Maoris Urged To Use Education Facilities

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28250, 11 April 1957, Page 18

Maoris Urged To Use Education Facilities

Maoris were not taking advantage of the chances for education which they were given in New Zealand, Mr C. M. Bennett, Controller of the Maori Welfare Division of the Maori Affairs Department, yesterday told delegates to the conference of the Maori Women’s Welfare League which is being held in Christchurch.

Maoris expected equality with pakehas but they could not expect to have such equality merely “handed to them on a plate,” Mr Bennett said.

Serious gaps in education were at present hampering Maori progress and many of these were caused by lack of interest or the inability of Maoris to corrie forward and join pakehas in the promotion of education, both for their children and in parentteacher associations. The future of the Maori race rested more in the hands of Maori

women. They were the moulders of character, he said. Because he held this view he considered the league would greatly reduce the work which faced the Maori Affairs Department. If the objectives of the two groups were narrowed down there would be a better chance of reaching the aims. of the Maoris. The aims of the Maori Welfare Department were given by Mr Bennett as:—

Concentration on Maori youth and the giving of assistance in adaption to New Zealand culture. The establishment of economic co-existence.

Mr Bennett said the establishment of Maori Youth successfully in its new culture needed three primary drives—education, proper placement in vocations and housing. Education did not cease with the end of schooling. The proper placement of Maoris in jobs to which they were suited was of as much importance as actual education. There was a great gulf between the end of a student’s education and successful placement. There had been no group entirely responsible for this guidance in vocations and the Maori Affairs Department would make the filling of this gap one of its most important tasks in the future, said Mr Bennett. “Not Using Facilities” “We are not using the education facilities which are being offered. Maori boys with good secondary school education are being absorbed into unskilled employment. If they were helped they would be able to enter skilled jobs. “A lack of guidance has sent many back to an unskilled pool We must earn equality; we cannot expect it to be handed to us on a plate. We must have the same proportion of skilled and unskilled workers as pakehas.” he said.

Boys would get better wages if they worked in freezing works than if they entered skilled trades, he said. “Maori mothers must take an interest in this and explain that the high wages your sons could get at freezing works will not be as much value as the advantages later of a skilled trade,” said Mr Bennett.

His division was trying to extend the work of kindergartens to bring opportunities of pre-school activities to Maoris. But, once again the opportunities had not been used, he said. Maori children were often kept at home until they were seven, the age at which law demanded children should attend school. “Often Maori children start as late as possible. They are a long way behind in pakeha culture as it is, and this delay makes the task even harder,” Mr Bennett said. A lack of interest was also shown by Maori parents in school organisations, such as parentteacher associations.