HARAPEPE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1366, 2 April 1881, Page 2

HARAPEPE.

The long-continued dry weather is making feed of every description scarce in this, and all the surrounding 1 districts, and the turnip eropa in many farms I think, will be a partial, if not a total failure for want of rain. It ia an ill wind that blowa nobody any good, and the contractor for building the Te Rore bridge is making good use of the dry weather, as the work is being vigorously pushed ahead on both sides of the river. The river is bo low that a great deal of the work that would have been under water, can now be done high and dry, in fact I should think it will make a vast difference to the contractor, both in time and pocket. The bridge when finished, will be a great blessing to the whole district. Educational matters are at a very low ebb in this part of N.Z. The nnmber of children attending the school is so low that if the rules of the Board of Education wero strictly inforced we are not entitled to a school at all. The value of the ohildreos' labor on their farms, seems of more importance to their parents than the education and future welfare of their children, as we have a good school house and an efficient teacher. At a meeting of the school committee on Saturday last, the 26tb, nearly the whole of the time of the six members present, from half -past 7 p.m. until 11 p.m., was taken up in a trivial discussion about the merits and demerits, or advisability of putting children in the corner as a punishment for being late. The said six men are supposed to possess the ordinary amount of intelligence, and one of the committee actually threatened that, if his children were putin a acorner again he I should take them away from the school something like setting fire to your own house ; to burn your neighbours down, as he would be the principle sufferer, that ia sudposing he cares about his children being taught.A more senseless lot of twaddle it has never been my lot to sit andhsten to, for four solid hours. The situation of a teacher in a Board school, puts one in mind of the old fable of the man and the ass, first and foremost he has got to carry out the rules of the Board from whom He receives his salary, and who are the real employers. 2. He has to go by the rules of the local committee that often clash with the first, and thirdly and the moat difficult of all, he has to please all the parents of the children, notwithstanding, we have got free education, some of them make it quite a favour to send their children to school. Things that aro cheap and plentiful are seldom valued. The appointment of a sewing mistress to the school was allowed to lapse, as no one was anxious for the situation at the high salary of £5 per annum. It is a great mistake having 7 on a committee ;it is the old saying verified of too many cooks. It is often very hard to get 5 for road Board trustees, and then it is mostly about two of the five that do all the work. — (Own Correspondent, March 31.)

"Write carefully," says De Quincey. "You can never tell how much good your work may accomplish." No truer words were ever spoken. , Am&tt.broughtarpund a, perfectly loving poem about the auxu kissed leaves of September, just aa the offwe boy had built a fire in the grate and was looking for something to l%ht it with.— Bright Exchwge. • .s?<,