OTAKI.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 92, 28 August 1878, Page 3

OTAKI.

[from otui own correspondent.] At a meeting of the Otaki School Cbinmittee, on the 15ih inst., it was proposed by Mr HadfieM and seconded by Mr Bright, "That application be made to tlie Wanganui Educa lion Board for the immediate erection of a schoolhouse and a residence for a teacher, at Otaki, provided neither af the Mission (buildings could be acquired for thepurfoses" The resolution; was agreed to, when. the words m italip3 were struck out; but it would perhaps ljave been advisable to have passed ifc as proposed, as the two gigantic 'Mission buildings are almost idle,, there being only, one Maori boy attending the school, and he only when he feels inclined, so thab the Education Board, instead of erecting a. jchoolhouse and residence for a teacher,

\vould clo; better to.-acquire, by lease or purchase;- the Mission "School" or either of .which would hold fikll : t"'bie"' chilH?feiir r M;:.tjie '-"Gounty and still leave |yi*6oinyf pr^the biggest teacher with the. biggesfef aihily tpSfind accommodation,; and : the Mission -would do well to dispose one of the large monuments of the collapse pf its work, if only ta get the Board to put life into it and form a school which tho Natives might emulate, and, with the Maori boy referred to above as a nucleus, compete I successfully—at all events, as regards numbers— with the Pakeha children m the opposite building. The harvest of Maori children is indeed plenteous, and the labourers are not few, so the fault must be m the gleaning. Evidently, there is some tiling wrong somewhere, and somebody ought to do something: this being quite a lady's expression, and somewhat indefinite, cannot give offence —with it, I drop tbe subject. The nomination for a Councillor to fill the vacant seat of the -Horowhenua Riding in'the County Council, took place here on the' 19fch inst. There was a scarcity of possible candidates- Mr Hadfield declined standing for the same reason he gave a.b the first election — had no time to attend meetings at Foxton. Mr Sincox and other eligible gentlemen were unfortunately not on the roll ; and Mr J. Kebbell was not available, being, it was reported, at Wellington, on urgent family matters, and " therefore he could not come" to sign his consent to nomination', so we had tolook elsewhere, and Mr Davis, of Wirokino, being a by no means reluctant candidate for a seat m the Council, a proposer and seconder were produced for him, and ifc seemed probable that he would have a "race over," when, at the last moment, some energetic gentlemen appeared on the scene with Dr. Hewsou. Indeed ifc is more than probable that Mr Davis will give a practical illustration of " discretion being the better part of valor," by showing a clean, pair of heels at the ; first site of the Doctor, the list, and the lance, and so avoid a contest.