WHAREKAKA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 119, 26 July 1873, Page 2

WHAREKAKA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) A meeting of the trustees of the Presbyterian Church was held here on the 15th instant, for the purpose of considering what steps ought to be taken in order to render the church tenantable by the school children. Mr Harvey in the chair.

The chairman stated that he felt sure one and all of the trustees were not only fully impressed with the importance to the province at large of the present educational movement, but that they were also most anxious to promote, to the best of their ability, the interests of education in their own district. It was, he considei’ed, the duty of the settlers to aid the Board. It had not got its machinery into full working order, still, it was rendering good service to the community, and it was only fair that the people should lend it a helping hand. Pie regretted to see so much apathy displayed by many parents regarding a matter of such vital importance to their offspring as education. The Waihenga people ought to have made their wants, in regard to school accommodation, known to the Board at a much earlier period. Had they done so, they would, doubtless, have been in possession of a suitable building. Mr Smith moved a resolution to the effect that the offer of the Education Board, Wellington, to place a stove in the church, be accepted, provided the Board would pay the premium of insurance on the building. He was of opinion that they were well entitled to have schoolroom and teacher’s residence erected by the Board. It being out of the question to expect that the children could attend in inclement weather unless something were done to render the church more comfortable than it was at present, he hoped the trustees would raise no objections to the Board’s proposals, which were merely made in order to tide the school over the present severe season. If they did not close with the offer which had been made to them, then the school might as well be discontinued. Parents who had any regard for their children’s health would not send them to sit for five hours in a building without a fireplace. As to any injury that the Church might sustain from the proposed alterations, that appeared to him as nothing compared to the injury which would be inflicted on the children if they were compelled to assemble on cold, wet days in the buildings, in its present condition. Mr Wilton said he felt called upon to oppose the resolution for two reasons. First, because notwithstanding every care taken by the teacher, the church in less than six months’ time would be in anything but a creditable state for holding divine service in, and secondly, because he considered that the amount of money collected within the district in the shape of education rates was more than sufficient to entitle them to go to the Board and request that a schoolhouse and teacher’s residence should be erected on the ground that had been laid off as a site for these buildings. He had exerted himself to get a school started in the district, and he would still do his utmost to promote its efficiency, but he had certainly never anticipated that the building which had been erected expressly as a church should be permanently used as as a classroom. The settlers at Featherston, Greytown, Masterton, and on the Taratahi, as well as those residing on the West Coast, were either having schoolrooms enlarged or getting new ones put up, and were the settlers at Waihenga to take the trouble to ask the Board for what was so greatly wanted—a proper schoolhouse —there was very little doubt but that they would get it. He had called upon the settlers who had children attending the school, and had

asked them what they meant to do towards securing proper school accommodation : but he found that they weren’t disposed to bestir themselves in any way. Were the people fully alive, to their children’s highest interests, and were they only willing to take a little trouble on their children’s behalf, they would, he thought, make the not unreasonable request to be provided with a building suitable for educational purposes. By entertaining the board’s proposals, years would, he feared, elapse before they would see a schoolhouse in the township. Both what he (Mr Wilson) conceived to be his duty as a trustee of the church and his desire to have a district school placed on a permanent basis, led him to oppose the resolution.. Mr M‘Leod said rather than that the school should be closed, he would second the resolution ; but he hoped the chui'ch would not be required by the board after the winter. The resolution was carried, and Mr Smith was requested to communicate the result of the meeting to the Education Board.