The Waikato Times "OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1872.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 53, 31 August 1872, Page 2

The Waikato Times "OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1872.

VYe consider the question as to the particular spot in the district at which the contemplated Agricultural Show should be held Oi so little importance that we shall not discuss the merits or demerits of the aspirants for the honor. That an Agricultural Show cannoL fail to have a beneficial effect upon the district is an opinion that we have expressed on more than one occasion. In our last issue we published a report of the meeting of the Committee of the Waikato Agricultural Association, and without expressing any opinion as to whether Hamilton is or is not the most suitable place for the show, we compliment the Cambridge settlers on the gooJ sense they have shown in yielding the clain to have it held in their township, with the object no doubt of preventing division in the district. In yielding their claim they very justly impose the conditions that their shall be no division ' in the district by extracting a promise from the Hamilton and Ngaruawahia reprsentatives that they will by every means in their power secure a succesf.d show to Te Awamutu next year, and that Te Awamutu and Alexandra will combino with them this year to promote the interests of the Association. We cannot help thinking that the Te Awamntu people have acted rather inconsistently in first appointing representatives and afterwards repudiating their actions. We now call upon them in their own and in the interests of the other districts to reconsider their decision. The population of the Waikato is limited and, compared with others, is a young district, so that if our show is to be a credit to ourselves and act as an inducement, to fresh setclers to locate themselves in our midst, it is necessary nothing worth showing should be absent from the meeting. We should not be doing our duty, did we not, in the name of the reisdents of the VV aikato, cordially thank the Cambridge settlers for the disinterested manner they have acted.

Tx March last, a meeting 1 was held in Ngaruawahia, at which it was resolved, —" I bat the chairman of the meeting write to the chairmen of the Newcastle and Town of Ngaruawahia District Boards, and the Chairman of the School Committee, requesting them to apply to the General Government for a grant of two hundred acres of suburban land at Ngaruawahia as an endowment for a public school for those districts." The suggestion of the meeting was acted upon and elicited the following reply from the Under Secretary for the Colony : I am directed by Mr Gisborne to inform you that the Government are aware of no legal power whereby they are enabled to grant endowments of coutiscated lands such as you propose- and that no land should (even if it could) be given as endowments to trustees of any particular school until they have showed in a practical manner that they have made such a start as will enable them fairly to claim help from the public estate." The reply of the nuder secretary has burked the question. He must have been aware that although in the terms of the letter the Government was asked to iuvest the land in the names of certain parties, the request was only meant as a suggestion, and that nothing more was wanted than that the land should be set aside for educational purposes. We are at a loss to see the distinction between confiscated land and that purchased from the natives, it may however exist in the official mind in company with many other notions not in accordance with common sense* The point, however, we have to consider is the advisability of setting aside certain sections of land in the neighbourhood of each of our townships for educational purposes. We have not to consider the present- only, as the L nderSecretary his done in his reply. All the great public schools in England are more or less supported by land granted lor the purpose when it was of comparatively small value. The land in the neighbourhood of each of our- townships is of little present value, and it would be a wise and far-seeing act on the part of the Government to set

aside suctions for the promotion of education. The'education of the people, notwithstanding the indifference displayed by our legislator*, is one of the principal duties that dovolve upon a Government. Ihe sj'stem. of legislating and acting for the present, regardless of future consequences, is too truly characteristic of New Zealand. We trust-that the Government will be induced to reconsider their decision in the matter of the above grant, that our children and our children's children may receive such an education as will enable them to take an intelligent part in the affairs of the country.