QUEER ANTICS OF THE AUCKLAND BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3178, 5 November 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

QUEER ANTICS OF THE AUCKLAND BOARD OF EDUCATION.

TO THE EMTOK. Sir.—Tlift Uoiirdof Education, in Auckland, has in its wisdom ordained that the llurapepo school ho sold for removal. Presumably there ran lin only one mnson , wliv the Kc.-ird should arrive iU. this Huinidal ormolu-inn, that, at present there is no teach-r and consequently no scholars. Tlip r.'Kird owing to that being so may think it U tnio economy t* sell the buildin" instead of letlinsr it go to rum by bcTnir unocciupied. I would bc-g to remind the member* of the Boi.ru what, they ou"ht to hive krown without mo muindiii.' them, that is, Mint now whore there is no'teacher and scholars in a few years there will bo both, and also that now where there is both teachers and scholars in a few years there will bo neither, this is quite patent to men of medium observation. I would also bug to tell the members of the Board that seeing the low pvice of new timber laid down at any mati't door\y the timber millers, and also seeing that a carpenter would need to be paid for taking- down the building , , and that when taken down the timber would bo all damaged and also all sorts of sizes, seeing that is so, the piice paid for tho building: would at the very utmost not be more chan ten pounds, surely the Board in its mercy might leave us our school for certain future use and might try and economise in some direction, that economy could easily be secured by any one of its country members staying away from one or two of its meetings and so savin? the travelling expenses. Perhaps the Board may have arrived at the conclusion that it is Ichabod, and that the glory has for ever deported from Harapepe. Harapops in the past was to the front and to the fore, in the Waikato, In past times it had its store, its hotel, its bla;ksmith's f.rge, its auuual races, <ind it is a fact that it gave more to tho support of the Ministers of the Upper Wai pa than nil the other districts in tbe district put together, the then ruling elder lived in Harapepe, and I am happy to say does still, although he has 0 no, I am wronsr, he has not backslid, he has got old and cannet now do as he formerly did, that is ride twenty or forcy miles to go to Church or attend the minister to show him tho way. Harapepe at one time produced a member to represent, jthis district in the Hous-i of Representatives. Mr Editor, all which has

been in, or all which has been produced by Harapepe will be so again, the turning point has already arrived, three months ago a real li7O J. P. bas with his family taken up his residence in Haracepe, and his proceedings would indicate that he had made up his mind to live, die and be buried in Harapepe, and two weeks ago another gentleman, who has eight sons has also taken up his residence here, and is now building his new house. If these two families had been here when the school was closed that closure would not have taken place, for the addition to the then scholars would have been sufficient

to keep the school open. I have long thought that the schools should be built on wheels the same as the shows in the Old Country. There you would see a caravan containing a giant and a woolly horse with the owner and his family travelling all ovr England and Scotland. Two or three years ago the Te Rore people w : shed their school removed a mile further on in another direction. When the school was erected it was built in the most central place for the children, but in the course of a few years the children were in the other direction. If our Harapepe school had been on wheels there would have been no occasion for a school to have been built at Karamu, for by removing the Harapepe school two miles nearer to Karamu all parties would have been better served. Lately I heard the Paterangi people lamenting that through the exodus their school was dwindling down. There is now an exodus into Harapepe. In a year or two a school will be (in fact at present is) wanted in Harapepe, and if our school is sold, as is proposed by the Board, and if the Paterongi school had been built on wheels it could have been shifted into Harapepe. In future a caravan will be quite large enough to hold the scholars of any district. The young people do not marry now as they did during the borrowing period. The borrowed money produced children by leaps and bounds. 1 also think that the sixth standard is not favourable to n-.arriage. Out of a hundred fourth standard men and women there will be a far higher percentage of them getting into the holy bonds of wedlock than in a hundred ot the sixth standard.—Yours truly, Haeafepb-