NATIVE SCHOOL AT WAIHANA.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 September 1919, Page 2

NATIVE SCHOOL AT WAIHANA.

The natives of Karakanui Settlement (Pahi-Kaihara) are petitioning Parliament through Major Coates, member for Kaipara, for the establishment -of. a" native school at Waihana. Several applications, covering a period of 30 years, have been made for a school, but the Board of Education have hitherto been unable to grant a school owing to the transient habits of the Maoris. T;ke— latter, however, now point out that they.: have had their laud individualised, and are therefore more settled., ( In the disr trict under mention there are 25 children of school age, within a radiup of two miles of the proposed school site, a section of five acres given free of cost' by Mr Paratene Hemana. To send the children to existing schools at present involves a fair amount of hardship*on. the scholars, as the two nearest schools are the Komiti (7 miles) and t Hukatere (8 miles), along tracks and over crossings which are in a very poor state. • The natives have raised £18 by concerts, etc.,. towards the cost of a building, and this and similar amounts they may raise'they; are asking the Gove/oment to snbsidise £ for £. Another concert-will be held shortly at Whakapirau, vat which a quantity of kits, mats, etc., manufactured by the Maoris, are to be sold by public auction, in aid of the hinds.