EDUCATIONAL RESERVES.

A.-, No. 3.

31

With respect to the alleged desire on the part of settlers at Motueka that the school should be made a European one, I would remark that I have never had any direct application from any one, in Motueka or elsewhere, to that effect, unless Mr. Jennings' letter in the Nelson Examiner, of the 2nd June, 1869, can be considered such. I think it is a good expression of the views of some of the settlers who agree with Mr. Jennings, and might be included among the documents relating to the subject recorded by the Commission, although I do not agree with some of the allegations made in it. Mr. David Jennings' Letter, from the Nelson Examiner, 2nd June, 1869. Motueka Public School. To tho Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir, —In your paper of the 19th instant, you have called the attention of the public to extracts from Papers laid before the Provincial Council in reference to this trust, created so long ago as 1853, for a public school at Motueka. The information thus given appears to be of the most authentic character, viz., the terms of the Crown Grants under which the trust property is held, by which it appears that the trust is simply " for the education of children of our subjects of all races, and of children of other poor and destitute persons being inhabitants of the Pacific Islands." It might appear extraordinary that sixteen years have elapsed and no such school exists as that for which the trust was created. There are many reasons which may be used to excuse this state of things. In 1853 the property had not become productive. What it is now producing, those who are in receipt of the rents can best tell. In the early stage of the trust, the late Bishop of New Zealand availed himself of the assistance of three Nelson gentlemen of the highest respectability, under whose auspices advances were understood to be obtained from Government, with which a building was erected on the trust property intended for education purposes. About the time the building was completed, Archdeacon Paul came up from Canterbury with the avowed intention of opening a grammar-school under this trust, for which his antecedents eminently fitted him, but no sufficient sum was available from the rents, and the attempt was given up. Soon afterwards the Rev. Mr. Tudor removed the school for Maori children, which he had been previously conducting at Motueka village, and carried it on in the trust premises until he became Bishop Hobhouse's chaplain. The Maori school was then put under the care of Mr. Harris, than whom a more efficient Maori teacher could not have been obtained ; but the normal condition of schools for Maori children was exemplified under Mr. Harris (as it had been under Mr. Tudor), viz., the whole body of the Maori children periodical]}'' took themselves off era masse to their friends, and Mr. Harris gave up the attempt after a fair trial, though he had previously conducted a Maori school in the North Island ; he had probably other reasons for abandoning the attempt, but he was well convinced of its futility, and Bishop Hobhouse must have been equally satisfied (or rather dissatisfied) at the result, •as he did not reopen a Maori school. About this time the Rev. Mr. Pritt (who is now assisting the noble work of Bishop Paterson) came to Motueka, and for a short time very zealously took up the idea of carrying on a grammar school on the trust property; whether from deficiency of rental or for what other reason it was never made known {so far as I have heard), tho attempt was abandoned. In conformity with the well-known liberality of the Oxford collegiate authorities to their tenants, Bishop Hobhouse built (or contributed largely to the building of) a very good house for one of the tenants on the estate; if this was not strictly the proper application of the rents pursuant to the trusts, it at any rate tended to increase the letting value of the property. As his Lordship had found out the futility of attempting to carry on a school for Maori children, he assigned the school buildings as a residence for his secretary, whom he employed to collect the rents, manage the estate, and to visit different Maori pas in different parts of the Province, and to read to the Maoris on successive Sundays in different parts of the Province. Since that tenure of the trust buildings terminated, the present Bishop has obtained the services of a clergyman of very considerable attainments, competent learning, and very popular manners and talents as a preacher, being moreover acquainted with the Maori language, who is engaged in carrying out the late Bishop's programme of visiting and preaching at different pas in. the Province, and when not absent from Motueka on these visits, carrying on a school for a few adult Maoris. There can be no doubt that this is a good work, and is as efficiently carried out as anything must be which is done by a man who is both able and earnest in what he has to do ; but this work is carried out at the most outrageous waste of power compared with its result which it is well possible to conceive ; for the school, such as it is, is carried on both in the morning and in the evening in the Motueka Church schoolroom, which has become useless (except for a Sunday school) for any educational purpose, since the Government school has been built in the village. That schoolroom is between four and five miles from the trust property, and that distance the gentleman in question has to travel four times a day, unless he happens to remain tho whole afternoon in the village. It is not to be wondered that the Bishop of Nelson, in coming to a diocese to which ho was a stranger, should take the practice of his predecessor as the guide of his conduct in the first instance; but it is hardly to be supposed that, when his Lordship becomes fully aware of the precise terms of tho trust which has devolved upon him, he will pursue any other course than that which is consistent with that conscientious discharge of duty which has distinguished his character both before and since his arrival among us. It is of course well known that Motueka and the Waimeas are the two main agricultural districts of the Province, and according to the statistical returns lately published in your paper, the agricultural produce of Motueka (with the exception of hay) decidedly exceeds that of the Waimeas, and its population is proportionate; while the proximity of tho latter to the city of Nelson and all its educational advantages afforded an obvious reason why the Queen's representative should have made provision for the establishment of a public school at Motueka.