MAORI EDUCATION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 93, 3 April 1934, Page 8

MAORI EDUCATION

Responsibility of Parents

IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGES

Many interesting points were made in the course ot an address by Mr W. H. Willis, principal ot Otaki Maori College, at the Easter hui held at Omahu.

Altei expressing his pleasure and interest in the work ot the hui, and in the progress and welfare of the Ngatikahungunu Tribe, Mr Willis gave an address on Maori education, some of the main topics of which appear below. Education wa a too oten regarded merely as a means of tho acquisition of knoledge; it was really very much more The most important thing was the inculcation of principles of integrity and honour, of responsibility and duty to the community. Education was not merely a matter for the school, but for life; it started in .tho cradle and continued to the grave. Maori parents were devoted to their children, but lacking in the exercise of control. The children dominated their parents and when everything was lost, they appealed to the schoolmaster and the child entered a boarding school. Parents should exercise control from the very first and later should depend rather upon making chums of their children and winning their confidence.

The work of Mr John Thornton, former headmaster of Te Ante College, has apparently received no recognition at all at the hands of the old boys. As an old boy of the college he had the liveliest recollections of that great headmaster, in whom integrity and honour, duty and love for the Maori people were so happily blended. He made the suggestion that the Hawke’s Bay old boys should take the matter of some memorial in hand and assured those present that the old boys of more remote parts would do their share. The point was stressed that the character of a headmaster is of the utmost importance in the life of a school, and that if the Maori people owed anything to any pakeha, they certainly did to John Thornton.

Of subjects of study, emphasis was laid upon the importance of learning at least one language thoroughly as a means of mental development. That language to-day must be English. The use of a two or three years’ course of Latin as a help to that end was explained at length, and exception taken to the name “dead” as applied to Latin, because tho language lived in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other tongues and formed the key to European thought and literature. Tho study of science, especially agriculture, with its direct relation to life’s practical problems was heartily commended, and the special feature of Maori secondary schools—making the boys do definite useful work —was described.

Tho system of secondary education did not cater for the wonderful musical genius of the Maori people. The work of the choirs in the competition was something to marvel at. With proper instruction in music the Maori race would produce work of extraordinary genius. Lack of money was probably the reason for the backwardness in this direction, but the matter should be kept in view.

The absence of Maori as a study in all Native schools was described as a disgrace. Any system of education worthy of the name should fit a man to take his place amongst his people. A Maori without a knowledge of the Maori language was incompletely educated. There are things just as important as bread and butter, and the Maori people were being deprived of their birthright, the gift of their ancestors. by the lack of vision and sympathy of those responsible for our system of education. Some advice and words of encouragement were given to the .voung people in regard to ideals in life, and the people generally were urged to support the Maori Church The Maori Mission would no longer be a mission when the people took over the whole financial position of their church. It would then be a real church, and the people would find they would acquire a new pride and satisfaction in so doing. The address concluded with congratulations io the Ngatikahungunu Tribe on the excellent arrangements an I conduct of the hui.