CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 130, 10 July 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Smoke's Bay Times. Sib, —If any person, being a stranger here, had gone to Puketapu last Sunday, he would have seen there, with the object of hearing Mr. St. Hill read the church service and preach, as large a congregation of men, women, and children as one could wish to see ; but it would have struck him as very remarkable that so large a number of people, apparently residing within a few miles of Mr. Heslop’s farm, should not be able to have a church or school-house, wherein during the week the children could receive instruction, and on Sunday themselves attend public worship. The sound and excellent remarks made by you upon the subject of education, and which remarks were fully and well seconded in a very sensible letter signed “A Father” appearing in your paper, may be fairly considered as embodying the views entertained upon this all-important question, by every right-thinking man and woman in this Province. How is it then that such a number of people, all apparently but too glad to attend Public Worship when occasion offers, have no place whatever wherein that happy wish might be gratified, except it be under the hospitable roof of some neighbor ? We have never once seen a clergyman of any denomination whatever on duty in this district before last Sunday. When one looks around and sees the great tracts of valuable land held by individuals within and around Puketapu, it strikes me as very remarkable that no person in possession of that land has the generosity or good feeling to set apart a small piece of it as a place whereon a school or church might be built. But what is the most remarkable thing is, how is it that out of so much fine available land not an acre has been reserved for public School or Church purposes ? This last remark naturally leads me to enquire what becomes of all the revenue derived from the Church lands ? Unless I am very much misinformed, those revenues are expended more in the matter of improvement of sheep and cattle, and the cultivation of grasses, &c., than in improving the minds of men, and cultivating the intellect of children.

We, the poorer and most numerous class of people residing in this Province, sincerely hope that you will not cease to agitate this vital question of the education of our children, and the necessity for a grant being made for that purpose.

I am, &c.,

No Cant