Minister Opens Maori Training Centre

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29739, 5 February 1962, Page 15

Minister Opens Maori Training Centre

Twelve Maori boys. 10 of '.hem from the North Island where many of them have worked on remote farms since they left school, arrived in Christchurch on Saturday for the opening of the Maori carpentry training centre at Weedons. "It is a modest scheme but big in meaning." the Minister of Maori Affairs 'Mr Hanan) told the 200 people who attended the opening ceremony in the workshops and classrooms converted from buildings at the former R.N.Z.A.F. station. "This is part of a comprehensive programme to lift the educational and vocational status of the Maori people.” said Mr Hanan. "The Government means business in this matter.

"The Maori must be able to measure up and compete on equal terms." New Zealand was desperately short of skilled labour and the demand for unskilled labour would decline, he said. At present there was only one-third of the number of Maori apprentices there ought to be. Examination Passes

The scheme that had been established by the previous Government in Auckland and. reproduced by the present Government in Wellington. had been very successful. In Auckland, trainees obtained, in 1959. 100 per cent, passes in the first qualifying trade examination, whereas the national average was only 67 per cent. “These schemes might well form the pattern of training throughout New Zealand in many trades." said Mr Hanan.

Other speakers complimented the Minister on the establishment of the Educational Foundation for Maoris. Congratulating the Minister on his progressive policy.

the chairman of the Canterbury Tribal Executive, Mr W. J. Karetai, said that the committee had decided to support the foundation. Truck driving alone was not good enough for Maori people in the building industry: “Maoris must sail with the tide like everyone else,” he said. The member of Parliament for the Southern Maori electorate (Sir Eruera Tirikatane) welcomed visitors to the opening. They included many Maoris and members of building firms. The member of Parliament for Selwyn and Minister of Transport (Mr McAlpine) also spoke.

"Those we have trained from the Maori community have taken places second to not said the chairman of '.he board of managers of the Christchurch Technical College. Mr R. Jones. “The college will supply one full and one part-time instructor for the centre’’

24 Applicants The 12 new apprentices have been selected from about two dozen applicants Next year, about 24 boys may be admitted The boys, most of them about 17 years old. live at Hansons lane Labour Department hostel. Maori communities near Christchurch are making arrangements to entertain the boys and in- • reduce them to friends and "relatives they don’t know they have yet." Tomorrow they will begin classes. though' the new machinery imported for them has not yet arrived. When they have finished their two-year course they will complete the other three years of their apprenticeships with local builders The department considers that, in line with the drift of Maori population to the South Island, thev will have better job opportunities here than tn the north.