MAORI GIRLS' TRAINING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 5

MAORI GIRLS' TRAINING.

ADDRESS BY DR. AVERILL.

A PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

The training of the Maori girl and her responsibility toward her people after leaving school, formed the subject ofsome interesting remarks by Bishop A.verill at the breaking-tip of the Victoria School for Maori girls yesterday afternoon.

" I am very glad to see that such close attention is being paid to training in | domestic subjects, cooking, laundry-work, i and sewing," said the bishop. " Nothing could be more useful in after life to the Maori girl than the training she receives at the Victoria School. After you leave here you wall disperse to homes of every description all over the country, and you will then have opportunity to put into practise all that you have' learned here. A great work lies ahead of each one of you, for you can pass on to others the training that forms such an important part of your life here." Speaking of the formation of an old girls' association, the bishop continued "It is a most desirable thing for this school that such an association should be formed, so that when girls leave, after spending some years here, there will still be a bond of sympathy between past and present; they will still take a prayerful and sympathetic interest in the work of their school. This is a church school, and our work among the Maoris cannot be done properly unless we train the Maori girl as thoroughly as we are training her brother at St. Stephen's. There is a great difficulty in getting Sunday-school teachers for the children of Maori kiangas, and we are looking to you girls and boys to do good work among your own people after leaving school. "We want every girl and boy to remember that the credit of their schools depends largely on their after lives, and to prove by their lives the practical value of the education they are now receiving."