THE Wellington Independent Wednesday, January 13, 1858. THE REV. MR. NICHOLL'S DEFENCE OF THE WANGANUI SCHOOL FOR THE NATIVES.

Wellington Independent, Volume X, Issue 1259, 13 January 1858, Page 3

THE Wellington Independent Wednesday, January 13, 1858. THE REV. MR. NICHOLL'S DEFENCE OF THE WANGANUI SCHOOL FOR THE NATIVES.

Wβ are bound to give Mr. Nicholl credit for the possession of more good sense and proper feeling than Archdeacon Hadfield has exhibited. Ho appears at once to have submitted his institution to the Government Tnspeotion, though he had a better excuse than Mr. Hadfield if he had chosen to refuse, inasmuch as he has not for the current year rtt all events received any Government money. But as regards Mr. Nicholl's attempt to defend his establishment from the charge of iueffioienoy, we uevor read anything so feeble, or so inconclusive. Nay, it is impossible that any one oould have placed on record more convincing proof of the utter worthlessness aud inutillty of the institution iv his charge. That institution has been founded, we' believe, between four and five yoai'sf call it four. In that period the Rev, gentleman tells us (in rather a triumphant manner) that he has had 28 pupils, whose attendance at the school has averaged throe months each. That is to say. the average attendance at any one time during the fouf years, has bderi just two pupils—eaolvof the two continuing under instruction for exactly throe months. Tbis it must bo boriio in mind, is in Iho

immediate vicinity of a considerable native village, aud within a day's ride of a 1 portion of the Province most thickly ' peopled with natives. Twenty-eight pu- I pils in four years, equal to two pupils at I a time, and each receiving three months i education in the whole ! Could a more ' convincing proof have been given of the ' utter and complete inefficiency of the ' Wanganui Industrial School ? What i evil genius prompted Mr. Nicholl to write such a letter ? Mr. Nicholl pleads that since January l> 185G, ho has received but £100 of public moneys The reason he has received so little (we are informed by a member of the Board Which apportioned the share of the grant appfopriated to this Province,) is because the Board was convinced of the complete inefficiency of the institution, and therefore declined to give it any money> But Mr. ! Nicholl has not) that we are aware of, been charged with receiving large stiins of public money. His case differs from Mr. Hadfield's in this particular Tub complaint is that his institution has been endowed with a large and most valuable) grant of public land ; and if no good Pe* suits from such grant, the public have right to interfere in the fflaU ter, ascertain why it. is so, and Vi take steps, if it can, to render its liberality more productive. Is there any reason why the Church of England at Wangunui, or Mr. \ T icholi, should be endowed with 250 acres of first rate suburban land, close to a rising Town— nay, a large part of it is practically Town Land—in order that 28 natives may receive three months education each, in four years ? We suspect it cduld be done both very much more cheaply and very much more efficiently. The remainder of Mr. Nicholl's letter scarcely requires a notice. He appears to be greatly annoyed at the exposure of Mr. Hadfield's want of au University degree—and if we may judge by the singular string of letters appended to his own signature, which represent the degree of no university with which we are acquainted, he is in a position to entertain a fellow feeling with his Venerable brother on the subject. But let us put the Rev, Gentleman straight in the matter. No writer in the Independent has decried Mr. Hadfield m the abstract for wanting the University distinction, which educated men of the learned professions usually possess,norattributed to MeS3rs. Featherston, Fitzherbert>aud Fox, in the abstract, any peculiar mefit for possessing such. What called forth the remarks alluded to was Mr. Hudfielil's arrogant assumption of intellectual superiority over his opponents—his treatment of them as if they were the merest tyros, no better instructed than the children in a Church of England School. It Was very natural that our correspondents should ask ,; upon what meat has this our Cifesar fed, that he has grown so great?"—that they should point out the extremely bad taste exhibited in the contemptuous tone adopted by him towards men of University education and acknowledged ability, when he was unable to exhibit in his own person, the ordinary testimonial of proficiency, to which almost every educated member of his profession has attained; It was Mr. Hadfield's presumptuous, arrogant, iusoleul tone towards big opponents, which provoked the comparison. It would have been in bad taste, even in oue who had entered in at the gate of a learned profession—it was intolerable in one who appears only to have climbed in over the wall, and more particularly when addressed towards men who have their passports to shew. As these gentlemen, however, seem so annoyed at the Venerable Archdeacon's non-possession of a, degree, we are prepared to confer one on. him. Considering the large grants of public money which his Institute, has received, and his refusal to allow the commissioners to examine into the results of the public bounty, we shall dub him with a string of letters not very dissimilar from those in which Mr. Nicholl himself delights,—the Venerable Octavius Hadfield, £. S. D. In conclusion, vie will respectfully repeat to Mr. Nicholl the advice Which ourcotemporarj, the Wa.nga.nui Chronicle, gives to Mr. Hnclfield, to abstain for the future from appearing in print. It is in vain for either of these gentlemen to endeavour to persuade the public that the absence of Uuivsrsity degrees is no disadvantage, while they, who exhibit in their own persons the want of those degrees, continue to Write letters which are remarkable onlyforintellectuiilfeehleness, vulgari'y of lone, and bitterness of temper. VVheu We reflect that such men are its prophets w<^can understand why the Christian religion, which was once a living soul, powerful to stir the human heart, and to enlist the most mauly intellects, has, as embodied in the Church df Ljiiglaud, become a mere cold formality—a fleshless skeleton made up of oreeds and catechisms, incapable of moving the sympathies of any'sentient being. What tire the prospects of a church whose ministers can act as Mr. Hadfield has lately acted, or write as Mr. Nicholl has lately'written ?