New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, June 27, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 407, 27 June 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, June 27, 1849.

If, as we have shewn, it be the duty of the State to educate its subjects with a view to its well-being and security, this duty becomes still more imperative on it in its relation to the aboriginal inhabitants of this country. On this point all opinions are so agreed that but few arguments are required to inforce its necessity. With a warlike intelligent race rapidly emerging from a state of barbarism and conforniing to the arts of peace, separated from us by the barriers of a language with which the majority of the settlers are but imperfectly acquainted, education becomes a powerful engine not only for instruction but civilisation. In abandoning his former habits the maori finds a void which requires to be filled up, in attempting to engage in the different pursuits which he sees successfully practised by the settler, he is impeded by the want of necessary information. To remove this barrier, to clear away these impediments, it is necessary not only to educate the natives but to enlarge and expand their minds by teaching them the language of civilisation, by giving them the key to that * Storehouse

of knowledge where they may freely entei in and be satisfied. With those of the na- [ tive race who have arrived at a mature age i this task may be a difficult one, but with the rising generation it may be attempted . with, every prospect of success. Their minds [ present a tabula rasa whereon may be inscribed in indelible characters the lessons of civilisation, order, obedience to the laws, and morality. It has been often objected that greater efforts have not already been made in this way, that the maories have not been instructed by the missionaries in the English language rather than in their own. But their mission was not so much to civilize as to christianize the natives, to lay the groundwork of civilisation by the inculcation of those precepts of religion and morality on which the whole framework of society rests. Besides it may be doubted, if the means had been at their disposal (and extensive means were required for such an object) whether the missionaries could have been so usefully employed in teaching the natives a language, the advantages of which would not have been so obvious to them at that time, as subsequently when New Zealand had become colonised by British settlers, and the constant necessities of mutual intercourse had rendered these advantages more apparent. Without, however, indulging further in these speculations, we may relate what is now doing at Otaki in the way of education, altogether without Government assistance, and we are glad to say with the happiest effects. Within the last eighteen months several schools have been established in that district, for the purpose of educating and improving the maories, which are numerously attended by children of both sexes. The number of children usually present in these schools amounts to three hundred and fifty. In the Otaki school alone, which numbers one hundred and eighty, there are never less than one hundred and twenty present : this is the chief one. Besides the religious and moral instruction given in this school, which was the primary object for which it was established, reading, writing, arithmetic, and the English language are also taught ; the girls are taught the use of their needle and such domestic occupations as will qualify them to be useful to themselves and to the community in which they dwell ; while in addition to what they learn in the schools the boys are taught, by means of an industrial system attached to the school, the successful pursuit of the occupations of a country life. Not only are the schools attended by the children of the natives of the immediate district in which they are established, but others, influential chiefs residing at a distance, deeply sensible of their importance, send their children to participate in the advantages which they confer. A respectable settler and his wife have recently been engaged to take charge of the Otaki school, and arrangements will be made by which half-caste children, of which there are several along the coast, will be received as boarders under their care. This school will thus become a Normal school of civilisation from which, as from a centre, its blessiugs and advantages will penetrate to remoter districts. We have entered into these details for the purpose of showing, what many seem to be ignorant of, how the work of civilisation and improvement is silently, but progressively extending among the natives, and. also of enabling our readers in some degree to estimate (at least as regards the native population) the amount of mischief that has been done, the good that has been prevented, by the recent vote of the Legislative Council on the subject of Education. For if the sum of five hundred pounds, as originally intended, had been set apart by the Council for the purposes of Education, " for the exclusive benefit of the Maori population," it is not too much to assert that similar schools would have been established at Wanganui, Taranaki and other populous native districts ; that at least five fold the number of children would have been subject to this moral training, returning again to their homes and imparting to their relations the knowledge of- those arts in which they had' been instructed. With

stated means placed by the Government at their disposal, those who have* undertaken the task of educating the natives could have laid down and carried out- a systematic ariel extended plan, freed f om the uncertainty and apprehension of failure for want of adequate means which limit individual efforts. Fur where schools are already in existence, where a desire is shewn among the natives to ay.ail themselves of the advantages afforded them, the Government, with every prospect of benefiting them, might make small grants of money, whereas large sums might be expended in establishing Government schools, which might altogether fail in producing any extensive beneficial results. True wisdom, then, would be shewn in assisting those schools which are already in existence and prospering, that they may become models for others. This is not to be regarded as a light matter. If viewed on low utilitarian grounds, from selfish considerations of personal interest, the money expended in this manner would be most beneficial to the colony ; if we cast our bread upou the waters, we shall find it after many days. Every year the trade with the natives has sensibly increased from their increasing desire to enjoy those advantages of improved food, clothing, &c, which they have only learned to value from their intercourse with civilised men. To obtain these they must labour to procure the means of purchasing them ; and sq. much productive labour, so much actual wealth is thus .added to the colony. And if it be considered important, as it undoubtedly is, to minister relief, by means of hospitals, to their bodily ailments and physical necessities, it is no less important by means of schools to develope and confirm those good habits and dispositions of which they have acquired imperfect notions. These schools would be the cheapest garrisons the Government could establish in the country to maintain peace, to inculcate a reverence for the laws, and a ready obedience to constituted authority, we therefore hope that the Governor- in- Chief will repair the error dom.mitted by the Council by furnishing this year from the Parliamentary Grant the necessary funds for this purpose.

The Ajax returned on Friday from Otago, having been unable from the continuance of strong southerly weather to land her stock at that port. We believe her stock will now be landed and sold in Wellington.

The Ship Mazeppa, bound for San Francisco, California, put into this harbour on Sunday, for the purpose of obtaining water; she left Adelaide on the Bth instant. Through the kindness of the Captain and one of the Passengers we are enabled to furnish our readers with interesting English intelligence to the 15th February, extracted from the South Australian and from late English papers.

An attempt was made last night by three prisoners confined in the gaol to escape from custody, which we regret to say proved successful. They effected their escape by re* moving the floor of their cell and'their absence was not discovered until this morning, when the gaoler on going v his rounds discovered their cell was empty. The three men who have escaped are Neal, convicted at the last sittings of theSuprenae Court for steal" ing a telescope from Mr. G. Young, and two soldiers who had been sentenced to imprisonment.