MAORI HOSTEL SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23052, 1 June 1938, Page 15

MAORI HOSTEL SCHEME

CONTROL IN WHANGAREI COUNCIL DECLINES TO ACT [from our own correspondent] WHANGAREI, Tuesday A proposal for the establishment of a Maori hostel in Whangarei was revealed in a letter received by the Borough Council from the Under-Secretary of the Department of Native Affairs. For some time past the Maori community centred on Whangarei has been urging upon the department the need for the establishment of a hostel at Whangarei in consequence of the difficulty which visiting Maoris find in securing accommodation. The Maoris have now arranged to find the finance to purchase a suitable building. If the department is prepared to assume the responsibility for the control and administration of the premises as a Maori hostel, the Maoris are agreeablo to transferring the property to the Crown. The department offered the suggestion that the only way in which a hostel could be managed and run successfully would be under the supervision of the council, as it possessed a local organisation for controlling such a venture.

The council decided that it was not its function to undertake the management and supervision of the proposed hostel. There was no authority for the expenditure of public money on such a venture. The department is to bo informed accordingly.