THE OTAKI CORRESPONDENT.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 11, 4 December 1878, Page 2

THE OTAKI CORRESPONDENT.

TO THE ESITQB. Sib, — I notice m your issue of the 16th that your Otaki correspondent denies having attacked the Church. Bid he not write of the mission buildings aa being the monuments of the collapse of the mission ? Does not that include the Church? Or if he did not wish the Church to be included, why did he drag m the two ministers and the bellringer— -who have nothing whatever to do. with the School. When I gave him a few proofs that the MUsion had not collapsed, he said the information was some* what beside the question. No doubt the facts rather too plainly conflicted with bis statement to. be pleasant, but X defy him to show that they were beside the question. He appears to have a somewhat defeotive memory, He asserted by implication that the Mission ; had collapsed. I showed him that it had'ttot, and now he denies that he attaoted the ' Church. He accuses me of grammatical ignorance, but he appears to be deScient m the knowledge of the meaning of the language that he himself uses; which is, I venture to. think, a much more culpable ignorance. With regard to the question of % sohool for the European children at Otaki, if that august body— the Education Board of Wangan.ui— would but give us tbe power to do anything, it would then be seen, whether I am not as anxious as your « Own *' for th.c Education of the European children. But m the meantime, to show how deeply the want is felt, I have only to state that out of upwards of seventy children— half of whom are yet to be -born, X presume— said to he m the district, sometimes two, sometimes four,, and •ometitri^s men, as many as six, taVe advantage of pen mission to attend the Mission School. 'And again, for eighteen, months or more, the European inhabitants bare bad the offer of one of ;the Mission budding* at H moderate rental, wh\oh building, with a. f»w slight alteration*, would he admirably suited 'for not only a echaol-rao.ro, hut for a teacher** residence aa well } but the offer- has not yet been accepted. Tlwse facts, and a good many others that I oo.uld mention, serve to show how d.eep the anxiety is among the Europeans for the education of their children. But the eril is a crying one, whether the parents know it or not. and if your "Own" takes such, a deep interest fatfee matter, why does. he. not get up one other petition still, say to the Minister of Education, begging- him to cosnpd the Board to grant us oar w ghts f— or if he has. such an objection to increasing- the number of sq^ools m Qtaki, why oouli h^ auggest to the Board that if (hey cannot build or lease a sehofil and pay a teaoh«i\ they al\ou)d pay the small weekly fee- obarged^at the Mission Schopl for all the European ohildren who may choose to atkeivd there. If yow"Ow^" will aljo.w me, I sliall now gladly retirenot into th> obscurity from which ha gifted me by noticing my productions, for it was I who, waa, cqn^pelled by love of justice, truth, and fair-play, to notice his ; hut into the' obscurity from which as a man of hut mediocre abihties 4 like your. " own/ I had muoh rather not be lifted. B.ut when all has. boon »a.id it appeara -Re are. both anxipus to promote the same good — that is, the better education of both European and Maori. Therefore I say, here is raj band; let us wor^ tog;etber, . Jbtit iyiDidin.—l*m t &o:,