THE CHURCH AND THE MAORIS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 7

THE CHURCH AND THE MAORIS

♦ WORK IN DIOCESE OF AOTEAROA ACCOUNT OF PROGRESS GIVEN BY BISHOP BENNETT The progress of spiritual work among the Maori people was most encouraging, said the Bishop of Aotcaroa, the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, in an interview yesterday. Considerable advances had been made in many parts of New Zealand, he said, as was shown by the presentation last year of 625 candidates for confirmation in the North Island alone, and by the fact that notwithstanding hard times financially a number of Maori districts had been able to make their churches self-supporting. There were at present 40 ordained Maori priests and deacons, carrying on the work of the Church among the Maoris, and 12 mission houses in different parts of the Dominion.

The principal object of Bishop Bennett's visit is to interest people in the South Island in the welfare of the Te Wai Pounamu Maori Girls' College, which is the only institution in the South Island for the training of Maori girls. The Bishop emphasised yesterday the great importance of the Maori people of the training given in such institutions to the future mothers of the race, which he considered to be most necessary in the attempt to raise the standards of life and conduct of the Maori. The Te Wai Pounamu College, he said, had now reached its twenty-fifth anniversary. There were at present 18 girls at the college, who were receiving both practical and scholastic training under the guidance of Sister Kate. The college owed its origin to the work of the late Rev. C. A. Fraer, who had taken a special interest in the Maori people, and had watched carefully over the development of Te Wai Pounamu.

Control of Maori Diocese Bishop Bennett said that a new development in the church among the Maoris had been promised by the recent passing by the General Synod of the Church of England, of a bill for the creation of an Aotearoa Church Board consisting of Maoris and Europeans, which with the Bishop of Aotearoa would have full control of the work among the Maoris throughout the province of New Zealand. The Bishop said, however, that the actual creation of the board depended on the goodwill of the dioceses, as at least two dioceses would have to hand over their responsibility for Maori woi-k to the board before it could become operative. So far the board had not been established. In addition to the main object of his visit to the South Island, Bishop Bennett will spend some time visiting Maoris in the various settlements. j He expects to return south in February, when he will probably pay a visit to the Chatham IslancTs.