No. 4.
Extracts from Report of C. Hunter Brown, Esq., Civil Commissioner, Christchurch.

Sir,—

I found no school at work. I return herewith Rev. Mr. Stack's letter of 27th March, 1865, referred to me. The school buildings are satisfactory. I strongly recommend that a grant be at once made to Rev. Mr. Stack of £200 in aid of this boarding school, being calculated as a capitation grant at £20 per head on ten pupils. It is true that this rate will be double that hitherto allowed in the North Island schools; but one well recognized cause of the failure of most of those schools was the unsatisfactory way in which the children, for want of funds, were lodged, clothed, and fed. In this island everything is dearer than in the north. In the northern schools, Natives could be got to do the work of domestic servants in the schools without pay; here it is impossible, and they insist on being paid. I have examined the details of Mr. Stack's estimate, and consider them calculated with the most rigid economy, in support of which opinion I may here mention that the cost per head of the pauper orphan children in the Christchurch Orphanage was, last year, £31 9s. per head. The parents' contribution of one shilling per week per child seems absurdly small in proportion. This year, however, parents hare to provide an outfit of blankets, shoes, &c. It should also be borne in mind that the Maoris have hardly yet emerged from that stage of barbarism in which parents think that Missionaries ought to pay them for the privilege of educating their children. In a year or two, as the benefits of the new school begin to be felt, a larger contribution from the parents might be insisted on as a condition of Government help. As I have said, I recommend an immediate grant of £200 to the Kaiapoi Native boarding school as the most efficient and satisfactory assistance. If this cannot be done, however, then I recommend that the Rev. Mr. Stack be informed that the General Government will repay at the end of the year the loan offered by the Provincial Government, and will continue thereafter a capitation grant of £20 per annum as long as the school is satisfactorily conducted.