MAORIS MISSING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 237, 6 October 1945, Page 7

MAORIS MISSING

BUSINESS COMMUNITY

PROBLEMS OF EMPLOYMENT

"We have not done nearly as much for the Maori people as we might have done," said Mr. A. E. Tong (Wanganui) in moving that the Junior Chamber of Commerce conven, tion recommend that each chamber set up a sub-committee to co-operate with the various local Maori associations to the end of placing the Maori youth of the country in employment commensurate with its ability.

In an address given to the Wanganui chamber, a prominent Maori citizen had stated that there was not one Maori vouth in the whole of the Wanganui business community, Mr. Tong continued. The Maori youth received education to the compulsory age limit. Then he went back to the pa and found only that work which gave him a quick,easy living. Mostly he took seasonal work and struggled through the rest of the year on the money thus earned quickly.

Thinking Maoris had been giving considerable thought recently, and had formed, or were forming, local Maori associations,- which aimed at persuading Maori youth to take secondary education and encouraging social and sporting activities among them. The Wanganui Junior Chamber had formed a sub-committee to work in close co-operation with the Maori Association.

The resolution was carried, Mr. H. Eaton (Hutt Valley) urging that every chamber endavour to get a Maori in its organisation, and. if possible, on its executive.