The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1261, 29 July 1880, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equ.il and evac t justice to all men, Ot whateier state or persuasion, religious or political. UVie shall tlif Press the People's right maintain Hn.iwed b) influent c and unbnbed bj gain.

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1880.

The third annual report of the Minister of Education has been laid on the table of the House-. It is the first under which, in compliance with the Act of 1877, it has been possible to present, in complete form, for an entire year, the statistical and other information relating to the progress and condition of public-school education throughout the colony. The public schools number 817, of which 204 are in Auckland district, 149 in Canterbury, 146 in Otago, and 42 in "Wellington district. The total average attendance at all the schools of the colony for the last quarter of 1879 was 58,730, as compared with 50,639 during the corresponding period in 1878. But there were during the year 69 new schools open, which in a great measure accounts for the increase of 8099 in total attendance. Attendance has also been prompted by the enlargement and better fit-ting-up of existing schools, under the operation of the Act of 1877. In the year 1878 the average attendance per school had risen from 57-2 to 67-7. The average for 1879 was ?I'9, showing an increase of 4*2 per school as compared with 10*5 for 1870. The report states that during the year advantage has been taken to an increased extent of section 88 of the Act, authorising Boards to assist small schools ■' started by private enterprise in outlying districts, which it would be premature or inconvenient to constitute school districts." Most of these " aided schools" are '■ full time," but some of them "half-time" schools. As a rule, the latter class are regarded with much disfavor by the parents. The number of teachers employed in the ordinary staff in the public schools during the last quarter of 1879 is returned at 1773, being 162 in excess of the number engaged during the corresponding quarter of tfie previous year. They have been classified as follows :— Masters, 659; assistant masters, 113; male pupil teachers, 113; mistresses, 278; assistaut mistresses, 265 : and female pupil teachers, 345. There are also 110 sewing mistresses, who are employed almost solely in the .smaller .schools which have not the atten- ! dance sufficient to warrant the em j ployment of a fully-qualified mistress in addition to a master. The male teachers number 885, and the t female 888. The number of the latter showed an increase of 103 during the year, and the former only 60, but the preponderance of female teachers is only among the assistants, there being 659 head masters to 278 head mistresses. The average number of scholars per teacher is 33*1 as compared with 31 -4 and 28*9 respectively for the two previous years, the average having iucreased in nearly every district. The other averages are, in Otago, 40 -8 ; Southland, 38-5 ; and Wellington, 35-5 ; the lowest hi Taranaki, 25-1 ; Westland, 20* 4 ; and Auckland, 27 -6. The proportion of attendance to number on rolls i.s 77 7 per cent. The total number of scholars entered on the roll-books during the year, was 106,496, being an increase of 21,525, on the previous year, and the number belonging to the schools at the end of the year was 75,566, as compared with 65,040, the increase being therefore 10,526. This last number, — 75,566-r-is the number which may be fairly claimed as actually deriving benefit from attendance at the public schools at the close of the year. It comprises 39,427 boys, and 36,129 girls, the per-centage of ages being as follows : — Under 5 years, 3 68 ; 5 to 7, 21-75; 7 to 10, 35-29; 10 to 13, 28,74; 13 to 15, 8-97; over 15, 157 per cent. The report in reference to the attendance states that although it is, especially in country districts, somewhat irregular, yet there is no doubt the children profit largely by their attendance at school, broken i though it may sometimes be. The [ aggregate number of children returned as belonging to the public schools of the colony at the end of the last quarter of 1879 was 75,556, and this number may be fairly claimed as representing the children actually deriving benefit from attendance at the public schools at the close of the year. The aggregate incomes of the Education Boards during the year 1879 was £467, 198; for 1878, £368,285; and for 1877, £322,768. The statement of expenditure shows the following balances in hand at the end of each year : — 1879, £43,275 ; 1878, £61,605 ; 1877, £24,814. The cost \ per scholar during the year, calcu- \ latod on average attendance, was \ £7 10s lOd, as compared with £6 3s 9d for the preceding y>ar. The expense of Board management (which includes — departmental staff, £6022 ; allowance to members of

Boards, ,£462 : olHce expenses, £922; U\v costs, £818 ; printing, £801 ; advertising, X 1067 ; stationery, 1 581 ; tl\o ivnminder being made up of fuel, lighting, sundries, etc.), wvav £11,10 ( J. Referring to the system of " Standard*/' it is held that the programme is not unduly .severe, but it is admitted that the definition of work in some parts of the programme is not sufficiently precise to secure uniformity or practice in examining according to the standards. The native schools code fully recognises the principle that the education of the Maori children shall be kept apart from the public school system of the colony no longer than is necessary ; and provision is made that, whenever in any locality the circumstances will admit of it, the native school shall merge into the public school.

We .are in receipt of the reports on the Volunteer Force of New Zealand, submitted to the Defence Minister by General Davidson and Col. Leckie. That of the latter officer, on the Volunteers of the North Island, is the only one which could interest our readers ; but we regret to say there is nothing whatever in it that could prove of interest to anybody. From beginning to end, there is nothing whatever in the report "that the merest cadet in the force could not have said, and siicl much better; for, imajjie as the information afforded is, it is wrapped up in such miserable phraseology as to be almost unreadable. Everything relating to the Waikato Volunteers, except the attendance returns, has already appeared in our telegraphic columns, and as it would be tedious to repeat it, we will give a few lines of that portion of the report which' deals with the Thames, as a sample of the composition in which the gallant Colonel disports himself :—": — " The Volunteers "in this district are the best "in the JNorth Island, both in "physique and soldierlike bearing ; " they take great pride in themselves, " their red clothes suits them well. The " appearance and drill of the Naval " Brigade is very creditable. Where " all are good it is invidious to draw " a distinction." This kmd of praise, although it is pretty indiscriminately thrown about, is by no means applied in all cases. In referring to the Bay of Plenty Cavalry, he is very severe on the unfortunate gentleman who commands there, "He has," Colonel Leckie says, " a " very indistinct word of command ; " the men could not understand " him, consequently the drill was a " farce." On these two styles of criticism the Colonel rings the changes continually, real practical information regarding the acquirements and wants of the various corps and troops being nowhere perceptible. A few jerky sentences, written in exceedingly bad English, are crammed in under the head of " remarks ;" but they are quite destitute of anything remarkable except the peculiarities hinted at above. We will not deny that there may be here and there something worth noting in the report, as for instance a recommendation to the Government to assimilate as nearly as possible the arms in use in the different Volunteer companies ; but whenever the Colonel is right he is not original, and the reforms which he urges have been so persistently urged before his time, and are so evidently necessary, that they scarcely stand in need of his sponsorship. In these days of retrenchment we hope that such useless appointments as that held by Colonel Leckie will be dispensed with. If they are deemed to be necessary let them be held by officers who have some little knowledge of the subject, together with the power necessary to turn the result of their observations to practical use.

Some few days ago we commented on the blundering connected with the Cambridge Reserves, the granting of which to the Domain Board was done in such an unsatisfactory manner. The Board, as soon as they hilly appreciated the nature of the case, lost no time in communicating with the Government and the member for Waikato. Mr Whyte lias acted with so much promptitude that on Saturday last Mr Wells, chairman of the Board, received from him the following, by telegraph :—": — " Mistake O'nzHte rectified. "Mr Rolleston says Governor will " sign leases both .sides of river and " Lake reserve will be included." This means, we presume, that the Town Belt on the west side of the river will be made over to the Board, which will have the power to lease although the Governor will have to be a party to the transaction. This will be pleasing news to the inhabitants of Cambridge and the Board may now be said to be in a position to proceed in the exercise of its proper functions.

Information, reaching up to a late hour in the afternoon of yesterday, goes to show that Mr Laing is coasiderably improved mentally ; bodily, however, he appears to bo weaker. Dr Sandes continues his daily visits to the patient ; and, considering the nurrierous other calls taxing his time, it seems no easy task to repeat a daily visit at so long a distance from Hamilton. Mr Laing is the nephew of Dr Wood, of Riverhead, whose indisposition has prevented him from coming, but whose eldest son arrived by the 1.30 train yesterday. The attention of friends to the patient, day and night, is unremitting. All visitors speak in high terma of praise respecting Mr and Mm Kenneth Morrison, iv whose residence, the patient yet lies. Father Golden, who visited Mr Laing with Dr Sandes yesterday, reports a marked improvement in miua, hat lo-

levea him to be weaker in body. It appears tihat he asked the priest what mishap -had occurjce/l to him. " You fell oft' }dttrb.oise," ho was told. "O, then thank God I w.is not killod ; I feel veiy grateful for such mercy," was the reply. No doubt his r*ase is btill very critical, and medical advice goes to assert that his recovery cannot yet be l'clied upon. We hope, however, to hear soon of his convalescence.

We learn that Mr Lovell, who has for some time past occupied the position of operator in the Hamilton Telegraph Office, lias been promoted to the charge of the station at rukekohe. His place here will be supplied by a cadet.

Owing to the general reduction about to take place in the police force, one of the constables nt present in Hamilton (Constable Foreman) will be removed to Auckland. During the time he has been here, Constable Foreman has always conducted himself in such a manner as to win the respect of all with whom he has come in contact, and in leaving he has our best wishes.

Mi\Macgregor Hay attended in the R.M. Court yesterday in the interests of olients, ami we are gratified to notice appears quite recovered from his recent severe indisposition.

We publish in another column the text of the resolutions past at a meeting of the burgesses last night in reference to the action of the Borough Council regarding the blidge. A full report of the meeting is unavoidably held over, but will appear in Saturday's issue. The tone of the meeting throughout was very unanimous.

Another outrage has been committed on the premises of Messrs Coalmine and ttwaun. On Monday night two of the employe's, who with the others have for some time watched the premises, were sitting in the smithy, and about 11 o'clock, feeling chilly, they attempted to light one of the forge fires, when they discovered that the leather part of the bellows had been hacked in such a manner as to render it quite unserviceable. As the smithy was only uuoecupied between half-past 5 and 7, the destruction of the bellows must have been effected during that time. Ho far as is known, there is no clue to lead to any satisfactory conclusion on the matter.

The next meeting of the Hamilton Chess ami Debating Club for debate, will be held to-morrow evening at the Court House, at 7.30 o'clock. The subjects for discussion have been already announced, and there will, no doubt, be a large attendance. Visitors will be admitted by tickets only, to be procured from the Executive Committee.

An accident happened to Mr Sullivan, one of the Te Awmnutu Cavalry Band, on. Tuesday evening- while on hi ■> way to the concert. While he was crossing tho Mangapiko Bridge, some of the planking gave way, precipitating him into the stream. No damage was done, except that he received a ducking. He, however, lost a coi not valued at £5, but hoped are entertained that it will be recovered. The crossing is in a very dangerous state, and should be attended to.

The usual fortnightly meeting of the Borough Council, called for Tuesday evening, was adjourned till this evening, on .account of the public meeting held last night. Theie were present :—: — His Worship the Mayor, Councillors McUarrigle, Feat, Yialou, Price, White, Pearce, Jones, and Davis. Both the Mayor and Councillor Vialou spoke in favor of adjourning the meeting until the Council had an opportunity ot hearing what the burges&es had to say on the subject. Councillor Price was opposed to adjourning the meeting, but the motion to,- adjourn was ultimately put and carried.

The filling up of the schedules under the Property Assessment Act has been extended to the 31st Aiigust.

Support Local Industries.— Messrs, Ridler and Dal ton, Kiwi Mills, iire producing the best of flour from Waikato grown wheat. For prices, see advertisement in first column, page two. — [ApvT.j

An error crept into our report of the serious accident to Mr E. Laing, of Ngaruawahia, in our last issue, in which it was stated that Father Golden made the journey, fully four miles, from Rangiaohia to the scene of the occurrence in 3hrs. 20rain8. It should have read fully forty miles.

A gentleman writing from Cambridge informs us that " the swamp road between Parker's station and Maugapiko bridge i* in a most dangerous condition for horse traffic, and that wheel traffic is completely stopped. Considering that this is the main road between Rangiaohia Kihikihi, Te R.thu, Te Awamutu and Cambridge, it does seem strange that the Road Board does not scp the necessity of keeping the places united by a good load rather than keeping alragc balance in the Bank. While the road was passable communication was kept up between this and the places referred to twice weekly by a man named Kelly, who kept us supplied with butter, bacou, cheese, poultiy, etc. ; but now it is done. The strangest thingis that this road hhould have been t.o neglected while the Ohaupo road has been m carefully attended to. It could not be worse had there been no subsidies."

The total return of Volunteers in all New Zealand on the 3 1st March last stood thus :—Cavalry, 722 ; Artillery, 1170; Engineers, 4(>7 ; Rifles, olilO ; Navals. 789 ; total, 8438; Cadets 2811.

By the train which left Hamilton on Friday morning la^t thcie were several waggons conveying the working plant belonging to Mr Fallon, that gentleman haying completed his To Awamntu railway construction contract. The train, therefore, became necessarily long. It was augmented at the different stations on the line until by the time it left Mercer ie consisted of a total of 34 carriages and waggons and four engines. We understand that it was intended to have had one or move of the engines at the rear of the train, but the attention of the guard being drawn to the fact that in case of any obstruction being found on the line, the engines behind not being in a position to see the sauxc, and necessarily going at ' full pressure, the carriages and waggons j would in all likelihood be " telescoped." The order, therefore, was : — Two engines (coupled), 10 waggons, two engines, 2i carriages and waggons. On the road between Pokeno and Tuakau the train extended over three curves, at the same time, presenting to the passengers a sight at once novel and striking, and one not likely to be witnessed again. At the same time, the occurance was not very reassuring to those passengers possessed of .any exjierience in regaid to railway matters. The interesting nature of the situation was not felt to be sufficient compensation for the extreme liability to accident. It is only right to say that the guard took every possible precaution to prevent any casualty, but we hope the experiment will not be tried again.

Traces of the missing Atalanta have, it is thought, at last been discovered. The cat>tain of the Scotia Queen, which has arrived at Queenstowu from Demerara, reports having passed on April 30, in about latitude 30 N. f and longitude (50 \V\, a raft (bolted), apparently made on board a man- ; of- war or a first class steamer. Two days afterwards he passed several dead bodies clothed in white jumpers. Apart from the fact that the Scotia Queen has travelled over the track the Atalanta would be sun.

posed to take in her return Home from the West Indies, the "white junkers" will probably be regarded iis a conclusive proof . that the bodies were those of men belonging to one of Her Majesty a ships. This dre^s, we believe, is the peculiar characteristic of the Royal Navy. Addition particulars have been received by the Fnsco mail, which states that a bottle containing a slip of paper was picked up about a mile oft' the harbor of Chailottetown, Prince Edward's Island, Canada, on the 26th nit. The leaf, which appeared to have been torn out of a memorandum book, had the following hastily scrawled on it -.—April 17, 1880. — On board the training ship Atalauta. — We are sinking in longitude 27 deg., latitude 37 deg. Any person finding this will please advertise in the daily papers. — John L. HUTCHIXCiS."

A young colonial— which means something quite different from a young colonist — (says • ' JEglea " in the Andralabian) noted, for his prudence aur* meanness in money matters, was conversing with a young lady. The topic of race meetings came up, Mr M 'Angus having lately attended one. He expressed such disapproval of that kind of amusement that the la 'y a»ked him why he disliked races. •' Oh ! " he replied. '• because they aro .so expensive — ju>t fancy, my trip cost me two and bixpence !'' " Indeed," said his fair interlocutor, " how did you manage to tpend such a large sum?" "Well, you see, '" siid the unsuspecting MA , *' it cost me a shilling for cab going, aTid another for returning." "Yes," Raid Miss Velvet, " but how did you dibpo-e of the remaining sixpence ? " " Oh, " responded he in quite a gay and youngbloodish manner, " mostly boozing. "

In a review on the Melbourne Cup candidates "Augur" selects Mata and Sweetmeat as the most likely horses of the division carrying over Bst. to provide the winner. Kegarding Mata, he says : — This is the champion of New Zealand, and Mr. H. Redwood, an excellent judge, inform* me that he considers him the bett horse ever bred in New Zealand. He has won the Dunedin Cup twice, carrying 7st 811), in 1879, and miming a dead heat with .Sinking Fund, whom he defeated in the run off. This year he carried Sst 91b, and won by half a length, several other events falling before him during the season. In one of these he met Le Loup, over a short course, and the chestnut ran a close second to him, so that according to our Australian ideas of a clinker, he w ould not be one unless he could give Le Louy 141 band a beating. Mr. Bernard has evidently formed just such an estimate of him, and ha-> handicapped him at Bst 21 lb, a weight which he can race under, and if Cutts has him in best form he will, I think, worthily uphold the reputation of the Southern Colony. As showing- the confidence reposed in the powers of Mata, Messrs. Ray, Vallancc, ami Cutts have backel him at 100 to 5 to win L 02,000 on the Melbourne Cup. We understand that the above named three gentlemen have something else in view besides winning with Mata anil Camballo, and that is to purchase the best racing stock procurable, and return witli their A'entures to this colony.

A mi rTiNO of all persons interested in the foim ition of a Mutual Improvement and Debating .Society in Te Awamutu is convened tor Saturday evening at seven o'clock in the Public Hall, le Avvamutu. A (tiMKM meeting of cricketer-, aud footballers ij> called tor Saturday evening at eight o'tloik in the Cambridge Hotel, Cambridge. Tm W.iipa County Council ivill meet .it the Council Ch.mibcrs, Oh.iupo, on the loth pro\. to consider the ( losing- of certain roads in the MTangapiko Highway District. I\ consequence ot tlie Oddfellows' Hall being eng iged to-night, the ordinary weeklj dull or the Hamilton Rifle Volunteers will take place tomorrow evening at the usual hour. Mk Kiwi ij\ Hii I. will hold a public auction at Cambridge next Thursday, the whole of Col. Lvon's superior household furniture, at noon. Mr Xi \\i i>\ Hii,i. will iell at his Auction Mart on Saturday, at 2 p.m., a choice collection ol hint and ornamental trees.