King Country Chronicle Wednesday, March 15, 1911. KING COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 345, 15 March 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, March 15, 1911. KING COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

Mr C. J. Parr, chairman of the Auckland Education Board, attacks the statements of the Rev. R. Mitchell, chairman of Te Kuiti School Committee, not by any direct explanation but rather by a suggestion of wrong motives. Mr Mitchell, presumably, is supposed to be one of the "two or three King Country agitators," who are keeping the prospective election in view in their agitation for better accommodation for the school children. Mr Mitchell's reply is that he did not even know an election was in prospect! On the question of Mr Mitchell's motives in writing to the Board, and in drawing public notice to the disgraceful accommodation provided, we can, at all events, speak with confidence and knowledge Mr Mitchell is one of the most widely known and highly respected gentlemen the King Country is fortunate in having in its midst. His duties lead him to travel from TeKuiti to the coast on horseback and in the course of his

perigrinations he comes into contact with all sorts and conditions of men. He is ever courteous and obliging. It is consequently in decidedly bad taste to speak of Mr Mitchell as a "busybody." If the chairman oc a school j committee, and one who intimately I knows, from personal observation, the [ educational wants of the backblocks, is not to be allowed to speak, who has that right? Mr Parr thinks it strange that complaints only come from the King Country. The King Country is a great area oc country, almost 200 miles across, and from one end to the other, .within the Auckland Education Board's territory, settlement is rapidly proceeding, schools need building or enlarging, and complaints when dilatory practises are prevalent, are and must be forthcoming. At Mangaroa, as our correspondent there shows, school desks have been sent down, presumably good enough for such a place. At Te Kuiti the secondhand tent and the ancient school desks have already been commented on. At Pio Pio there is only a tent, and at Mapara there is no school and one is badly wanted. At Manunui, Marakopa and Mangapeehi there is insufficient accommodation, and generally, throughout the district, the scholars are many but the schools are few. If the visit of Mr Parr to the King Country leads to a clearer understanding and a recognition of the claims of this great area to more considerate treatment, then so much the better. But strong names won't explain facts, and it is only in courtesy and coolness on all sides that the solution of the problem lies.