MAORI WOMEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13449, 22 November 1907, Page 7

MAORI WOMEN.

CIVK THEM A CHANCE

Mr T1 ill. Inspector of Schools for Hawkc:i Bay. after -i tour of the North-East Coast district, made some remarks to the "Poverty Bay Herald" on lii.s observations :

If the Native children wore influenced by Natives to attend European schools," said Mr Hill, "they would become used to European ways. instead of having these isolated Native r.chools. They are always? clamouring to have the same advantages as Europeans. Give it to them, for economy and efficiency sake. Ar Waipiro to-day there are two Native gir.Vs. one a seventh standard girl, and th? oilier a sixth standard girl. The former is/U brilliant girl. and I am sorry we cannot" bring her out. Ido not like to make comparisons, but .filie is nor to : be bettered in the whole of the school here. Under existing - conditions such girls aro thrown back among the Natives, and we can' do nothing for them. These girls should be sent to the hospital to be trained as nurses, or taken into the telephone bureau to show the Maoris the bsnelits to be ' derived . from education among European?." Mr Hill' said he intended to apply to the Department t& see if it was possible to get the girls scholarships. If it was a scholarship for a boy it could be obtained, but the- girls .are out- of it. If they (the'authorities) took as- much trouble to educate the Native women, you would, have a civilised community. Tennyson ("Locks-ley 'Hall ") said. "As the hqsband is, the wife is." I would say,. "As the wife is, the husband i.<" If ; ydu could only get these Maori girls trained in • economic* like our own wives, trained to love their homes and not neglect, them. But nothing, isi done for them, and the poor girls: are left to themselves. . You see women • sitting about in the garden with a spade and hoe, digging up the garden, while . the men. are lolling about doing nothing. Their - object (that- of the women); is the garden; the old system of thesavagery, when the weaker, the women, always had to do the hard work.; If the women would but interest themselves by the making -of' the- home ' better, it would greatly improve matters." : "Can you call it a civilised community?" asked ill- Hill, when questioned as to whether he did not consider the Natives now- ,came under'the heading of "civilised;'-'- " How can you call it civilised when the woman has no liqiie? And can anyone say she lias hope, judging from the past'/ As I- said at the Synod meeting, the only place where they are getting "real improvement is at Nuhaka. where the Mormons take an: interest in them. A great deal is done for the \Vmng men, but with the women tlie Morhave' sliowii more commohseiise me- -• tliod.s than all- the- missionai'.'es. put' to.They have brought their wives ioiit. When I, .go to them I" go rs a gnatter of business, to buy. something, and *so have: bean brought into communication them. One of them explained to £me that' their method was very .simple. •The women meet on Mondays and talk "jpve-r .the week's work, and what each Is going to do amongst them. One is fgoing to scrub and do house-cleaning, anJbtlier would ; perhaps make clothes, another .(.\rould' bate, another would- iron. gTlie monTent they told me, I said. You ,|i.*ive got the secret.'- If we would only :give our heed to the training of these girls in. the domesticities. If I had my way, I would have all those boys ,trained in woodwork and -to make and builcl things, and the girls would be all engaged fjn cookery, baking, and r.o on.. . They can •learn' geography by rote, and .perhaps - get .it up better than t:iv; they can learn every bit, jf ,y r oji fcafwion) 7 nothing in it ; the learning is only mechanical." Mr Bill went on to stats that the Maori's learning could only be by his experience through the tar,' eye, 'or nose; lie would never be taught, in; the- abstract;- '-. Mentioning one clever Native, lie said he, was a "flier," who had got on top, but he lacked the experience, and would'yet feel the disadvantage' of that lacking. "If you are 'gpiftg'"tomake them part and parcel of the .community, and give them . any- hope of|;.so ; continuing." said Mr -Hill* "the only jpethod of doing so will be for. the jwoineriito be educated in all things' that appertain to the home. They have 110 hpme npw. They are: as much IchmaeJites as the Islimaelites of old."