Death of a Maori M H R.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 116, 7 April 1887, Page 3

Death of a Maori MH R.

i , [per united prkss association.] Russell, April 6. Ihaka Ilakuene. M.lf.R. for the Northern Maori District, died to-Guy. Hw became ill in Auckluud after eating tiuned . beef on Monday. Contrary to the advice I of the doctor, he persisted in returning here among his friends. He gradually got worse. Great regret is felt in the I district.

Our parliamentary racers, present and prospective, have commenced their preliminary galops for 1887. Dr .Newman, member for Tfaorndon, our* vetted before some sixty persons on Thursday last ; Mr Fisher pranced on Tuesday, and Messrs Fraser andNancarrow, candidates for the vacant Te Aro seat, have each done a little canter. The amount of political wisdom thus far evolved is not staggering. Dr Newman, who is principally re-, xnarkable far a comprehensive unoriginality, made one rather startling statement. Speaking on the proposed reduction of our representatives he opined " a very small, house would be more open to jobbery^ as eacfe -man's price would be easier to get at." Dr Newman therefore evidently believes each member has his price, and that there is more safety in a large parcel of roguery than in a small one 5 . This ia hardly logical, but as the doctor 1b a member of the House, he ought to know. . By the way, I wonder, if each has a price, what Dr Newmans price may be. „ ; . ; The "13th annual report on . State Schools in Wellington District has been published, and on the whole it is satisfactory. The report itself is a really admirable composition and some queries propounded therein by the Inspector will recommend themselves not only to the understanding of many a Achool teacher, but also to the sense of iustice of not a few parents. *• If prizes must be given," says the Inspector, " could not rewards be given to all the children who well deserve ? cannot the heart burnings, and the violation of the sense of justice of tnanychildren.be spared? could not the gentle and industrious but dull pupil -^recognized;?: Shall all the good thiugs go to the intellectual Philistines of a school ?" How many good and plodding but slow children who act the part of the patient tortoise rather than that of the hare, have been soured for life by waut of kindly and intelligent recognition at school. Of course teachersit is but human-i-must prefer those bright and showy scholars who bring their instructors glory and renown; but after all the race is iiot always to the swift, and how many of these brilliant child schoiart are never afterwards heard of amid the worlds' strife, but drop early out of the ranks, «' weary with the march of life," while the dull persistent children generally blossom into the painstaking people who make history. Xet any middle aged man ask himself what has become of-all the '.'clever" boys he went to school with, and reflect how few of j them have made a name. Education is not, or should not be intended to develop youthful prodigies,, but to produce useful and good citizens, and the slow and sure children will be the kinder-hearted as men, and more loveable as women, if their "sureness" was kindly and graciously appreciated in their youth. The danger of our system, if injudiciously administered, is that it : may make more pedantic prigs than whole-souled men and women, but while we have an Inspector who writes such gorgeous commonsense as the sentences I have referred to there is not much danger.