Hawke's Bay Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1877.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3936, 19 June 1877, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1877.

A writer, signing himself "Another one who knows," sends the following to the Poverty Bay Herald in reference to the recent Te Kooti scare : — " Sir, — Several persons have asked me as to the truth of the rumor relative to the return of Te Kooti to this district. It has arisen, I think, in consequence of a message received by a native called Rakiroa, who was informed by a message sent by Te Kooti to Martha his wife, who resides at Waerenga-a-hika, urging her to join him at Waikato, that it was his (Te Kooti's) intention to return to his home at Turanganui, and when he came he would bring his (Rakiroa's) children with him. For some months past natives from this place and Te Wairoa have been going to and fro to Waikato ; there they saw Te Kooti, who naturally asked about his relations, and expressed a desire to return ; he possibly thinks lie will not be interfered with. I think the fact of his sending for his wife shows plainly that lie has no intention of returning just yet, and that there is no cause whatever for alarm. " It is difficult to understand how a report so foolish could have gained credence at all, in the face of the fact that the Constabulary stationed at Taupo and the friendly Ureweras intervened between Te Kooti and Poverty Bay. The worst part of the matter is that the canard has been disseminated by telegraph throughout the colony, and will probably do a good deal of mischief, as people from the South will for a long time to come be indisposed to invest their capital in a district which they will suppose to be so fraught with danger of incursion by hostile natives. It is very likely that the report was worked up by persons eager for the supposed gains to be obtained by the expenditure of money in maintaining a Constabulary force in the district, or by the compensation which they might hope to get from the Government.

The trust estates created by the Crown for religious, educational, and charitable purposes in the North Island form the subject of a somewhat lengthy article in the Lyttelton Times of last Wednesday. Our Christchurch contemporary commences with the assertion that the condition of those estates is, in the great majority of cases, a public scandal, and then proceeds to prove the assertion by referring to two reports of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into these trusts, the reports having been sent in as long ago as 1869, the first one in May and the second one in June of that year. The article in the Lyttelton Times does not in any way whatever indicate that the condition of the estate which it so strongly condemns is that of the present time, and we are therefore somewhat at a loss to conceive how it is that the two reports, some eight years old, have been allowed to lie interred so long, and are only noAv unearthed for use. Possibly, however, we may have the state of matters brought down to a later period in the "farther remarks" which the Lyttelton Times promises. Meanwhile, we reprint the following remarks of our contemporary, which, as they refer to this district and its vicinity, will no doubt be interesting to our readers : — ' ' The second report, written a month after the date of the first report, refers to the Poverty Bay Native School Estate, the Te Aute Native School Estate, the Napier School Estate, and the Wairoa School Reserve. The object of the Poverty Bay native school, which received a grant of 593 acres of land and £1848 of public money, was, we are glad to learn, steadily pursued until native disturbances caused its operations to cease. A. considerable portion of the buildings and improvements was destroyed, and the remainder is, for want of occupation, in a state of decay. We, however, fear that, notwithstanding quiet has been restored for the last seven years, nothing has been done to resume the fulfilment of the trust. The Napier School and Wairoa School Estates call for no special comment. We gather from the report that both were in a fair way of fulfilling their trusts. We are sorry that we cannot so easily pass over the Te Aute Native School estate. Twenty-five years ago this estate was given a princely endowment of more than 7000 acres of land, 2300 of which were given by the natives themselves ' upon trust as an endowment for a school to be maintained at Te Aute,' in the district of Ahuriri, * for the benefit of the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand.' No school has been erected, and for only six years, 1854 to 1859 inclusive, was any education given, and then only in consideration of an annual grant of public money. Everything has been done to improve the property, and we hear of sheep and wool, but nothing of natives and education. If this system of letting ' wealth accumulate and men decay' be persisted in for a few years longer, we shall have by and bye an income adequate to the support of a school, but no scholars of the race which so largely contributed to its endowment and for which the trust of that endowment specially devoted it. The following remark of the Commissioners cannot but be read with sorrow and shame :— ' It will, nevertheless, be apparent that while the object of the management— the rendering the estate productive of an available income— has been nearly attained, the children of the native donors of the land have grown up to maturity, drawing little or no benefit from the trust.' This report, like the other, would have slept, 'it has been for years, and it may be for ever," had not Mr Henry Russell, a member of the Legislative Council, disturbed its peaceful slumber in the session of 1875 ; but, judging from official inaction, it seems the Government think there should be still ' a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.' "