Copy of Mr. David Jennings' letter, from the Nelson Examiner, June 2nd, 1869, concerning the Motueka Public School.
To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner.

Sir,—In your paper of the 19th instant, you have called the attention of the public to extracts from papers laid before the Provincial Council in reference to this trust, created so long ago as 1853, for a public school at Motueka.

The information thus given appears to be of the most authentic character, viz., the terms of the page 297Crown grants under which the trust property is held, by which it appears that the Trust is simply "for the education of children of our subjects of all races, and of children of other poor and destitute persons being inhabitants of the Pacific Islands."

It might appear extraordinary that 16 years hare elapsed and no such school exists as that for which the Tru[gap — reason: damage] was created.

There are many reasons which may be used to excuse this state of things. In 1858, the property had not bec[gap — reason: damage] productive. What it is now producing, those who are in receipt of the rents can best tell. In the early stage of the Trust, the late Bishop of New Zealand availed himself of the assistance of three Nelson gentlemen of the highest respectability, under whose auspices advances were understood to be obtained from Government, with which a building was erected on the Trust property intended for education purposes. About the time the building was completed, Archdeacon Paul came up from Canterbury with the avowed intention of opening a grammar-school under this Trust, for which his antecedents eminently fitted him, but no sufficient sum was available from the rents, and the attempt was given up. Soon afterwards the Rev. Mr. Tudor removed the school for Maori children, which he had been previously conducting at Motueka village, and carried it on in the Trust premisos until he became Bishop Hobhouse's chaplain. The Maori school was then put under the care of Mr. Harris, than whom a more efficient Maori teacher could not have been obtained; but the normal condition of schools for Maori children was exemplified under Mr. Harris (as it had been under Mr. Tudor), viz., the whole body of the Maori children periodically took themselves off en masse to their friends, and Mr. Harris gave up the attempt after a fair trial, though he had previously conducted a Maori school in the North Island; he had probably other reasons for abandoning the attempt, but he was well convinced of its futility and Bishop Hobhouse must have been equally satisfied (or rather dissatisfied) at the result, as he did not reopen a Maori school.

About this time the Rev. Mr. Pritt (who is now assisting the noble work of Bishop Patteson) came to Motueka, and for a short time very zealously took up the idea of carrying on a grammar school on the trust property; whether from deficiency of rental or for what other reason it was never made known (so far as I have heard), the attempt was abandoned.

In conformity with the well-known liberality of the Oxford collegiate authorities to their tenants, Bishop Hobhouse built (or contributed largely to the building of) a very good house for one of the tenants on the estate; if this was not strictly the proper application of the rents pursuant to the trusts, it at any rate tended to increase the letting value of the property.

As his Lordship had found out the futility of attempting to carry on a school for Maori children, he assigned the school buildings as a residence for his secretary, whom he employed to manage the estate, collect the rents, and also to visit the various pahs in the different parts of the Province, and act as lay reader there on successive Sundays to the Maoris. Since that tenure of the Trust buildings terminated, the present Bishop has obtained the services of a clergyman of considerable attainments, competent learning, and popular manners as a preacher, moreover well acquainted with the Maori language, who is engaged in carrying out the late Bishop's pogramme of visiting and preaching at different pahs in the Province, and, when not absent from Motueka on these visits, carrying on a school for a few adult Maoris. There can be no doubt that this is a good work, and is as efficiently carried out as anything must be which is done by a man who is both able and earnest in what he has to do; but this work is carried out at a waste of power compared with the result as is well possible to conceive; for the school, such as it is, is carried on both in the morning and in the evening in the Motueka Church school-room, which has become useless (except for a Sunday school) for any educational purpose, since the Government school has been built in the village. That school-room is between four and five miles from the trust property, a distance the gentleman in question has to travel four times a day, unless he happens to remain the whole afternoon in the village.

It is not to be wondered that the Bishop of Nelson, in coming to a diocese to which he was a stranger, should take the practice of his predecessor as the guide of his conduct in the first instance; but it is hardly to be supposed that, when his Lordship becomes fully aware of the precise terms of the trust which has devolved upon him, he will pursue any other course than that which is consistent with that conscientious discharge of duty which has distinguished his character both before and since his arrival among us.

It is of course well known that Motueka and the Waimeas are the two main agricultural districts of the Province, according to the statistical returns lately published in your paper, the agricultural produce of Motueka (with the exception of hay) decidedly exceeds that of the Waimeas, and its population is proportionate; while the proximity of the latter to the city of Nelson and all its educational advantages afforded an obvious reason why the Queen's representative should have made provision for the establishment of a public school at Motueka.

If any doubt could have been entertained of the Governor's power to make the disposition he has done, it may be observed that the Act has stood the test of sixteen years' undisturbed possession and of some little discussion, and at any rate it stands on the same footing as some valuable lands now held for the support of Nelson College. It remains only for the ingenuity of some ingenious counsel to show (if that be possible) why a trust created for the establishment of a public school on the terms of the grant, should any longer be applied to purposes alien to the objects designated.