The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3596, 20 January 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1883.

From the letter signed "Ex Pupil Teacher," which appears elsewhere, weleam that there is some discontent among - tho pupil teachers in the Xapier and other schools who have recently completed their period of four years' engagement under the Education Board. It seems that, in districts where training colleges for teachers exist, pupil teachers, on the completion of their term of service, enter themselves as students at these colleges, and are able to maintain themselves by means of valuable scholarships which are established specially for them. To one or other of these colleges several of the pupil teachers in this district would like to go, but they are debarred on account of the heavy expenses, there being no scholarships for pupil teachers in districts such as Hawke's Bay. When it is considered that these training institutions are maintained at the public expense, whilst the benefits are more or less localised to the great disadvantage of our own teachers, there certainly does seem some reason for the existence of discontent. Tho Hawke's Bay education district employs about one twentieth of the pupil teachers in New Zealand, and if it obtained a like proportion of the grant paid by the Government for the training of teachers, every pupil teacher in this district who has served his or her engagement under the Education Board could, be sent free of all cost to one of the four twining colleges now established in New Zealand. The pupil teachers cugau'e themselves to learn a profession, and if they are to be neglected at the most important period of their training and education we urge that a gross injustice is being done to them as also to this district. Time after time the inefficiency of some of the teachers engaged in the country schools has been pointed out at the meetings of the Education Board, and it is to the pupil teachers specially trained in the best schools that the Bo;ircl lcu.s relied to form tlie supply for the future, but all to no purpose. The Government has been _ applied and some time ago the Minister of Education promised to reconsider the question of grants to training schools, but nothing has been done for those pupil teachers, or rather ex-pupil teachers, who have, in the words of the Inspector of Schools, "so satisfactorily completed their engagements under the Board.' , The necessary expenses prohibit our pupil teachers from entering themselves as students at a training institution unless assisted : the Government will not assist them by means of scholarships, as recommended by the Education Board ; and they cannot obtain in this district those advantages which are freely given even to outsiders in districts were training colleges are established, and thus our pupil teachers arc cheated of their just rights, and the Education Board is unable to remedy an evil which its own machinery, if not scotched by defective Government regulations, would easily cure.

Ben Allah gave his second and final performance of the season at the Theatre Royal last night before a very thin but appreciative audience. Several new features were introduced, and at the close of the entertainment a number of small gifts were distributed amongst the audience. It is announced that Mr Sainsbury and Mr Logan have entered into partnership, and the style of the now firm is to be " Sainsbury and Logan." We hear that Mr Sainsbury is shortly to return to England, and intends to establish in London a legal colonial agency in conjunction with Mr Logan. The Napier Commercial Academy will reopen, after the holidays, on Monday. Mr j Rearden's Academy is the only private school for boys in the province, and should therefore be well patronised. Many of tho former pupils of tin's school now hll rcsinnisible and lucrative positions in various parts of the colony. We learn from a Poverty Bay exchange that Mr Edward ii Ward, jiuir., and Mill. Eyre Kenny have entered into copartnership as barristers, solicitors, and conveyancers, at Gisborne. The partnership hitherto existing between Mr Kenny and Mr Hugh J. Finn was dissolved by mutual consent on the 17 th instant. A temperance meeting was held in the United Methodist Free Church on Thursday evening, and was well attended. Mr Flesher occupied the chair. Suitable addresses on the temperance movement were delivered by the Revs. R. Taylor, 11. B. Redstone, J. W. Wovboys, and Mr Bowron. Several selections from Sankey's collection of hymns were given at intervals by the church choir in good style. A novel and amusing sight was to be witnessed in town this forenoon. It was no other than a fail , Maori equestrian seated astrido a hack in othodox gentleman's fashion. To hoighton tho oiloct tho rider

wore a flaming - yellow skirt, and carried an umbrella of prodigious dimensions that was extended over her head, which otherwise was unprotected. The almost phenomenal " get-up " excited no little amusement, and the native lady was for the nonce the " cynosure of all eyes." Last evening the Rev. Joseph "White, of Christchurch, delivered a lecture in the Free Methodist Church, Carlyle-street, on "Revelation in the light of To-day." There was a rather thin attendance, only some fifty persons being - present. The lecturer made the best of what proved to be a very dry subject, and read copious extracts from works by Professor Bruce and Dr. Smyth. The meeting concluded with the usual votes of thanks to the lecturer and the chairman, Rev. E. 0. Perry. We have received a letter from Mr "W. J. Burton, who has been acting auditor of the accounts of the Taradale River Conservators Board. If one-half of the statements contained in the letter be true we should think Mr Burton's course should have been to have addressed the Board officially on the subject, when, no doubt, the matter would have been brought up at an ordinary meeting and duly reported. As we have no desire to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of libel we must decline to publish Mr Burton's letter. Some short time ago the Auckland Star took the trouble to gather statistics respecting church attendance in the several centres throughout the colony, and in an article on the subject showed that Auckland had a superior per centage in that respect to any of the other provincial districts. The editor of the Duncdin Echo thereupon takes the matter up, and, while not disputing the Star's statement, proves by figures quoted from Government statistics that there is no other town in New Zeaiand of its population that shows a higher criminal rate than the northern metropolis ! The coincidence is, to say the least, remarkable. The mouth of the Xgaruroro, which has worked its way close to the Waitangi boiling-down establishment, is now the outlet for the Tuki Tuki and Waitangi rivers. What between the river current and the wave action the beach at the boilingdown works is being seriously encroached upon, and the safety of the building's is threatened. The railway line is also menaced, and there is every prospect of no little mischief unless steps are taken to protect the beach. The Government have been communicated with on the subject, and it is to bo hoped that no time will be lost in throwing out protection works. A meeting- of those interested in the formation of a Young Men's Christian Association for Napier was held last evening in St. John's school-room, Mr Pasley in the chair. Several clergymen and others having addressed the meeting ou the usefulness of associations such as that intended to be formed, it was resolved, on the motion of Mr Banbury, seconded by Mr Kelly, that a committee be ap2>oiuted to collect information ou the subject and to arrange for a future meeting, the committee to consist of the following:--The Ecvs. l)e Berdt llovcll, and J. -T. Lewis, Messrs Pasley, Welsman. Jack, Tcychenui, and Baubury : Mr Tcychenni to be the convener. Prior to taking his departure from Gisborne Mr W. Clarke was entertained at a complimentary dinner. In reply to the toast that was cordially drunk to his health, Mr Clarke said that "he was connected with the first oil company ever formed in the Australian Colonies —the one to test the oil country of Taranaki. In making the tests there, it turned out that the further down they went the less were the indications. It was not so in Poverty Bay. However far they sunk they carried indications with them. In regard to Gisborne there had been great improvements made. Roads had been formed, and in the expenditure of the £10,000 loan they had made one of the prettiest little townships in New Zealand." In the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before Captain Precce, Jv.M., Thomas M'Manus, of Hastings, was convicted of drunkenness for the third thno within the past month, and was ordered to pay a. fine of .-61 and costs, or in default to be imprisoned for ten days in Napier gaol. The prisoner asked the Court to allow him an hour's g-i'aco to enable him to piiy the fine ; if unsuccessful in getting the money he would deliver himself up. His Worship refused to grant, the application. Barnoy Donnclty pleaded guilty to having , been drunk at Hastings yesterday, and was fined 3s and costs, with the alternative of 48 hours' imprisonment. This man also asked to bo allowed to return to Hastings, where he promised to pay the fine by (3 o'clock tonight. His Worship replied that if lie could not pay the fine at once ho must go to gaol. The' Court then rose, and both prisoners retired under escort to the solitude of the hills in the vicinity of the lighthouse. The annual picnic and distribution of prizes in connection with the Taradale district school was held on Wednesday in Mr Tift'en's plantation, and notwithstanding that harvesting operations are very brisk here just now parents and .scholar's mustered in great force and spent a most enjoyable day. The prizes, which were presented by j the Rev. E. 11. Granger, consisted of a large number of handsomely bound books, calculated apparently both to please and instruct, and were awarded upon the results of the Inspector's animal examination. Every child who had passed the examination successfully obtained a prize—Bo per cent, of the possible marks in each standard qualifying for a first prize, 70 per cent, for a second, and GO, which constitutes a pass, for a third prize, and as 9)3 per cent, of those presented for examination succeeded in passing the number of the prize-takers was numerous. A special prize for at- | tend mcc was awarded to Annie Lord, she having been present at every opening of the school'throughout the year. Special prizes were given by Messrs On , , Heslop, and Dolbel for sewing, grammar and composition respectively It was uimouncod thut those for the two latter subjects will be awarded by special examination on the reI assembling of the school. Brief sddresses were made by Messrs Granger, Waterhouse, and Bennett, who complimented teachers and scholars on the remarkable progress made by the school during thepast two years, the numbers having increased during that period from 70 to 1 70, and the attainments, as shown by the Inspector's report, were such as would bear comparison with those of the best schools in fhu province. After the distribution of prizes the children sang a few songs, and sports and pastimes, interspersed with refreshments solid and lkjuid, were indulged in till dusk —[Communicated.] "It beats all," said Fogg, "how much parson Jones knows. He says that the liquor sold in the village is vile stuff, and that secret gambling clubs are crowded nightly, and that the votaries of vice are every "night to be met in their favorite haunts. I'd give something to know how the parson finds it all out." The parson would have known far more though had he kept his head clear by using Van Houton's pure soluble cocoa, the only genuine breakfast beverage, sold by Professor Moore, of Waipawa.—[Advi'.l After groping in the dark for centuries in quest of a thoroughly pure stimulant and tonic the Faculty found it some thirty years ago in the now celebrated WoLri-;'s>SciiXAi'PS. —[Advt.]