MAORI CULTURE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4952, 6 February 1937, Page 5

MAORI CULTURE

RECORD OF NATIVE SCHOOL. The news that the Minister of Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) has advised his approval of the building of a new native school at Rangitukia, East Coast, recalls memories of the early history of the Waiapu county settlement and the first school pupils of Ngati-Porou. Sir Apirana Ngata has vivid memories of those days; his birthplace was Reporua, in the same district, and he was a pupil for three years at the old Waiomatatini School, which was opened in 1874, before proceeding at the age of eight to Te Aute College. He says it was quite common to see the native school pupils of those days swim across the Waiapu River, with their clothes in a bundle on their heads. Primitive conditions, however, did not prevent scholastic success.

Waiomatatini school produced two barristers, Sir A. T. Ngata, M.P., later Native Minister, and Mr. Henare Poananga, LL.B. Rangitukia, produced many brilliant scholars, including the Rev. Reweti Kohere, 8.A., Pekama Kaa (matriculation), who was killed in the war, and the Rev. Pihipi Kohere. Dr. T. Wi Repa, who attended the recent Science Congress and presented two papers before the anthropology section, was a pupil of Te Kahu native school. In South Waiapu, Tamati Pewhairangi, who died recently while speaking at a tangi, was an elder in a family which has produced keen school committee workers as well as notable scholars, and Erekena Pewhairangi was famous as an international footballer.