EDUCATING ISLANDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15650, 2 July 1914, Page 10

EDUCATING ISLANDERS.

NEW ZEALAND'S TASK. ♦NATIVE- SCHOOL AT NIUE. JTONGAN SYSTEM REVIEWED. Three yjars "fcgo the Government sent Mr. W. 0. Smith to Niue to take charge j of (the fist State school to be established • in the islands dependencies of New Zea- j land, and he commenced his work on lads | who knew not a word of English. When i the Hon. Dr. Pomare. Minister in chnrgo, of the Islands Department, was in Niuo on Juno 14, he visited the Tufukea school,' and a number of the boys made speeches : which were not only in very admirable English, but as samples of oratory would have made useful models for some of New Zealand's aspiring politicians. There are nearly 60 boys receiving tuition in the Tufukea school. They sleep in two clean and airy dormitories, and they spend their week-ends at _ their , homos, from which they receive their sup- j plies of food. The brightest boys from | practically all the villages find coveted; places in the institution, and their anxiety Jo learn, and their inspect for the tactful man who teaches them, are almost sufficient in themselves to eliminate all the difficulties of control which the heads of similar English institutions have to fact!. The school syllabus? has been arranged to suit tho requirements of the j island, and the boys are taught little J-hat, will not bo of use to them in their somewhat 'restricted sphere of life. A good knowledge of English, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, the keeping of ' accounts, with technical training in carpentry, practically comprise the school course, which should take three or four years to go through. Teachers far the Villages. The greater number of the boys now in the Tufukea school will become t«acbcrs of the schools to be established by the Administration in the small villages of jNiue. There is no doubt that their ser- J vices are wanted. The census taken in 1911 showed that there were 800 children of school age in Niue, of whom only a very small proportion were receiving instruction in the mission schools. When the well-trained lads from the Tufukea school spread themselves over the inland, carrying the rudiments of education to the villagers, and giving them a certain amount of instruction in technical subjects, a work that will have very excellent and far-reaching results will bo initiated. lie Tufukea school extends instruction to boys only, but the establishment of the system of village schools, of course, will apply equally to boys and girls. - The possibilities of a proper system of technical education, if made available to these young islanders, has t been demonstrated by Mr. Smith, who, unassisted, for the past year or two, lias been teaching his boys carpentry. They have not only, acquired remarkable skill in the use of the tools, but they also show cleverness in designing and making articles of furniture, and the schoolhouse, and many island residences, are now the richer for sofig, towel-horses, tables, blackboards, etc., made by the boys in a manner that- would not shame any city joinery shop. _ In an address to the principal islanders, the; Hon. Dr. Pomare said that the Administration expected the people of the varioiaa villages to provide suitable school building?. The teachers would be trained at A number of boys were practically ready for th«i . work now, and ths vi',lagers would obtain their teachers as the training of the latter was finished, aiul as the necessary accommodation was provided by the people. . Education in Tonga. In .Nukualofa., the chief town of Tonga, the Hon. Dr. Pomare met Mr. W. H. Gould, recently a school teacher in Wellington, and now ' Director of Education : for the Tongan Government, and from Mr. Gould he obtained -much valuable information about the organisation, effective- . ness, and co3t of the Tongan system. Mr. Gould, though handicapped by lack of money, the difficulties of inter-communica-tion in the Friendly Islands, and the inefficiency of the majority of the native teachers he has at. present to employ, appeared to be gradually bringing the Education Department of Tonga into a satisfactory condition, and bis first annual report, issued recently, gives; interesting particulars-. of an experiment that is in many senses unique— attempt made by an independent island kingdom to educate its people. . ; There are to be three kinds of public schools under the control of tho Tongan

'< Education Department:-- _ Primary schools, providing. an elementary education on a vernacular basisMiddle schools, providing an elementary education on an English basis. High schools, providing a general education in secondary subjects, and in which \ instruction in such subjects as carpentry and agriculture-shall be imparted. In addition to r.he 55 public schools directly under the control of the Education Department, therd an 14 State-aided schools controlled by the Roman Catholic * mission, and 21 private schools (two of them secondary) entirely controlled and . maintained by the various missions. It is hoped that in time these mission schools , may bo organised and taught upon the earns basis as the State schools, but at present there is little prospect of this. Information , gathered in Nukualofa indicated that there is no cordiality and little co-operation between the mission schools • and the Education Department. The chuichm still exercise a tremendous influence in Tonga, and it is recognised that the Tcngan Free Church— offshoot of the Methodist Church—has a big voice in State affairs. The Education Department is anxious,, that all the children shall be given a knowledge of English, thus opening to them an .'avenue by which they may arrive at the practical benefits of education. . The missions have taught the last few generations cf Tcngans to read, write, etc., only in trie vernacular, and', although they are behind the Government, which directs that the Tongan education system shall be placed gradually upon an English basis, it is not believed that they view the change with enthusiasm. A press representative was informed by a prominent Tongan that, while the total annual revenue of this miniature State amounts to some £50,C00, the total revenue of the churches operating in the Friendly Islands is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of £70,000. Training Tongan Teachers. Although provision is made in the Tonran Education Ordinance for the establishment of schools in which instruction ■ EhaD be imparted in the vernacular, and although 95 per cent, of the present schools are purely native schools, the organisation of the Department will gradually transform the great majority of schools into " middle schools," or schools in wnich the children will be given « working knowledge of English. This will be done through the teachers. At present the majority of the native teachers are only a degree less ignorant than their pupils. But in the Tongan College, in which two young New Zealanders, Mr. R. N. Burns and Mr. W. Anderson, are doing excellent work, over ISO voun b Ton pans are loing given a secondary education, mostly on an English basis, and these youths will become the public school teachers of the future. These college- ' trained lads constitute a fine type of clever young islander, and, with the enthusiasm that they carry to their work as teachers, and with their now capacity for developing their mental poweru and thinking broadly, they may— such a thing is possible—do something to awaken true national ideals aad aspirations in this little kingdom. : The astonishingly quick response of these islanders to mental or technical training mikes the work of teaching them interesting, and, to some extent, fascinating, and the undertaking of- the New Zealand Government, in extending the'education system to the villages of Niue, and in establishing four or five new schools in the Cook, Islands, will be watched by many I kesa students of Pacific Islands conditions. j