MANPOWERING OF MAORI GIRLS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 84, 23 June 1944, Page 4

MANPOWERING OF MAORI GIRLS

ONE of the main problems which has been exercising the minds of the Maori tribal elders in this and in other districts, is the direct result of the manpowering of young Maori women to the larger centres where they have been drafted into essential industries. The average unmarried Maori girl, cannot be placed in the same category as her Pakeha counterpart, who has been more or less used to mingling with her own people and is not an utter stranger in a large city. The position of the native girl, who is suddenly man-powered away to work in a factory or manufacturing unit, is not an enviable one. Often without relations in the city, they are thrown on their own inexperienced resources to find board and lodging and as often as not are taken advantage of by unscrupulous persons who exploit them unmercifully. Away from the life of the marae of tlieir home pa, they feel lost, and bewildered, and it is hardly surprising to find a percentage of them falling into undesirable company and passing through the courts. In many cases these girls have been in the first instance the innocent victims of unmitigated blackguards of whom during war periods, the cities seem to abound. We are pleased to note their transfer on the main, back to their home surroundings where they will be once more able to take up the even tener of their lives away from the influences of city life.