An Odd Petition.

Manawatu Herald, 28 August 1900, Page 3

An Odd Petition.

4An odd petition sent to the Minister of Education by Wanganui natives h<w been forwarded on to the Wanganui Education Board for enquiry. The petition sets out : — (1) We have stopped sending our children to the school known as Rivtion (?) bchooJ, near to the Kauangaroa Bridge. (2) Out children have been attending this school for many years and none jQj< them have passed the First Standard. - Heni Hori is the only girl that ha? attained to it, but then her mother understands English. (3) Eruera Whaahu te Kahu questioned j our children as to what the Maori I children did in the school, and they told him that all they had to do was to teach their master Maori, and sometimes their master got them to perform some Maori hakas. (4) T heir master tatooed one of them all over the face in ink. (5) The master said to one that he would cut his head off, which so frightened him that he ran off to the kainga ; some were beaten with a stick. (6) This, then, is an appeal to you to send an elderly schoolmaster for this school to teach our children to learn English for there is no other school near to our kaingas to which we could *end our children. We are very anxious that our children should receive the advantages of a pakeha education. We, your petitioners, will ever pray that you will assist us in our endeavours to obtain the advantages of a pakeha education for our children. May. God preserve you and bess you and us also.