E.—2

6

Ngunguru. —The Natives are well disposed towards the school, and are quite willing to have their children educated, but they do not, like the Maoris of most districts, exert themselves to keep up the attendance by inviting outsiders. A very moderate amount of trouble taken by the Ngunguru people would very probably double the number in attendance. Pouto Point. —This school is in some respects unique. The schoolroom presents an extremely pleasing appearance ; the walls are adorned with pictures, diagrams, and other educational apparatus, made by the teacher for the most part; and the mantel-pieces and shelves hold geological specimens and natural curiosities. The master has also laid out the school-grounds very prettily. Altogether this bids fair to be an extremely attractive Native school. The Natives and the master are on very good terms, and the former are doing their best to maintain a good attendance. Seeing that the school is going on so well in all other respects, it is to be regretted that disagreements between the teacher and some of the European residents should be rather frequent. It is possible that a little forbearance on each side is the thing required to prevent these disagreements. Otamatea. —The attendance here is gradually increasing. The opening of the neighbouring school at Oruawharo seems to have had a capital effect in producing a healthy rivalry between the two districts. I should judge that both parents and children have been greatly benefited in this way. A large number of Natives attended at the examination, which was more successful than any held previously. The mistress carries on the school-work here while the master is away at Oruawharo. Oruaivharo. —The experiment of working this as a half-time school with Otamatea is succeeding well. The master deserves great credit for this ; more especially because the Otamatea school, instead of suffering under the new arrangement, is actually improving. The two schools are about ten miles apart, and the ride between them is a very rough one in the winter time. Kirikiri, Thames. —Gratifying progress has been made here during the year; the inspection showed that there had been considerable improvement, but the examination results were even better than the inspection had led me to expect. Waitetuna. —This school has been a failure so far ; it is the only one of the numerous schools established by the Education Department that deserves to be so called. The Natives, with two or three exceptions, seem to have had only one aim in asking for a school—viz., that they might in some way or another make money out of it; as this was found to be impossible, their interest in the school ceased. Owing, however, to the good influence exerted by the Bev. Hauraki Paul and one or two others, a considerable extent of ground has been enclosed and ploughed, and it is probable that if the crops succeed there will be a fair attendance at the school—for a time, at any rate. A further trial of, say, twelve months should therefore be given to the Waitetuna Natives ; if the attendance should again fall off, the buildings and fencing, and also the teacher, should be removed to some district in the neighbourhood where they would be properly appreciated. The expense of removal should not be very great. Bay of Plenty (West) and Lakes District. Mr. H. W. Brabant, 8.M., Tauranga, is the Superintendent of this important district. As might have been expected, the change effected in the Maoris through contact with improving forms of European civilisation is far smaller here than it is in the parts north of Auckland. Owing to the war and other causes, it may be said that Europeans have hardly had a firm footing in the inland districts for more than ten years ; while in most parts of the north Maoris and Europeans have been living side by side for a very long time. Even now, though communication between the two races has become an every-day affair, it is only here and there that there are permanent settlers, who, as a rule, are the only class of Europeans that can exert any enduring good influence upon the Natives. Moreover, the communication that the Natives actually have with the whites is not quite fitted to induce the former to abandon their old principles and their modes of living and to take to those of the Europeans. Jn many parts the Maoris see Europeans only as visitors ; and experience has taught them that some of these visitors —those, perhaps, that they see the most of—care little or nothing for the welfare of the Natives, and are anxious only that the Maoris should contribute to their enjoyment in some way or another—by getting drunk, perhaps, or performing the haka. In short, what the Maori sees leads him to believe that the ordinary pakeha thinks amusement the highest good, that he is not always overscrupulous about the means he uses to get it, and that the stories told by missionaries and others about the beliefs of the pakeha and his way of life must be unworthy of serious attention. Has he not now, he asks himself, a chance of seeing what the pakeha really is ? Is he much better than the Maori ? Is he, indeed, quite as good ? Of course the Maori is far wrong, because he has seen only a very small part of pakeha life, and assumes that what he has seen is a fair specimen of the whole ; but he answers the question in the negative, and the mischief is done. It thus comes about that in not a few parts of this large district all attempts to induce the Maori to adopt European civilisation have to surmount two very formidable difficulties instead of one. They have not only to overcome the natural repugnance of the Maori to relinquish his cherished customs and prejudices, but also to persuade him to give in his adherence to a system which, as far as he can see —unaccustomed as he is to look beneath the surface of things —is a shade or two less respectable than his own. We must remember, in trying to find how a Maori regards the ways of the pakeha, that the old Maoris, bad as their way of life was in many respects, know nothing whatever of drunkenness and many other forms of the vices of civilisation which we, unfortunately for ourselves and for them, have to introduce to their notice along with religion and education. We must remember, too, that the individualism which forms so marked a feature in modern civilised life, and which comes out with peculiar distinctness under the circumstances in which European visitors to the Lakes are placed, is absolutely shocking to the old Maori with his communistic ideas. Hence it comes about that the conclusion arrived at by him is that the pakehas, with all their cleverness, are a very bad lot, and that his best plan will be to keep to the good old way—the way that his ancestors have walked in from time immemorial,