Intense Maori Upheaval

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31421, 14 July 1967, Page 1

Intense Maori Upheaval

<N.Z. Preu Association) WELLINGTON, July 13. The Maori people are going through a period of upheaval similar in intensity to the industrial revolution in England, says the report of the Department of Maori Affairs. The report, tabled In Parliament today, quotes the "explosive” population growth as an example of the Maoris' social revolution. Between IMS and 1988 the Maori population doubled from 100,000 to 200,000. The rapidly expanding numbers of Maori schoolchildren have caused major changes, says the report The academic standard of Maori students has improved and attendance of Maoris in al! education establishments from kindergarten to university has increased. The Maori Education Foundation has paid out about $500,000 in 3500 grants since it was set up in 1981. Another aid to Maori education has been the “back-to-school” movement among Maori adults, the report says. Other indications of the

social changes are the continuing drift of the Maoris to cities and the increasing number of mixed Maoripakeha marriages. The urban Maori population has increased fivefold in the last 21 years. This move to the cities has brought problems and challenges to the Maori, says the report. A housing survey conduct- < ed by the department showed that urban settlement also increased the number of Maori-pakeha marriages.

The percentage of homes surveyed in Hastings showed that there was a European husband or wife in 19 per cent of the homes. The percentages in other cities were. New Plymouth, 17 per eent; Palmerston North, 35 per cent; and Wanganui, 28 per cent. With the greater association of Maori and European, “one can confidently expect an increasing rate of intermarriage and integration,” says the report.