TEACHERS DEPART

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22313, 24 April 1947, Page 4

TEACHERS DEPART

RAROTONGAN VISITORS NATIVE SCHOOLS STUDIED After spending two months on the East Coast studying native school teaching conditions, two Rarotongan teachers are shortly to return to their native land. They have been stationed at the Tokomaru Bay Native School for the most part, and during that time gained valuable information, which they will pass on to schools in the Cook Islands on their return. A farewell message has been written by one of the teachers, Taira Rere, to the many friends he made while visiting the East Coast. “I feel that I must thank you all for the lovely stay I had on the East Coast, and I am carrying away with me pleasant memories of this place," he writes. “You people have been very friendly and hospitable to my mate and myself during our stay here —you made us feel at home. lam sorry to leave the Coast, mainly because of the friendliness and smiling faces of both Maoris and Europeans that I’ve met here. “I wish to thank all the headmasters and teachers of the schools we visited during our short stay here. I spent most of that time with Mr. V/. Sparks, headmaster of the Tokomaru Bay Native School, and he and his staff deserve many thanks for the way they treated us. From the schools here I have gathered many new ideas, which I shall pass on to my fellow-teachers to apply in our schools in the Cook Islands. “It is impossible to say farewell personally to you all because time is very short and more than that there are so many of you that it will take me days to meet everyone, but I hope that my message of farewell will reach you all. I am looking forward to coming back to the East Coast in the future to see you again.”