The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1900. THE OPAKU RESERVE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 196, 19 September 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1900. THE OPAKU RESERVE.

The FJawera Star gives publication to t joint lattsr, which appears in another column, sent by the members for the Taranaki district to the Hon. W, 0. Walker re the Opaku Reserve. The Star also has an editorial on the subject in which the objections to the proposal are so forcibly and admirably put that we cannot do better than republish them here only adding that we entirely concur with the views of our contemporary, who says:—We have to thank Mr. McGuire, fjr an early copy of t'ue letter forwarded to the Minister of Education on the subject of tho disposition of the rents accumulated and to accruo from what is known as the Opaku reserve. At the samo time, we have to express our regret and disappointment- at the contents cf tho document. Tho proposal of the rep<es ntatives of the education bodies was to Uie the proceeds ef the endowment for higher education and univeisity scholar ships, pending the time, far off, when it could be direetly applied to the support of a university colUgi in Taranaki. The proposal of our Parliamentary representatives is to entirely ch.uiga the purpose of the reserve, and in a manner detrimental to tho int rests of Taranaki. Against tho proposal for a dairy school, scientific, tocbt ical, and practical, there is not a word to be said. The project in itself is cxcslle; t, tut we protest against sobbing Poter to benefit Paul. The Opaku reserve was set aside to promote university education, and it should not be diverted from that purpose except to make it at once applicable, within the spirit of the trust, for tho promotion of secondary education as the neirest practicable approach to its purposes. Technical education is entirely a different matter, and there is no more justice in taking the revenue of this particular reserve for the promotion of technical education than there would be for similarly changing the purpose of the rich endowments set aside in the South for the promotion of secondary and university education. Technical education, we have been repeatedly told, is a leading plank of the Government's educational platform, and in pursuance of its pledge the Government is bound to make due provision for giving effect to its policy throughout the colony. There can be no justification for providing out of colonial revenue for technical education in certain favoured parts of the colony, and seizing local endowments to pay for it in other parts, and' yet this is the partial and unjust policy which the members for Taranaki, above all men, have invited the Minister to adopt, to the prejudice of the districts whose interest they wore elected te protect. Such a suicidal proposal it would be difficult to parallel. And there is special injustice in it by reason of the fact that it is not the first instance of this kind of spoliation. A few years ago the Government seized the Mokoia reserve, with its accrued rents of hundreds of pounds, and appropriated it to the establishment of a diiiry school (which, ,by the way, is still ia ih-3 clouds), and to their discredit be it said, the Taranaki msmfcors made the feeblest o? protests in circumstances under which representative's of any other provincial district would navo combined (o step the business of tho Houve in order to raise public opinion against the propost d injustice, Surely the Taranaki membere, holding th-it an institution of tfce kind rof tried to in tbeir letter is a cecJEsi'y, have suffioient force and sufficient interest in their constituencies to show that it is the duty of the Government to establish it, and if they i want a special argument in fivour of it being located in Taramki they have only to point to the Mokoi-i rcs.-m, if no other, as affording sufficient evidence of local contribution towards t:u> jcosfc. Why t'aey should go out of their . w iy to suggest unoth&r act or spoliation iptsfea undsrs'andiug, The Opaku re--0 i. ..as set aiidd for a defiaito pur- : peso; lit tilt purposa as snarly as poe- : siblo be carried out. Ttchnic&l educa- ; tioa and a tuning college are good ithirds, hot ci:o Governinaiit have a!-. ' i.; auy converted a local endowment into 1 1 colonial property to prcvids for it ia ' this district, Nilly-wiliy, Taranaki has had to consent to that, but if more; | money is wanlod lot it onsno out of the ; general tnaiury, which id Sivdiug money for tecbciiyil schools eisewhwe. Strange iwNd fbjrt frr

robbing Taranaki of its reserves should come from the men elected to defend its interests.