TEACHER FROM NOUMEA

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29108, 21 January 1960, Page 15

TEACHER FROM NOUMEA

Contrasts With New Zealand

“The big cities of New Zealand were what we noticed first,” said Mr Michael Amiot, a French schoolteacher from Noumea, New Caledonia, when asked his impressions of New Zealand. Mr Amiot has escorted to New Zealand a party of New Caledonian schoolchildren, who will be the guests of the New Zealand children who have returned with them after a three weeks’ stay in New Caledonia. This exchange scheme has been in operation for two years. The children are selected on their linguistic ability, the New Caledonians in speaking English, and the New Zealanders in speaking French. For both groups of children it is a glimpse of a completely different way of life. Noumea, the only town in New Caledonia, was about the size of Ashburton in area, said Mr Amiot.' Here lived most of the 32,000 Europeans, practically all of French extraction. A few Europeans had cattle ranches near the tiny villages dotted about the island, some had coffee plantations, and others worked in the nickel mines, the island’s main resource.

There are three colleges in Noumea. Only the top children from the primary schools attend these, commencing at the age of 12. The rest stay on at primary school until they are 14 years old, when they sit a leaving examination. Some will go on to the technical school. Mr Amiot teaches at one of the primary schools in Noumea, and has also taught for several years in a village school. This is his second visit to New Zealand, as he came with a party of tourists in 1956. He has also visited Australia, but has not yet been to France, whence his grandparents emigrated last century. “But I hope to go there some day,” he said. Mr Amiot will return with his charges to New Caledonia next week.