should become the possessors of the examination papers of their children. In many instances they are most anxious to know exactly what their children have achieved during the year, not altogether through curiosity, but also in order that they may be able to fortify their weak places. Such information as can be at present obtained, without showing any objectionable inquisitiveness, must be on the assertions of their children or hearsay, and may or may not be correct. No doubt an Inspector's work would be very much augmented by such & coarse, and the question is would it be worth the extra labour involved? If so, there could be no other reasonable objection to the resolution of the Napier School Committee, which recommended the Hawkes Bay Education Board to provide for the distribution of examination papers to the children's parents. The Danevirke School Committee have resigned, with the exception of two members. No reason has been given for such a course, and the people are wondering that there could be a reason for leaving the parents unrepresented which should not be made public. The " eternal lease " haß been freely discussed amongst the special settlers here, with the result that there is almost a unanimous expression of opinion that the Minister of Lands should extend the provision to them. The arguments in favour were that the system would afford them compensation for all the difficulties a settler must encounter in a new locality ; that in case of inability to settle, the forms are such as will tempt transferees to give the fall value of improvements readily; that in conjunction with the limited area provided for under Special Settlement regulations it will ensure a population sufficiently numerous to provide that schools shall be erected and maintained for the education of the children of settlers. It was pointed out that the weak portion would be the funds to carry on improvements, and it was hoDed toe Government would see their way to help the settlers in this direction. In my opinion the question of schools is the moßt serious of any ¦we have to contend with. Where population becomes or remains sparse, the few that remain are excluded from what is deemed the greatest factor in

national progress, and the constant cry is* heard on all hands, " I will not go back to live until there's a Bohool."