File:Letter in English From Rotohiko Haupapa (9210193925).jpg

This letter in English, is from the building and site file for Ohinemutu Maori School, is from Rotohiko Haupapa, dated 29 December 1876.

From the early 1860s Rotohiko held a number of administrative and judicial appointments. In 1862 he became secretary and then clerk of the assembly established at Maketu under Grey's new system of local Maori self-government. At the same time he was appointed clerk and junior assessor at the Maketu Circuit Court, and clerk at the native office at Maketu.

Rotohiko Haupapa's outstanding contribution was to education. As fluent in English as in Maori, he was convinced of the importance of education. For a short time in 1867 there had been a school at Ohinemutu. Rotohiko argued strenuously for a better site and urged that 200 or 300 acres should be obtained for a central school for the whole district. In spite of Ngati Whakaue's offers of land, the government did not act until 1880, when a native school was opened at Ohinemutu for all children, Maori and Pakeha. At first Maori attendance was poor and little progress was made until Rotohiko donated another site of about three acres on Pukeroa hill. This land, Te Wharau a Tahora Whakarua, is still the site of Rotorua Primary School.

In this particular letter Rotohiko says that land called Te Arawa should be a school reserve for the purpose of educating the children of Ohinemutu [near Rotorua]. He describes the boundaries, and says that the springs and stones on the land should be used for the benefit of the children and Ngati Whakaue. The letter is signed by many Ngati Whakaue people, and a plan of the area is attached.