MAORI EDUCATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 6 October 1942, Page 5

MAORI EDUCATION

PROBLEMS IN WAIAPU PUPILS FROM TIKITIKI VISITORS TO GISBORNE A party of pupils from the T.ikitiki Native School reached Gisborne on Saturday to begin an educational visit, including visits to various industries and points of interest in the town, and during their stay they are being billeted in private houses. The party comprises 10 girls and five boys under the control of Mrs. J. S. Manning and Mr. T. A. Murphy, and to-day they were the guests of the Gisborne Rotary Club at the club’s weekly luncheon. At the gathering afterwards the pupils gave a programme of songs, action songs, a poi dance, and a stick game. After a welcome extended by the chairman, Mr. J. Hutton, Mr. Murphy explained the objects of the visit and some of the problems confronting the Maori in educational matters on the East Coast. He said the people of Tikitiki appreciated what the Gisborne people had done in connection with the visit, and he was made to realise that a large body of people here 'were sympathetic in regard to the education of the Maori. The main purpose of the visit. Mr. Murphy said, was educational 'in allowing the children to see how business and trades were conducted. He believed that that type of education would be made more use of after the war. About the year 1900, he said, the Maori population was in the vicinity of 45,000," and there were fears that the Maori race would die out, but since then the Maori population had more than doubled, standing now at about 100,000. There was -not sufficient land to absorb the increase in the population on it for-the Maori to exercise his natural aptitude for an outdoor life, and he wondered what would happen when the Maori population rose to 250,000. There must be some kind of education so that those who could not find a place on the land would be able to move out smoothly and happily to take up life successfully elsewhere. Impovemcnt in Housing One of.-ffhe features of life on the Coast was the vast improvement in housing and the development of the land. The Waiapu Valley was now cleared of scrub with a good-class of dairy cow supplying a factory built by and largely staffed by Maoris. A feature, also, was the improvement in educational facilities, and secondary education had been established for the Maoris, this, in his opinion, being 50 years overdue. No European community would have put up with it for so long. The system of secondary education there would be associated closely with the needs of the district, to which it would make a very important contribution The downward trend of the death rate followed -better housing and improved conditions generally. The outstanding feature of Maori life on the East Coast was the, response of the Maori race to the military needs of the country. The Coast was denuded of young men and the old men had gone back to the plough. No area had made a better contribution to the war effort than the Waiapu Valley, which had given generously in men and money, and the women had been doing great work, “We are proud of this party we have brought,” Mr Murphy said in conclusion, “and of the way their mothers have fitted them out, and we hope that much benefit will accrue from our visit.”

* Following this talk, the pupils gave the following programme: Action songs, “Haere Mai,” “Moana-a-KiWi” and “Playmates”; - songs, “Au'e AUS and “Mate Tukituki”; poi dance, an'd stick game. \ . At the close a hearty vote of thanks was accorded 1 , on the motion of Mr F. Tolerton, who said that many people feared that the old Maori customs and songs were dying out, but the excellent performance given gave the lie to that fear,