EAST COAST LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 327, 20 July 1889, Page 3

EAST COAST LETTER.

OWX COBBXSPONDEXT.—“ FABIUTOB,”) Pray sit by us, and tell's a tale, Merry, or sad, shall It be ? As merry as you will. —Wister's Tais. Yes, Mr Editor, there is no doubt about it, our system ot education as at present oonstituted does need reform, and sweeping, allpervading reform at that, I don’t allude to the mere machinery which works up crude natural intelligence into its present unmarketable form—that may be good enough in its various component parts of Boards, masters, iu. It is the sad mismanagement and misdirection of virgin psychic power that constitutes the blot whereby the juvenile, or even adolescent mind, is crammed full to repletion, and over, with recondite balderdash, utterly useless in after life (except in the narrowest grooves), Hear the plaint of a victim, presumably but not necessarily, of tender years—- " Instruction sore, long time I bore, And cramming was in vain, Till Heaven did please my woes to ease With water on the brain.” Precisely; don’t we all remember that immortal creation of Dickens, “ David Copperfield,” and the adalepated schoolboy in it who drew “ skeletons on his slate.” That was the extent ot his cultivable intelligence. There are many, very many, sueh who never get beyond the skeletons. All men, as an old friend of mine (Sam Waterhouse, of the Wairoa) used to say, are not born Lord Chancellors, though misguided fathers (principally of the lower middle class) invariably believe that their phenomenal (?) offspring could attain to the much coveted wool sack, with little effort of their magnificent faculties (?). “ Don’t I know what I could have done if I had only had the chances which my boy throws away?” says Pater Families. To such Narrator would say, “ Not at all, oh venerable, but rather obtuse, pater. To your parental purblind vision (purblind - because parental) only, is your son a budding SaJpn, or embryo Cicero: a Wellington to comb, or a Nelson who only wants opportnnito command a fleet. To others regarding with impartial eye, he is a worthy land rather stupid) scion of a most worthy sire, and eminently calculated by Dame Nature (who is inexorable in her bestowal of gifts) to succeed him, in his humble sphere of life. Nothing more. This

is an optimist view. There exists in these ' later days a vast, and ever increasing legion of “ Barber's Clerks,” “ larrikins,” quasi ** (ports ”. and even more objectionable specimens of the depraved genus homo, which absorbs many disappointed “ Agamemnons ” into its chaolic jumble up of frustrated or distorted aspirations, (which always miscarry or end in a fizzle), misdirected energies, and inherent cussedncss. And who, or what; is mainly to blame ? Not the administrators of a pernicious system I trow, but the artificial and useless system itself, which prepares a man for intellectual work only, disregarding the apparently harsh, but‘really beneficent precept and behest in one—” By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.” And with regard to our Maori co-dwellers in these beautiful islands, the rising generation of whom we have undertaken to educate, the same (fortunately not irremediable) error prevails, in training them to no speciality of wcrk, trade, or occupation, with the result, that four fifths of the young Maoris of the present, are about as useless specimens of good natured brown humanity as can be well conceived. But lack of space forbids further allusion to this important subject (to which I will recur in a future letter when news is scarce) at present. Plenty of wind and rain, with brief alternation of sunshine, has characterised the weather since my last. And bad weather means bad roads, in this portion of Cook County, anyhow. For the most part, however, our bridle tracks are passable, with some discomfort, and much mudlarking, ■ire portions which are all but , absolutely dangerous, and reeedy repair, or reconstruction, large bridge inland Annum on om Tologa Bay to Tokomaru. ches to this dilapidated mantrap, not; and the whole structure fly by one corner. Better far re down altogether. Then a .lident to a new chum,or unwary traveller, might be avoided. Yet it has re mained in the same ruinous and dangerous state for some months, a veritable exposition in wood and iron, of “ How not to do it.” Travellers from Awanui. also, report the road between Tuparoa and Whareponga to be literally (in) a bad way. Broken Sown adverts, and unremoved slips abound, and "flke abounded, that is the worst of it, for some considerable time. Meanwhile there are two surface men somewhere, whose puny efforts are truly superficial indeed (though the men work well, and do their level best) when extended over some 80 miles of probably the worst bit of road in the County, though strange to say the said road runs through probably the best paying portion of it. An anomaly, Kr Editor, a sad anomaly, but capable of rectification when Waiapu achieves an entity of its own in the ” good time coming.” Little shipping intelligence this week. The Australia called in on Thursday last, with Mrs Talbot, attendant, and child, Mr and Mrs Pegler and family, and Mr Burdett, passengers for Waipiro. She also discharged about 50 tons cargo for this port, On Saturday a half mile running match between Messrs Swann and Hewetson, who were competitors at the late sports, took place for £l2 a side. There was about £6O on the event, which ended in a fizzle. Mr Hewetson, who was successful (handicap) at the sports, shutting up with cramp in the stomach about 300 or 400 yards from scratch. About the same time a more interesting trotting match eventuated on the beach (for I think £5 a side)—although other boil over. Messrs Watts, the genial of Colonial Mutual Life Insurance Company, andPowel, of the Waipiro station, matching respectively their horses ” Paddy ” (not unknown in Gisborne) and bay mare Fairy fl' owners up, for a mile. The former proved himself equally successful in taking “'-jukes as it is rumored he has been in •Taking lives ” in this locality ; Paddy, from Gisborne, winning easilv, A public meeting was held at the Tawhiti Hotel, on the 13th inst., A. H. Wallis, Esq., In the chair, when it was resolved to retain the services of Mr Scott, Native Medical Officer ot the district, as Medical Dispenser and A’ten. dans in the locality (Waipiro) and an influential committee weg appointed. WAIPIBO, Jqly 15.