CLEVER CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 190, 14 August 1939, Page 5

CLEVER CHILDREN.

SPLENDID EXHIBIT,

CENTENNIAL PROJECT. MAORI HISTORY AND CRAFTS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) THAMES, Sunday. Splendid work has been carried out by children between Standards 111. and VI. at the Manaia Native School, on the Coromandel Peninsula, for inclusion in the Native Schools Court at the Centennial Exhibition. Taniko work, or weaving, is represented in several articles, including a purse, a belt, and headband. These are beautiful in design, and have been carefully worked in three contrasting colours. There is also a korowai, or feathered mat which is a credit to the pupils.

The chief exhibit is a 95-page book containing Maori history, legend and accomplishments. Black paper has been used, and the writing is splendidly done Iwith white ink.

The opening chapter deals with the coming of the 'J'ainui canoe, and the ancestry of the children attending the school to-dav is traced back to Hotoroa, the Tainui chief. The Ngatimaru tribal history is set out, a& is that of the I Ngatipukenga tribe, which acquired j Manaia through helping the Ngatimarus in war. Other sections deal with social | customs, methods of production from the j soil, and the geography of the district. Sketches of Maori instruments have been made and in the natural history section birds and plant life are well depicted. , The production is one of which pupils and teachers alike may well be proud. The work was carried out by the children under the supervision of the! head teacher, Mr. G. W. Cormack, and Miss A. Findlay. a specialist in arts and crafts of the natives, who is an assistant at the school.