DINNER AT SCHOOL

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24193, 28 February 1944, Page 6

DINNER AT SCHOOL

♦ MAORI CHILDREN IN NORTH AUCKLAND “ The Press " Special Service AUCKLAND, February 26. A proposal to furnish pupils attending native schools in the north with a substantial dinner each day at school has been approved by the educational authorities, and will for a beginning be put into operation at the Waima native school, in the l.okianga district. A dining room and a kitchen to provide 150 two-course dinners are to be erected on the school area, and the work will be started at once. The Maoris will provide the land for an enlarged school garden, in order to grow the vegetables required, and will plough - t ready for cultivation by the children. It is intended that every school in the district will have a similar service. The cost of the meals, estimated at 2s 6d to 3s a head a week, will be paid voluntarily out of the Maoris’ social security family allowances. The scheme was first suggested by Dr. G. M. Smith, of Rawene. A conference at Kaikohe of northern hospital boards unanimously resolved that the first step in improving the health of the Maoris was to have them properly fed, and that this would do more to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis than any other campaign. A resolution on these lines was later endorsed at the Auckland tuberculosis conference.