EAST COAST LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 330, 27 July 1889, Page 2

EAST COAST LETTER.

[OWN COBUSBONDBNT.—“ NZBIUTOB."] J’rsy sit by iu, end tell’s a tele, Merry, or sod, «h.n It be t A* merry u you win. —WnsTBII’S T.ltt RKcoiißixa briefly to the Nelive educational, muddle which ha* been so long enacted tn our mid*’, and coots the hard pressed colony many thousands of pounds every year. How many Maones of lhe present (and the system has been on trial for many years) can be pointed out as having benefited by lhe somewhat elaborate curriculum comprising school and College ducip’ino, and ending nowhere in particular? Somebody once described • University Fellowship a* » dreary avenue, with a church at the end of it,—and comparing great things with small, tho office 0! teacher, or minister, among hie own people seem* te bs the only dirtinotion obtainable for a j onng (aboriginal) New Zealan loA' L t US suppose a ease— Hone, or John, is a Maori youngster of the usual type. He goes to the local school, and learns to read, write, and cipher, the latter usually well, the former ec, so. As soon as he becomes tolerably proficient, lie is removed to a higher educational establishment, when among Europeans he increases his stock of erudition somewhat, learns to dress well, speak tolerable English/ and play football—the latter especially. a little vanity takes up its quarters in his partially empty knowledge-box at this period, and he often affects a drawl, and assume* ar. cording to his lights, the masher department. Ultimately his education (?) completed 1 -he returns home to bis psh —an inordinately self conscious •• tri ion among the minions " —to the intense gratification ahd ad. miration of his honest old barbarian parent*, who he now heartily (but not ostensibly) despises. They supply him lavishly with money, which he ushally, hav' n 8 literally nothing to do, invest* in billiards, or—well, olher extravagances. He . doesn t usually drink, is well dispositionteM and honest as the times go, but "SailH Onvariab'v) finds soma evil work tor idfll hand* to do, an lour neophyte of civilisation doesn t last long, as a rule. There are exetm—lions, very honorable one*, ond a good tndfll go back to the blanket and stinking corn again, not much the worse for their experienos, but to the litter'waste of their so called education. They subside literally Into their normal basbananism, and are generally vary inferior. *ll round, to the unadulterated nrliclo. Now Mr Editor, I think all this foregoing, and tbit of my proviou* allusion to the subjset, Points out te an. extent the existent evil, but does not suggest a remedy, whtoh can be found in the one nhraae in* dustrial purtuitt. Let the young of both races work with their hand* (and brain* too. not brains only), let their variant intelligences select a* it were, one or other of tho thousand and one ramification, o f skilled work, which is necessary for the wellbeing and oomfort °J *"* J’ u ' n3n race, in a word let them. .U,o, the majority) be taught trade, and not devote themselves, a* is too often the cue with colonial youth of both races, to the pur,n t of a chimera, which is called respectability in these days, whereof are barber's clerks, before mentioned, feminine “ Grundys, Albert Smith's "gents," and all aborainationa— “ humahi goneri*." I am glad to hear that repair* are Ju pro- ,, ***• Mangatun* bridge, to which I alluded in my last a* being in a dangerous state. I learn Mr J. 3. Lincoln, of Tolago Bay’ ha* the contract, a fact which spaak* well for the reconstruction being carried out in *,’P e *? y &nd workmanlike manner. The Gisborne called in here on tho 18th, during the prevalence of a heavy surf, and Captain Skinner wns compelled to land cargo, eto„ under Tawhiti. The Australia arrived a"® 29th, bringing Dr Pollen of.your town, who had some Insurance work in hand on the Goast. The Doctor, after, as usual, winning golden opinions by hi, kindness and affability, returned overland to day, 22nd. Mr and Mrs Whitehead and family left by the Australia for Auckland. , A regular old-fashioned black north-easter is blowing with heavy squalls and muoh*rfiu,

The Auckland Star’s correspondent sQys Bush-falling is now in full swing at maru, on the East Coast, Messrs White and Brown having forty natives employed at £1 per acre in clearing the forest on their new run at Tuakau. Mr McCulloch, on th* adjoining run, is also engaged in having hi* Una cleared in a similar manner, During the recent heavy rains a remark* able landslip took place at Tuparoa. About one hundred acres of land, part of Sir George Whitmore'i run, moved bodily toward! sea. The upper stratum of rock appears to have slipped over a more solid bed below i this is conjectured from the fact of a reef, some four acres in area, having been forced fully ten feet above its usual height over water. The reef must have been broken up by the pressure, as the action of the waves is tevel U&llr ,preadlng U out t 0 ,t * origin*!