EDUCATIONAL RESERVES.

27

A.—No. 3.

Rev. Mr. Ronaldson was appointed, who has charge of it still. During the whole of Bishop Hobhouse's time there was no attempt to carry on a boarding school. There might have been three or four pupils boarding while Mr. Tudor had charge, but there never was any convenience for boarding many scholars until the new building was put up ; —but even this was never completed according to the original design, from the discontinuance of the grants in aid. The part completed only supplied a residence for the master, and a temporary schoolroom in a lean-to at the back. I think as much has been, done as could have been done with the means at our disposal, as it is only very lately, if even now, that the funds were sufficient to pay a master. In order to carry out the trust, it appeared to the trustees that the first thing was to have the requisite buildings for boarding the children. The money of the trust was for some years partly expended in improving the property by fencing, &c. The whole 300 acres was fenced in with post and rail. Whilst we were building, all grants in aid were stopped, and we could do no more, the rents not being sufficient to carry out the design of the building. The Natives at Motueka have considerably decreased since the Europeans settled there, as everywhere else. They have taken to drinking very much of late years, but what effect it has had upon the school I do not know, as I ceased to be a trustee some time before Bishop Hobhouse's arrival, and I have left the district for the last five or six years. I think, generally, respecting the education of the Natives, much less depends upon general organization than upon the personal qualifications of the individual engaged in it, such as zeal and devotion to the object, and adaptation to the work.

Evidence taken before Mr. Domett, Chairman, at Motueka. , Tuesday, 28th December, 1869. The Rev. Wm. Ronaldson, being duly sworn, states: My name is William Ronaldson. lam master of the Wakarewa School. I was appointed to the school at the end of April or beginning of May, 1868, by the present Bishop of Nelson. I have been engaged amongst the Natives for twentyfive years, with the exception of an interval from 1850 to 1855, during which I was residing in England for ordination. I was at Wanganui, master of a Native school there, and afterwards at Papawai, in the Wairarapa. There was no school carried on when I came —the house was empty. Mr. John Greenwood had been living there, but I do not exactly know what he was doing there. I believe he was acting as bailiff. I began to keep school from May, 1868 —in tho morning, from 9 to 12 o'clock, at the Native Chapel, at what is called the pa ; and in the evening, from 6 to 8 o'clock, at the Motueka village, in the Church Sunday-school. I will send you a written account of attendance from the roll I keep regularly. There is no boarding school at all. The funds won't admit of it, and of course there is no industrial training. The Natives do not like it. They believe that is the grand stumbling-block in the way of the success of the school. They do not like to be obliged to work. They say the Europeans do not do it at their own schools. This caused the destruction of the school at Papawai. They say there, and at Wanganui, that it is "Mahi Paroa," (Pharoah's work, or compulsory labour, tho Bishop standing in tho place of Pharoah). I believe, however, the grant requires industrial training. Sir George Grey's idea of industrial training included agricultural work and trades, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, and shoemaker's work, which they would take to readily and like very much indeed. The funds have never permitted any attempt to entice Europeans into the Maori school. They would have to be carried on in separate rooms, and therefore require two schoolmasters. One difficulty in the way of this school succeeding is, that the portion of the tribe to which Wakarewa belonged, declare they were never paid for the land. They have frequently written and talked about this, and gave as a reason for not sending their children for education, that if they got any benefit in this way from the land, it would be a kind of acknowledgment that they had sold it, which they deny. My stipend is £300 a year, of which the sum of £285 10s. 7d. was paid for 1868-9 (30th June), tho balance being made up of contributions from the European settlers at Takaka, for whom I render English services three times on one Sunday in each quarter. I give our English service on one Sunday in each quarter at Wakapuaka. The settlers there contribute nothing for this, as they have a clergyman of their own. I attend to the Natives there, and give them two services on a Sunday. I give the Saturday to the Natives there also. lam away a week each journey to Takaka, including the time of going and returning. Some of the Native children who come to the school live as much as three miles away. They complain of it, however, and they have ceased to come, saying it is too far. I am going to open a school for them in part of Mr. Staples's former brewery. I think the children must be got altogether in a boarding-school before any good can be done. I believe in what Mr. Borlase once said in the Wellington Provincial Council, that it would be best, if possible, to take them altogether away from their homes. The portion of the building erected (only a very small portion of the original plan) was never finished ; the weatherboards on the north side are not completely nailed on. There is one man who is really anxious the school should go on, Hakopa, an old man who insists on his children attending tho school. The roof of the building is in a very bad state. The gutter or parapet in front prevents the escape of the water. It was built from a design of a Mr. Clarke, of Marlborough. The room formerly used as a schoolroom is a mere lean-to, without lining, though with a fireplace. Upper inside rooms, plastered, let in water through the roof, upright gutter in front stopping it.