Karitane Scholarship Winners

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 107, 7 May 1941, Page 3

Karitane Scholarship Winners

MISS POLLY TE AWE AWE LARKINS’ SUCCESS Miss Polly To Awe Awe Larkins, 19-year-old daughter of Mr. W. K. Te Awe Awe Larkins, of Rangiotu, shares with Miss Moans Lane of Kaikohe the distinction of being the first candidates to win the Mc.Kcl.2ie Trust Karitane Scholarship. It will be recalled that the J. K. McKenzie Trust decided to set aside a portion of the income from investments to be used in the most beneficial way for the Maori race. In conjunction with Hon. I. Langstone (Minister of Native Affairs) and Dr. F. M. Watt (Director-General of Health) a scholarship was founded for the training of two Maori girls as Karitane nurses. This year’s winners will train at the Truby King-Hanris Hospital in Dunedin. Lolly Larkins comes of a notable family; her mother is a granddaughter of Te Rangihae and Rangi Topeora. (Topeora was one of the three Maori women whose signatures appear on the Treaty of Waitangi. • Her early schooldays were spent at the little school at Rangiotu and later she continued her studies at the Palmerston North Girls’ High School, where she showed an aptitude for outdoor sport, particularly tennis. For two years she received training at St. Banabas’ Babies’ Home at Khandallah, Wellington, where she entered for and won her Karitane scholarship. As a tribute to her success and a special privilege she was shown over tho home of the late Sir Truby King, accompanied by Miss M. Hitchcock, matron of the Wellington Karitane Hospital. Her younger sister Waitohi is following in her footsteps and has begun tho same training at Khandallah, where her many friends will watch her progress with kindly interest. Polly’s reactions to her visit to the late Sir Truby King’s home and the inspiration she found show that she has chosen her true vocation. The personality of the great man, which had left its imprint on the home to suggest only a brief absence, the exquisite garden, a memorial to his love of beautiful flowers, and the atmosphere of peace suggestive of labour well done, were all sensed by this budding nurse*