PAPERS RELATING TO NATIVE SCHOOLS.

7

P.—No. 5.

considerable Native population. I was able to arrange for the erection of a schoolhouse and for the salary of a schoolmaster, upon terms which, under the circumstances, I thought reasonable. It will be some time before it will be completed, as the timber has to be sawn upon the spot and seasoned, but they offered the use of their Eunanga house in the mean time for a school, and to provide good accommodation for the master, and although I have hitherto failed to find a suitable master, I hope shortly to do so, and no time will be lost in opening the school. From Mangakahia I proceeded to Hokianga, where I spent some days visiting, in company with the Eesident Magistrate (Mr. Yon. Stunner), the various localities. Waitapu. —I was able to arrange for the establishment of a school atWaitapu —a central situation, very carefully selected by Wi Tana Papahia, and the Natives generally —as suitable to the scattered population and local jealousies of the district. I have had the honor to report the details of the arrangement, which would have no peculiar interest in this Eeport, and which I will not therefore repeat. A schoolmaster (Mr. Fletcher Watkins), was nominated by the Committee, and approved by me. And although I have met with great and unexpected delay in supplying tho school with books, &c, owing to the unfrequent communication between Auckland and Hokianga, I hope to hear very shortly that the school has been opened. I had applications from other localities at Hokianga (as indeed is generally the case in all districts), but I thought it necessary rather to repress the desire than to encourage the Natives to enter upon engagements of which they had not quite realized the importance. From Hokianga I returned to Auckland, and proceeded thence to Kaipara. I had been so fortunate as to meet all the principal Kaipara chiefs on my first arrival in Auckland, when I discussed with them very fully the provisions and intentions of the Native Schools Acts, as relates to the establishment of village schools, and the assistance required from the Natives in their working and in their support. It was then arranged that I should not visit their district until they returned from Tokangamutu, where they were going to a meeting with the King party. They had now returned, but I had been delayed in Auckland, and Mr. Eogan, their Eesident Magistrate, who was to accompany me, had been delayed at Eotorua and at the Thames upon Native land Court business; consequently when we did visit Kaipara together, we were unable to obtain a meeting of any importance; and after a day or two spent at Awaroa, and ineffectual attempts to establish there a mixed school of Europeans and Natives, which was defeated by the local jealousies of Europeans, I was obliged to give up the present hope of immediate action in the Kaipara district. I had the honor to point out in my letter from Auckland, dated 10th May last, the difficulty which will arise in the Kaipara district from its small population (not much exceeding 600 souls), scattered over a vast extent of country^ intersected by rivers in all directions. It has been urged that the difficulty can be got over only by establishing a central boarding school, but upon going into details the expenditure proposed for buildings, dormitories, masters, matrons, food, clothing, furniture, &c, is so vastly out of proportion to any probable result, that I have not been able to take it into serious consideration. Eeturning from Kaipara to Auckland, and thence to Napier, I inspected the schools at Pakowhai, the opening of which I have already noticed at page 4, of this Eeport. I had arranged with the Chairman of the School Committee that I would visit it in company with himself and any other members of the committee who might desire to be present, but circumstances having prevented his giving due notice, I had the advantage of being totally unexpected, and consequently of seeing the school in an unprepared state. I found the names of sixty-five pupils on the attendance roll, of whom sixty-three were in the school, two being absent sick. They were of both sexes, and their ages varied from seven to seventeen. Their appearance was clean and decent, their manner quiet, orderly and respectful; they were being taught by one master with some small assistance from a pupil teacher. I examined them in reading, writing, cyphering, and writing from dictation, in all of which their progress was greater than I could have thought possible in so short a period (about four months.) The master does not speak Maori and nothing but English is spoken in the school. Tho pronunciation is of course as yet very imperfect and I find it necessary to impress generally upon teachers, that the careful pronunciation, the perfect understanding, and the fluent speaking of English are of infinitely more value to the pupils of a village school than the intimate knowledge of the geography of countries, with which, in all probability, they will never have communication, or other knowledge, which we sometimes see laboriously, painfully, and uselessly imparted. As the first fruits of the village school system, the results of tho schools at Maketu and Pakowhai appear to be in tho highest degree satisfactory. Tou will perceive that my report, lengthy and tedious as I fear it must appear, embraces only the two Provinces of Auckland and Hawke's Bay, indeed there are several schools in the former Province which I did not think it expedient to visit at present, such as those of Karakariki, Aotea, and Kawhia, but which I hope to visit early in the ensuing summer, and there are other places from which applications have been received in both those Provinces, such as Waimarama, Mohaka, and Wairoa, in Hawke's Bay and Whangaroa, Waikato, and Thames district, &c, in Auckland, to all of which I hope to attend in due season. I arrived in Wellington three days since, and so soon as I have inspected the schools here and transacted such other business as may be mecessary, I propose to visit such as may be receiving Government aid in the Middle Island. In conclusion, I would again call attention to the recommendation contained in the third Eeport of the Commissioners appointed in 1869 ; and would urge prompt enquiry into past as well as present management of school endowments and the settlement of outstanding claims against them. I would also urge the passing of an Act, giving power to remove and appoint Trustees of School Endowments, to revise, and, if necessary, to cancel existing leases where they may not appear to be equitable, and