WAIRARAPA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3202, 18 May 1871, Page 3

WAIRARAPA.

(From: Our Own Cokrespondent.) EDUCATION. Two school meetings are to be held during the present month — one at East Master ton on the 17th instant, and the other at Greytown on the 23rd instant, ■when committees will be elected and the rate imposed by the recent Act of the Provincial Council of £1 per house will be levied. Neither at East Masterton nor at Greytown has any school rate been levied for the past year, both stfeiool districts taking advantage of the then defect in the law, by refusing to put the machinery it provided into operation. The teachers at both schools have had to rely principally on school fees and the Government grant, when it has been forthcoming, for payment for their services. Under the existing law the rate of £1 per house will be levied, as the Government will appoint a committee and a collector if the ratepayers do not choose to do so. The new bill which is to be brought into the Council •will not affect existing school districts, but it will bring those parts of the province not at present included in school districts under the operation of the existing law. The subject is one likely to create much discussion and ill feeling, as a uniform rate of £1 per house is felt not to be equitable, and it will not bring the means of education within the reach of those parts of the province which most require Government aid. At the Tauherenikau school, double the sum would not pay a teacher's salary ; and the same remark applies with still more force to the Kaiwaiwai school, and also to the Moroa school. At the present, I believe, some of the settlers pay five times as much voluntarily as they will be required to pay under the proposed law, while, at the 'Moroa school, each child pays the maximum fee of one shilling per week, and each house in the district tho maximum rate of £1, and yet when the Government grant is added the total fund is insufficient to pay a master's salary. It is for this reason that no school has yet been opened at Waihenga, and hence the Hon. Mr Waterhouse suggested that instead of a house rate a rate on the annual value of all j^roperty in the district should be imposed. The suggestion, I should think, is worthy the serious consideration of the Government ; and, coming as it does, from the largest land-owner in the valley, who is also a member of the Upper House, it does infinite credit to his head and heart, and will carry with it much more weight than if it came from a less distinguished source. I am not aware whether the Government intend to continue or increase the grant now paid to schools out of the Provincial Treasury ; but I trust that if they do so they will adopt the recommendations, in the apportionment of the grant, thrown out by the late Bishop Abraham, by giving one-third to town schools, one-half to village schools, and two-thirds to country district schools, either towards the amount of the teacher's salary, or in proportion to the amounts contributed by the district in school rates and fees. Unless some arrangement like this be adopted those schools which could exist without either rate or grant will get most aid from the Government, while to those requiring most aid tho least assistance will be afforded. GRETTOWN ROAD DISTRICT. It is reported that the Government decline to forward the second moiety of the grant to the Greytown Road Board until the rates have been paid by the district. This will not be felt as a hardship, as the board had already resolved not to expend the grant until the rates had been collected. It will also enable the Government to reapportion the grant on a more just and equitable principle than that which the old Executive adopted. To apportion the grant amongst the several districts according to the amount of rates paid during the past year would, perhaps, under ordinary circumstances, have been the best mode that could have been adopted ; but to apportion the grant according to the maximum rate fixed at the annual meeting of ratepayers, which in many instances has been three times more, and in some instances ten times more, than the amount assessed and collected, is a proceeding which certainly cannot be justified. Had the apportionment really been made on the amount paid last year, the Taratahi would have got the lion's share of the grant in the Wairarapa, while Greytown and the Lower Valley would have been left out in the cold. But, under the circumstances, the appointments of the grants according to the amount of the rates paid during the past year would not have been reasonable or just. Owing to the clause inserted in the Volunteer Act many of the road districts were absolutely prevented by law from levying any rates at all. Before that Act had passed a meeting of the rate-payers of the Moroa road district had been called, which however, did not take place until after the Act had received the Governor's assent. The present Provincial Secretary was consulted as to what course should be taken under the cicumstanccs, who advised the adjournment of the meeting until after the meeting of the Provincial . Council. This was accordingly done, and therefore it was not the fault of the district, but the fault of the law that no rates were levied. Though both the Greytown and Lower Valley districts had fixed tho maximum acreage rate to • be levied prior to the Validation Act being passed, neither district had asa &pssed the rate, which in the latter dis■mct was not attempted until after the Provincial Council had enabled the Board to do so ; and in neither district, consequently, had any rate been paid at the time the late Executive apportioned the grant, as they ignorantly imagined, according to the amount of rates paid during the past year. "Whether either of those districts would have levied any rate at all if Mr Vogel's financial statement had not discovered the intention of the Government to re-

commend a grant of £ 50,000 out of the ordinary revenue to road boards, is open to question ; but the fact that neither district bad paid any rate during either tho past or the preceding year, when the apportionment was made, cannot be disputed ; and, therefore, neither district was entitled to receive anything, under such a scheme, out of the grant in question. But as in tho case of the Moroa district, both Greytown and the Lower Valley would have paid rates if it had not been for the clause which the Deputy Superintendent got inserted in the Validation Act. Surely the late Executive should have considered this important fact before bringing such a scheme under such circumstances into operation, If a similar arrangement had been adopted in the apportionment of the grant in Hawkes' Bay not a single penny could have been allocated, for the simple circumstance that not a single penny had been paid in road rates there either, during the past or any preceding year. LOWES VALLEY BOARD. At the adjourned meeting of this Board, held at Otaraia, on Thursday, Mr C. Pharazyn's objection to the assessment of his property at Watarangi, was considered and disposed of by the reduction of the rate from -1-d to -4-d per acre, the homestead excepted, on which the -o-d rate was retained. There were no other objections to the assessment, which was finally adopted. The rates are required to be paid on or before the sth ot next month. SUBDIVISION OF DISTRICTS. Some time ago the ratepayers resident in the eastern portion of this Taratahi district, and those resident in the eastern portion of the Grey town district, memorialized the Superintendent to constitute their respective divisions into separate road board districts. Six months is very properly required to elapse before the Government has power to assent to the prayer 0^ the memoi rialists. In the meantime the Greytown road board has protested against such sub-division ; and I now learn that it is now sought to unite the division in question to the Lower Valley road district. The ground taken for this proposal is that the settlers on both sides of (he Ruamahanga river are alike interested in the maintenance of a bridge or ferry over that river, but if such a naturaly boundary of a district is to be ignored the question arises what other boundary should be adopted. The fact is the maintenance of these " through" roads, and the bridges and ferries connecting one district with another, is a matter which concerns not one or two, but a group of districts, and should bo placed under the administration of a county council. The arrangement would prove much better than by extending the boundaries of road districts in order to meet the difficulties which arise under the existing system. " PENNY READINGS. On Thursday evening the second of a series of penny readings came off at the Town Hall, Grey town, which secured a large attendance. " Lost in the Dark," Hood's " Bridge of Sighs," " Byron's Dream," and several other pieces were successfully rendered. A glee was sung in admirable style, which was loudly applauded. The Gveytown band was in attendance, which added much to the evening's enjoyment* It was the first of any penny readings I have ever attended ; and I am persuaded that if properly encouraged, . and judiciously managed, they could be made instrumental not only in conferring pleasure, but in promoting the moral and social improvement of the people. To empty bai\and billiard rooms there is no better means than in opening a series of penny readings, and in fostering other modes for healthful exercise and innocent enjoyment. A NEW BRIDGE. One of the advantages which the Wairarapa will derive in havrhg, for the first time, one of its members possessing a seat in the Executive will be the rebuilding of the bridge over the stream running at the foot of a deep cutting near the Rimutaka, the absence of which has been the cause of much iuconve-* nience to carriers and the public. I observe with regret that the advertisement calling for tenders is not inserted in the " New Zealand Mail," which probably arises from the ignorance of the Provincial Secretary as to the extent of its circulation in the Wairarapa, that being much greater than he appears to imagine. When he has satisfied himself on this point, we are convinced that such an omission as that here referred to will not occur again. LAKD SALE. You have already had a paragraph noticing the recent land sale at Masterton. I only call attention to the circumstance now, for the purpose of expressing my astonishment at the low price land sells at now, compared with the price it realised some years ago. It is not owing altogether to bad limes ; but it may be traced to the fact that a large quantity of land has been purchased with borrowed money at a nominal figure, and which has not been properly occupied. DR. FEATIIEPISTON. It may net be generally known that, except through the newspapers, the address and testimonial to Dr Featherston on his departure to England has not been seen or hoard of in this part of the country ; and I cannot but think that from this and other causes the matter has been mismanaged. The address has certainly not been so numerously signed as it would have been had greater opportunities been afforded the people for signing it. It was a great deal too milk-and-watery to meet the views of his hearty friends, and it was not sufficiently disconnective to. meet the wishes of his political opponents. For the approval of the former it said too little, and for the approval of the latter too much. But the reason why a larger number of subscribers was" not obtained to the testimonial, if I am to judge from the state of feeling here,

arose fiom the simple fact that no opportunity was afforded to the settlers as a body to subscribe to it. PUBLIC BALL. I am requested to state that a public ball will take place at the Town Hall, Greytown, at an early date, in aid of the building fund of that institution. • The building is a credit to Greytown, but it is not creditable to Greytown to allow its trustees to suffer loss by having defrayed the cost of its erection. THE MEAT EXPORT COMPANY. The first meeting of the shareholders in the above company will be held at the Upper Hutt on Wednesday next, while a meeting of the shareholders in the Wairarapa Meat Preserving and Boiling Down Company has been postponed until it is seen what resolutions will be arrived at by the meeting to be held at the Highland Home. Everybody I thinks that the meat preserving industry will prove highly beneficial to stockowners, but it is questionable whether sufficient stock will be obtained here and at the Hutt to keep two distinct and separate establishments in full operation. There is a boiling-down establishment already in the district, and meat preserving works could be carried on in connection with it at very little additional expense. I was promised some notes on the subject for publication, bnt as it was feared they would not appear in time if inserted in this communication, it was resolved that they should be published separately. As a large number of new shares have been already taken >in tho Wairarapa company, those parties interested in its success are most anxious that the Wairarapa stock-owners will unite in supporting the establishment of the works of the Meat Export Company in connection with the boiling-down works at Featherston.