FOUNDATION TO FOSTER PRESCHOOL SERVICES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31762, 20 August 1968, Page 24

FOUNDATION TO FOSTER PRESCHOOL SERVICES

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, August 19. The Maori Foundation is to give recognition to and be responsible for Maori family pre-school services, as a result of the Maori pre-school planning conference held at the University of Waikato this week-end.

Mr J. M. Booth, secretary of the New Zealand Maori Council, said today that Mr D. G. Ball, of the foundation, had given this assurance to the conference.

Mr Booth said generally the conference had given tremendous impetus to the family pre-school movement. He foresaw the possibility, as a result of the conference, of further meetings to discuss these matters—particularly on maraes where more Maori parents could attend.

Mr Moana Raureti, district welfare officer with the Maori Affairs Department in Hamilton, said he expected that Maori family pre-schools would organise themselves on a much wider basis since the conference.

Jointly Sponsfred The conference, which was jointly sponsored by the Maori Council, the Maori Women’s Welfare League,

and the Women’s Health League, had particularly discussed the problem of trained people to work in the preschool movement. A remit expressing strong support for any application by the New Zealand Play Centre Federation for funds to employ field officers, was the upshot of this concern. The conference passed a number of other remits, some of which will go on through the sponsoring bodies to the Government.

They covered the field of training, research, staffing, facilities and Maori organisations, and included:

That this conference notes the scarcity of information based on research into New Zealand families and communities in general, and records its opinion that the understanding of specifically Maori needs will continue to be hampered until these can be seen in a broader context. That the Government be asked to amend the Broadcasting Act to give

the N.Z.B.C. a statutory

duty to carry out an edu-

cational function. That the National Film Unit produce training and

documentary films on the pre-school movement. That the State provide adequate pre-school buildings

for communities in need. That a Government subsidy of $2 for $1 on cost of removal be granted for playcentre buildings that are removed from one area to another.

The conference also recommended that branches of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, the Women’s Health League and the Maori Council encourage the establishment of pre-school groups in their areas according to the needs of the community.