The Standard. (PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1874.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 161, 18 April 1874, Page 2

The Standard. (PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1874.

“ VVe shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

Captain Porter brings the most satisfactory intelligence of an arrangement having been entered into between himself and the East Coast Natives, by which they agree to lease to the Government a block of land near to Waiapu, known as the “ Oil Spring” block. It contains about 5,000 acres, and the rental is fixed at the very moderate sum of £lOO a year for 25 years. It is also so far stipulated that the lessors are to receive a royalty of one farthing per gallon on all the kerosene produced, provided, of course, that the land is eventually sub-let for the purposes of its production. The Natives further have agreed to allow a road to be taken through their land to Tuparoa, the nearest shipping place on that part of the Coast. The importance of this negotiation mav not be apparent at first sight, but there is both a political and a social, as well as a commercial aspect belonging to it. The lease to the Government will set at rest for the next quarter of a century—perhaps for ever —a long-standing contention of party interests between the Native owners themselves; it will remove from their control a property which, through the importunities of private enterprise, might have led them and others into unpleasant disputations, while the Government will be able to offer peaceable and secure occupation to capital when the time comes to try he quality of the oil springs there. It is a moral certainty that the itives were firmly determined not to this block to any private individual, thei ’efore, for the reasons we have state d, the successful termination of the d ’ s P ute is a matter for congratulation.

We e °^ ten bcen tcm pted to enquire as to the resu. !t ' of le non-election of a Committee for the Gisborne European School, at the annual 1 ’’eeting in January last. The . isfnn or y position into which the affairs of the sch< °‘ b ft d drifted under the regime of tlie new Et ’ucation Act, induced the retiring Committee t 0 (. 1& - v ««* an rrnort befbr e the meetlll g « effectually preeluded the another Committee t 3 BUCCeed lt The

was that a resolution was unanimously passed not to elect a Committee, so as to throw the onus of future management of the school on the Central Board of Education, which, unde.* the 19ih clause of the Act, has the power to appoint one or more Commissioners to carry on the duty until the next annual meeting. Nothing seems to be done in any very great hurry by Governments, Boards, or Corporations, notwithstanding the high pressure age of steam and electricity ; and the Central Board of Education for the Province of Auckland forms no exception. For three months the Gisborne School has been left to itself; the requirements of the Education Act have not been complied with ; the Schoolmaster’s salary has been either illegally paid, or shamefully withheld, and everything is—well as it should not be. But there seems to be a light opening in the distance. Captain Porter has been communicated with by the Secretary to the Board, asking him to name two other gentlemen to act with him as Commissioners, and Captain Porter, having got the consent of the Rev. Mr. Root and Dr. Nesbitt to undertake the duty has recommended that they be appointed accordingly. The selections are judiciously made, but beyond pro ftrma business, we do not see what good can be done by them, unless the provisions of the Education Act are very much relaxed.