MAORI WELFARE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20893, 24 November 1937, Page 12

MAORI WELFARE

GOVERNMENT’S INTEREST By Telegraph —Press Association ROTORUA, November 22. Greeted with a resounding native war challenge as he approached the marae of the Ngati-Manawa and Tuhoe tribes who inhabit thv Urewera Country, the Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Fraser, was received with typical Maori ceremony by a large gathering of Maori and European settlers when he visited the small settlement of Te Whaiti on the outskirts of the Urewera to-day to perform the opening ceremony of a new native school there. “In his capacity of Minister in charge of the Police Department Mr Fraser also officially opened the new police station and constable’s residence.

Replying to orations delivered by the Maori leaders, Mr Fraser assured them of the good will of the Government and congratulated them on the good work being carried out by the Maori people in developing their own lands. He assured them that as socn as possible consideration would be given to the possibility of developing certain areas In the Urewera.

The Minister said that since he had taken over the portfolio of Education he had discovered that many of the school buildings in the Dominion were in an atrocious state of disrepair, and said that it was the Government’s intention to remedy this state of affairs without delay. He also said that it would be his policy to Increase the number of Native nurses to give better health facilities to the Maori people, and it was the Government’s intention to improve the conditions of Maori housing. The Minister, before his departure, was entertained at a Maori hangi, the food being prepared in a large stone □ven built for the occasion.