THE EDUCATION OF THE MAORI.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12898, 8 February 1906, Page 7

THE EDUCATION OF THE MAORI.

5 ■■'■ . j; • "••The. object'-'of the • whole* syafen of <%ftys »iHspeotor /t fiird : , :to Anglicise or Europeanise the .Maori To do that, he most become thoroughly acquainted with the English' language. ; Oie ;Ma<>ri child thinksjih Maori, -and 90. long ps he does that he will, be a Maori. You iTrant, to,teach hhn to speak and think in English, : and when.- lie • can do. this he is quite on a Jwel : with- the ordinary Pakeha 'child.. The'!only "''differenbe -between a Maori child Ttod ra "'Enropeatt-child is the language. If .you -were to attempt to teach a Maori child in nothing but Maori, y°u woulcj be; tarrying I Newcastle. :He has' already got Maori ideas-'in His head, and if he has no~other language than M&cri in; which ta*:eiprfess his thoughts, how: is lie going "W 'gfet"oh when he finds himself ? called 'to European*. :Tlie-nim-of to "Anglicise-the Maori, "and the .fate" of- ; every successful tHatiye school- is tojbfecomfe'^'board -school—com6 under^the-^Board-of-Edu-cation' for the district. ° yVe bring, these schools along until we can hand them over as; a going coiicerh. to the Board. The latest instance is the native school at Te Kuiti (King Country), which passes to the control of the Auckland Board of Education. The most intelligent Maoris who have children attending., school 4re .themselves fully alive to the advantages their children reap by being able to understand English, and they frequently ask that eve& more' insistence shall; be: laid upon the teaching of English to their children. English is taught -to the child through conversations on various topics, and care i« generally taken that the topic chosen is something actually connected with everyday life. The children usually suit "words to actions which they or their class mates perform-, and it is quite possible that theaverage Maori child knows own re English j than a stianger may imagine. j " In other respects, the system of native schools approaches veiy near to that of public schools. Beyond Standard 11. the syllubus is the same as in public schools, and work in the native school does not. as some people imagine, stop at- Standard 11. or 111. The three R's are taught, also drill, drawing, singing, and sewing, in the latter two of which the Maori schools can more than hold their own with the average European school. Attention is also paid to instruction icr the laws of

health as far as they specially apply to Maoris. ICinderganen work oi ait kinds is done in most schools, and in thirteen schools there are carpenters' shops at which the boys are taught lo make articles of furniture and use most- in demand .iinoii ,r Maoris. At at least five of these thirteen schools, the workshop building has been supplied by the Maoris themselves, ami the Department, has endeavoured to encourage the young men of the place to attend. A movement, is already on foot to give lessons in cooking to girls in various place.-". The Department also does its best- to lint! and does lind—openings for boys who have received workshop training as apprentices to suit-able trades, and for some years past, since 1898, a scheme of training suitable for Maori girls as nurses has been in vo uie. It will be extended this year. Them is already one probationer nurse on the musing staff of the Wellington Hospital win* is a girl from a native village school." The Inspector made a special poir.i «,f the excellence of the handwork in the Maori schools, and produced a convincing photograph showing the work of Standard 1 children near Taurangn, in modelling in plasticene. There were a number of photographs of workshops, including one of the Maori built places. Te Haraoto, on the Napier-Taupo road, where the natives felled and split the totara and themselves erected the slab-built house of manual training. 1 "There has been nn endeavour to make a point," remarked the reporter. " that the instruction of the Maori should be less literary and more practical. What pro-i portion dees this manual training bear n> the whole course!" I

" The school hours are four a day. and training in the workshops is given not less than three hours a week. There are thirteen workshops, and about- a hundred schools. Can it be said that over 10 per cent, of public schools have carpenters' shops, and that the people then! selves have supplied the buildings? Futma modification of the syllabus will be in ; Indirection of extending technical instruction. Wherever it is possible, and wherever we see that the children will benefit, -a wo:!;, shop is established. "With regard to secondary Maori schools carppntering has been for some yev.s exceedingly well taught ,at St- Stephen's (Auckland), where, indeed, the boys of the school constiuctcd the new school baildir.c sifter the old one was burned down. At Quren Victoria. Turakina, Hukarere, and !St.t Joseph's girls* schools, practical instruc-tion-is given in dressmaking, cooking, and domes!ie economy. .Beyond this stage the Department assists the most promising Maori ycutks to follow a University course."'