The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, 4 September 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1875.

« We 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.”

“ Janus,” in to-day’s issue, draws attention to the unfairness of the report made by Mr. Gill of the Native Department, to the Government, relative to the inspection he pretends to have made of the various Native Schools in this district, and that of Tologa Bay in particular; and “ Janus ” ask us, if we think it “ worth while, to “ say anything ” to “ please to do so.” TV e may premise by saying that our correspondent rests the structure of his complaint on a bond fide foundation. He is a settler on whom devolves the responsibility of paying taxes, and who, evidently, takes an interest in the public institutions of the country —at any rate the institution known as Native Schools. Occupying this position ; and being a careful compiler of facts and scraps, he is able to speak with authority on a subject which has come under his notice during the last year or two. The ground work of “ Janus’ ” complaint is that the master of the native school at Tologa Bay has been unfairly dealt with, inasmuch as Mr. Gill (we suppose duly accredited by the Government) inspected the school room on a Sunday, when there were no scholars to inspect, and, without (we suppose) seeing a single pupil,’ reports favorably on the “ order and “ cleanliness of the school.” The exact words Mr. Gill uses in his report are as follow : —“ The school is “ well kept, and the master and “ mistress indefatigable in their “ duties. I was much pleased at! the “ order and cleanliness of the school.” We suppose Mr. Gill means the “ school room,” but these littl e dis crepancies are quite immaterial in a Government official’s report. We certainly think “ Janus ” is quite justified in raising this question. If, as he says, Mr. Gill inspected the school room on a Sunday, how could he tell, except from outside gossip, that Mr. and Mrs. Parker had been “ indefatigable in their duties ?” He was also much pleased with the“ order [“ (what order?) and cleanliness of the [“school.” How should he be other- | wise than pleased ? Most things in a [school room are in “ order ” when the [noisy brats of scholars are out of it, land Sunday, of all days in the week, lis the one on which “ cleanliness ” is jto be found, even in a native school room.

I “ Janus ” draws a comparison between Mr. Gill’s report and the reports made by Acclydeacon Williams and Mr. O’Sullivan, on the less sanctified days of the week ; and we cannot but think it somewhat unfair in Mr. Gill to report on an assumed “ cause of “ failure ” of the Tologa Bay school, from merely visiting a gentleman at his private residence on a Sunday, and making, what can be little more than a private conversation, the sub-stratum of a public record. If there be any merit at all in assiduity, and a close application to daily duty to achieve success ; if Government inspections of native schools are to be anything more than shams ; if the masters of native schools are to ]s.e encouraged to look for approsing nbtice in Government reports, as a reward for years of patient diligence and toil; we say let ‘the shams be done away with at once ; let scholars be inspected instead of school rooms, and paraphernalia, and “ These feelings wide with sense and truth unclue “And give the palm where justice points its due.”