Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

A Compendium of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs in the South Island. Volume Two.

Friday, December 31

Friday, December 31.

The Bishop of Nelson, being duly sworn, states: I wish to put in the following letter the gross receipts for the actual year are as stated in that letter. I have since set down the exact rentals, with the increase for the years ensuing up to 1881, which should be appended to that letter. With respect to the alleged desire on the part of settlers at Motueka that the school should be made a European one, I would remark that I have never had any direct application from any one, in Motueka or elsewhere, to that effect, unless Mr. Jennings' letter in the Nelson Examiner of the 2nd June, 1869, can be considered such. I think it is a good expression of the views of some of the settlers who agree with Mr. Jennings, and might be included among the documents relating to the subject recorded by the Commission, although I do not agree with some of the allegations made in it.

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.

Yours, &c.

David Jennings.

Motueka, 24th May, 1869

I have received from some of the Natives at Motueka a complaint as to the acquisition of part of the land, which I produce; also my answer. (These are appended to the Bishop's letter.) In all matters affecting the leases I am advised by the Solicitor, Mr. Sinclair. With reference to the Rev. Mr. Ronaldson's stipend, I don't know if it is necessary to make any remark, except, that Mr. page 298Ronaldson was in receipt of a larger salary than that which he receives here. It was only by offering £300 a year that I could obtain the services of a duly qualified teacher.

The Bishop produced a book, kept by himself, showing the sections leased, the rents received, and terms of leases, &c,

The Bishop read Bishop Hobhouse's statement respecting the trust, published in a report of the proceedings of the first Synod of the Diocese of Nelson, August, 1859, and handed in the following letter:—

Particulars of Estate and Trust.

Bishopdale, Nelson, 20th December, 1869.

Gentlemen,—

I beg to lay before you the following facts respecting the Wakarewa Estate, which passed into my hands from Bishop Hobhouse, whom I succeeded, in the year 1866, as Bishop of Nelson.

On my arrival in the Colony, in 1867, I found Mr. John Greenwood engaged as manager of the estate, and teacher to the Maoris, but on his resigning the office, I succeeded in obtaining, not without some difficulty, the services of a gentleman sufficiently qualified as a Maori scholar to carry on the necessary instruction. It was some months before I could supply the post, although the want was made generally known in this and the North Island. Several applied who were qualified either in Maori or English, but not in both.

The income from the estate is not at present sufficient to do more than provide a good master, who gives all his time to such Maoris as he can collect together on every day in the week.

The income of the trust is not at present sufficient to carry out the industrial training, even if the Natives were willing to accept it. The capitation grant of £10 per annum would not be sufficient to pay for their expenses, and it is not likely the Natives would pay the necessary balance themselves.

I have requested Mr. Ronaldson to hold school for the Natives both in the morning and evening, and his report as to attendances will be laid before you. During the winter months the attendance was good and encouraging; in spring and summer, the planting takes the Natives away, and it is difficult to keep the school together. Mr. Ronaldson visits the Natives in Takaka and Motupipi, and I was present last week at a meeting held at Motupipi, when twenty-five Natives were present, and agreed to contribute money or labour towards the erection of a school-room, the ground for which one of them was willing to give without charge. This school would be a kind of a branch school to that at Wakarewa, and the master might be subsidised from these funds, regarding the Trust as applicable to the whole of the Natives in the Nelson Bay.

The gross income of the trust last year was £354 3s. 5d. The property is divided up into forty-three holdings, spread over a considerable area; and the transfer of leases, looking after fulfilment of covenants, and the collection of the half-yearly rents and occasional arrears, require a considerable outlay of time, and have been efficiently attended to by a collector and bailiff resident close to the estate, Mr. F. Greenwood.

The stipend paid from the estate to the Rev. W. Ronaldson for last year was £285 10s. 7d.; and as on the occasion of his visits to the Natives he is invited to read English services, I have arranged that the contributions so given should reduce the stipend due from the trust to Mr. Ronaldson as teacher.

The College building is unfortunately situated as regards the Natives, unless it is used as a boarding school, and involves great labour in going to and fro—so much so that the teacher is at present absent from home often the whole day in winter time. By this plan, however, the trust is saved from paying rent for a teacher's residence.

The cost of collecting and looking after the property is at the rate of 10 per cent.; the insurance, repairs of the house, supply of fences, &c., according to leases and special agreements, amount to about £25 per annum, leaving at present an annual balance of income over expenditure of about £10. The rents are very slowly increasing; but by careful management I hope to carry out both branches of the schem[gap — reason: damage], and to render it an institution for promoting education both for Maoris and Europeans. The only difficulty of carrying it out at present is the insufficiency of funds. At present efficient teaching is secured for the Maoris; but, unless the funds be supplemented by the Government, there is no probability of the school becoming a boarding establishment, though I should be glad if the Commissioners were to see their way to recommending that a higher capitation grant should be made, and that it should be unaccompanied by conditions which would prevent our taking advantage of it.

My present plan in carrying out the Trust is to continue the existing arrangement which I have made with Mr. Ronaldson to the end of his term agreed upon, of three years from June 1868; and if, at the expiration of that period, the rental is sufficiently increased, to extend the benefits of the trust to those who are not Maoris, but come under the definition of the trust as "children of the Queen's subjects of all races, and of children of other poor and destitute persons, being inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean," and to endeavour still to carry out the defined purposes of the trust for giving "religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language to the youth educated therein or maintained thereat."

In carrying out these objects I should be guided by the means at my disposal, and provide that, while religious instruction should be given, it should be under a conscience clause, of which I heartily approve, provided it is not so worded or enforced as to prevent the imparting of religious instruction as part of the school lessons, giving at the same time liberty and opportunity to parents who wished to withdraw their children at such times. With a conscience clause so administered, I do not anticipate any so-called "religious difficulty." Provided that the Maoris, so long as they were in the neighbourhood, had the first benefit of the trust, I should be glad to see the institution extend its operations, and it might form the nucleus of a large industrial school, not merely for its own vicinity, but for the country altogether—an area which is mentioned in the original Trust Deed, viz., islands in the Pacific Ocean.

I venture to suggest that some clause enabling a revision of such trusts, to be made at distant page 299intervals, might be inserted in making any such appropriations in future, as it would act as a stimulus to existing applications, and prevent accumulated abuses or funds laying wholly idle.

I have, &c.,

Andrew Burn Nelson.

To the Commissioner for enquiring into School Trusts, &c.

Native School, Wakarewa.

Evening School.
1868. May Number on book 20 Average attendance 8[gap — reason: damage]
" June " 17 " 7[gap — reason: damage]
" July " 27 " 13[gap — reason: damage]
" August " 28 " 10[gap — reason: damage]
Day School.
1868. July Number on book 24 Average attendance 10[gap — reason: damage]
" August " 27 " 8[gap — reason: damage]

The attendance for 1869, for the worst months in the year, when there is much money in the hands of the Natives:—

Morning. Evening.
1869. January 7 4
" February 5 3
" March 6 6
" April 8 6
" May 4 4

The Natives are often away at different parts of the Bay for weeks together, during which time the teacher must of course still be at his post, unless he be a migratory teacher following them up wherever they go.

Rental of the Wakarewa Estate.
£S.D.
Income from rents, 1859 to 1863212148
" 1863 to 187332906
" 1873 to 1880353144
at which time, and in 1881, the leases will expire. I had thought two or three years ago of keeping Saxon's land open for the purpose of industrial training, but it would have been unproductive, and I certainly thought it would be more beneficial to the Trust to lease it, and it was leased accordingly. I think it would be highly beneficial if some person were appointed or constituted to make annual reports of the administration of trust estates, which might be published for general information