LIGHT! MORE LIGHT!

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 154, 25 August 1883, Page 3

LIGHT ! MORE LIGHT !

The lot of a schoolmaster in a bucolic district ■is not as a rule a happy one. Unless he can afford to liberally " booze up " the local committee, or go to the other extreme of joining the Blue Ribbon Army, according to the exigencies of the • case, and unless his wife is "in sympathetic •-accord " witli the farmer's wives, he is sure to be in perpetual hot water. This appears to bo the lot of an unfortunate pedagogue at Opotiki, who lias fallen under the heavy displeasure of the local committee, and brought down on his devoted head, the Jove-like thunders of the local "horgan," by committing the heinous sin of declining to supply the committee with candles Evidently he thought that a " little light" would be quite lost amidst such profound mental .-obscurity. To increase his troubles, the majority -of the pupils are Maori children of all degrees of -vice and dirt, who mix indiscriminately with the I European, and two of the teachers delight in holding up the dark-skinned brats as patterns of jpr^oprieby for the whites.

The talented writer of these lines once distinguished himself for a brief space as a country -pedagogue. It was nearly a score of years ago, just after: the final brave stand and signal defeat • of the Maoris at Orakau had terminated the long ■struggle, in the Waikato, and convinced the natives of the supremacy of British arms. An encampment had heen formed at Te Awamutu, .and many of the soldiers' wives Laving joined -their Bjsjsbands, scores of bare-footed and tousledhaired children were scampering about the camp •without any training or tuition. The writer a school in a small ivhare, and provided his . own fuel, candles, and books. He im■proYised rude chandeliers out of wood, and in >windy weather the heads of the children and the books were plentifully anointed with tallow .droppings. But.ia spite of these trifling drawbacks the great work of education proceeded Vwjthoufc interruption until "Parson Collins," the garrison Military Chaplain, a six-footer in 'boots iand. breeches %nd a frogged tunic, a boon comf"*.on at mess, a mighty hunter, and proficient he use of powerful adjectives, took it into his I to take-an active part in the scholastic business. .whole camp was at once intensely agitated •'" tire " Bißle-ra^he.-Bchools question." The: tan CathoHcfl^ /^tlidrpw , r their .ofeildren,. and

the little school, which began so auspiciously, came to untimely grief. The poor little children stood in mortal terror of the big, be-whiskered parson in top-boots and breeches. +