TE AUTE COLLEGE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8702, 22 December 1899, Page 4

TE AUTE COLLEGE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION.

FOURTH CONFERENCE. Thb- fourth conference of the above Association was held at Papawai, Greytown North, last week, upon the invitation of Wairarapa chiefs. About thirty ordinary and honorary members attended, and on Wednesday the Hons. Walker and Carroll and Mr Pope, Inspector of Native Schools, were present. Questions bearing npon the higher education of Maoris, training of Maori nurses, and technical education were asked by Mr Walker, and asked in a way to raise the hope that the growing needs of the rising generation of Maoris will be supplied. The following is a summary of the matters discussed (irany of the discussions resulting in important resolutions of general interest, copies of which weve to be forwarded to the Government) :— 1. Higher and technical education. 2. Training of Maori girls as nurses. ■3. The' extension of "local option" to Maori electors. r '4. The development of the Association into- a union of the Maori Colleges, and eventually into a broader union of patriotic Maoris. 5. Maori tohungaism, the Association arriving at a,new point of view, viz., that substitutes in the shape of oheap medicine, cheap doctors, and trained nurses, assisted by Government, should be supplied if the influence of " tohungas " is to be counter6. Prohibition in the Waikato a"hd Urewera districts. 7. The needs'of the Maori Church. 8. "Are there any portions of the Maori 'Tikanga' (custom) worth preserving !" The conference replyiug in the affirmative. 9. Native trusts for educational purposes. 10. The desirability of utilising Native Village Committees for police purposes, investing them with statutory powers in minor cases of drunkenness. The proceedings were animated. The visitors enjoyed the best of everything, and were entertained, with the greatest ..hospitality. The college students who * attended aver that the Papawai conference is the -most successful, the most enthusiastic, -and the most enjoyable that the Association has held so far. It must be so - if the movement is to be called "progressive," and the young men, wb» are : the back-bone of ie, are to retain thename by which they are becoming known — "The Young Maori Party." Full report of proceedings, with papers read, and .addresses delivered, will be %? printed early in the year, copies to be 1 obtained from Mr Thornton, Te Auto ; College.