"Haas to Basel"

Of the 13 new pupils in the boarding school 3 were from Akwapim, 2 were pupils who had been in the school previously, 2 had come to the school in the face of family opposition. In February he had made a visit to Begoro to recruit pupils for the school. All the villages on the Kibi side were deserted because people were at the gold-diggings, and all the Begoro villages were deserted because the people had been called to Begoro in connection with a dispute between chief and elders over the excessive drinking of the former. He had to wait 3 days to get a hearing in these circumstances, at the end of which, after excited discussion, it was decided that the chief would be deposed if he took to drink again. When Haas spoke their wish to have boys for the school, the people were not willing to give them. He got only two, hearing later that many boys were only prevented by force from following them. In Asiakwa on the return journey they met the chief, who asked him to return in one month. But on that second visit there were no pupils to be had. From the point of view of relations with the chief elders and people, he does not feel Begoro is very suitable for a missionary station - they seemed interested in nothing but the money they could gain from the presence of a European. In connection with a second station, Haas warmly recommends a high priority for a girls' boarding school - those of his boys who do not go to the Akropong Middle School are lost to the community when the time comes for them to marry. In reporting on his health he remarks that it has been good, except when he was quite shattered by the murder of a man in the town after long tortures. Reporting further on recruitment of pupils, he has been given one by the chief of Kwaben, which means yet another Kwaben boy - one is already in Akropong, another had to be expelled for loose behaviour, said one has already completed several years in the Kibi boarding school. (The Begorohene who was in difficulties with his subjects was Fining).

06.05.1871

06.05.1871

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