EDUCATIONAL MATTERS AT HOKIANGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 3696, 15 September 1873, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL MATTERS AT HOKIANGA.

Heed's Point School. — Muoh regret is felt that the Board of Education should have decided to disallow the charge of £10 annually for school accommodation incurred by the committee, and it is very probable, unless the Board resoind their decision, or otherwise provide suitable accommodation for school purposes, this sohool, which has hitherto been conducted with much success, must fall through, and the children allowed, as was formerly the case prior to the establishment of the school, to roam about in blessed ignorance. The new Education Act, and especially that portion of it making the payment of £1 annually by each householder compulsory, has never been viewed in a favourable light by the majority of the settlers in Hokianga, and the present action of the Board is not at all likely to tring the Act into favour. It would be a most injudicious step on the part of the Board, as well as a direct act of gross injustice to the Bettlera, to pormit this Bchool to collapse for the mere sake of withdrawing an expenditure of £10 per annum, especially when it is taken into consideration that the revenue derivable from sohool reserves in the district, together with the tax imposed under the Act, much exceed the expenditure for Bchool purposes. It is to be hoped that the Board will see they have behaved unfairly in passing the resolution complained of, and will take the earliest opportunity to remedy the wrong. Pboposed School foe Hokianga Head 3. —At the same meeting of the Board at which the resolution above complained of was adopted, it was agreed that a half-time school should be provided for tho Heads. This action proceeds on a petition forwarded by the requisite number of householders, praying for a school in their district, on the ground that their children were growing up in total ignorance, many of the parents being unable to teach thom the mere rudiments of the English language. Why the Heads should only be privileged with a half-time school, is mysterious. Perhaps the Secretary to the Board, on whose recommendation this arrangement was agreed to, can enlighten the settlers on the subject from the opportunities he has had, personally, of knowing the requirements of the district. It is an extremely hard CHse where fifteen or more taxpayers, living within the radius prescribed by the Act, the majority having families growing up in ignorance, should not receive the benefit of the tax exacted from them. That they should not do so is not the idtcution of the Education Act, but the result of partiality "and improper management of the Board. It ia possible the Board considor that because Hokianga happens to be situate in so reinoto a portion of the Island that its settlers must submit to whatever dictum it may please that august body to impose upon them. If thoy have eo to submit, it is not without having first kicked heartily to obtain that which they consider only their due.

While on the subject of education, I have much pleasure in stating that tho native schools in operation in the district have so far been attended with the most succcssful results, the native parents showing themselves fully sensible to tho benefits derivable from a good English education, by sending their children with commendable punctuality to tho schools. At presont the only schools established in the district are those at Waitapu and Waima, but in a few wooks it is that these will be supplemented by other two, viz., at Waimamaku aud Whiriuake, which, when fairly started, it is to bo hoped will prove as successful, both as regards attendance and general progress of pupils, as those now in operation. — [Correspondent.]