THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

education was a proper function of the state. As early as 1853, in the first Piako deed of sale, the government promised schools and hospitals (as well as flour mills and annuities for chiefs) to Maori land sellers (Anderson). But little happened for more than three decades. There were some private fee-paying schools and some Maori children may have attended them.

4.9 In 1872 the Native Agent, E.W. Puckey, drew the attention of government to the need for Maori schools and reported that Maori had a 'growing appreciation of the advantages of education'. He hoped 'ere long to establish a school for the education of Native children at Ohinemuri.' (AJHR 1872 F3). In 1874 he expressed the hope that 'suitable reserves' of land would be kept for schools CAJHR 1874 G2). A few years later he urged that the Waste Lands Board should not sell blocks of land suitable for school purposes (AJHR 1880 G4). None of these recommendations had any result.

4.10 Though some Maori children would have been attending the provincial government's public schools by this time, Puckey's requests make it clear that there was a need for more. However, he was inclined to blame parental lethargy rather than government inaction. Some evidence, at least, does not support this somewhat severe explanation. In 1882 the communities at Te Kerepehi and Harataunga each asked for a school, but without result (BAAA I00I 596a). In not far distant Otorohanga a few years later Maori who proposed to reserve land for a school from a block passing through the Land Court changed their minds when the Department would not promise to open a school there (AJHR 1889 G3). This kind of frustration may well have been more frequent.

4.11 On one occasion the lack of a school for Maori children drew high-level political comment. In 1885 the Minister of Mines, W.J. Larnach, passed through Manaia and noted that there were many children but no school. The Native Agent, G.T. Wilkinson, when asked for comment, advised that this was because of a lack of interest on the part of the local Maori leaders. This may have been an excuse. Ten years later the community applied for a school and made its own church building available; the Manaia school opened in the church in 1897 (BAAA IOW 296d).

4.12 In the 187os and 188os Maori children do not appear to have attended public schools in great numbers. In 1874 a small number—six boys—are recorded at the Parawai provincial school (AJHR 1874 G8); when Donald McLean (Native Minister) visited this school in 1875 he heard 14 'Native children' (out of a total roll of 87) examined in reading and spelling (AJHR 1875 GZA). In the following year Wilkinson noted that 'but ten children have been ... availing themselves of the generosity of the government ...', presumably in allowing them into public schools (AJHR 1876 GD. In 1881 Wilkinson reported that 'Government schools' at Thames, Coromandel, Puriri, Hikutaia and Ohinemuri were 'open to Maori children' but that 'very few' attended—because, in his opinion, Maori parents did not value anything they did not have to pay for (AJHR 1881 G8). A year later he wrote that 'not more than two' attended the district school at

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