3

E.—2

The first thing is to recognise the contrasts between Maori and English, as the main source of difficulty. The Maori alphabet contains comparatively few consonants. Among lip-sounds it has no b (though its p sometimes inclines to b), no/, and no v ; consequently it is necessary to take great pains to secure the right pronunciation of the initial letters of such words as bane, fane, pane, vane, wane. Among throat-sounds Maori has no g ; therefore the teacher must strongly insist on the distinction between guard and card, gale and kale. In tooth-sounds Maori has no d, and no th (though the Maori t inclines sometimes to d, and sometimes to an aspirated t not identical with either of the sounds represented in English by th) ; and though the Maori r sometimes inclines to I (as in another direction it sometimes inclines to d) the language has no I. Hence much care is necessary with the initial letters of tie, die, lie, rye, thy, thigh. In thy and thigh a special difficulty arises through the use of our th to represent an aspirated t in thigh (and in such words as thick, thin, thunder, through), and an aspirated d in thy (and in the, thou, they, thus., then, though, &c). The other English sounds that have some dental quality are wanting in Maori, as s, z, sh, zh (the z in azure),f and eh (soft, as in chain). The tendency to substitute h for s must be watched, and the distinction between the s and sh {sip and ship) must be insisted upon, as also the distinction between the s and the z sound, especially where s has the sound bf z (twice in houses, though in house the true sound of sis heard). In Maori, consonants never come together; and therefore such compounds as dr, tr, sir (in drain, train, strain), and cks and x (in locks and box), present difficulties that must be recognised and faced. And where such compounds are disguised as well as unusually difficult (as in chain, and Jane, and ginger), they call for more diligent exemplification and practice. Of the nasal sounds, m (labial) and n (dental) call for no remark ; but with respect to ng (guttural) it is to be noted that this sound is always at the end of its syllable in English, but at the beginning of its syllable in Maori: probably the difficulty hence arising is more easily overcome by the Maori than by the English learner. Some special care may be necessary where in an English word (as in finger, angle) the ng is first sounded in full, and then supplemented by a hard g (fing-ger). Knowing the character of the difficulties that will be experienced and the mistakes that will be made by the Maori child, the teacher must consider that nothing at all has been done until the pupils can perfectly sound any English letter or compound consonant when their attention is specially directed to it,' and can distinguish accurately between words that differ only in some one letter or sound—whether initial or final—as between lake and rake, or between box and bogs. Apart from reading-lessons, there should be abundant drill in the pronunciation of similar, yet differing, words. To this drill should at an early stage be added the writing of pairs of such words from dictation. But what is perhaps quite as important as the regular practice of such exercises is the care the teacher must take not to allow himself to grow so accustomed to characteristic Maori mistakes of pronunciation as to accept false sounds for true, and become satisfied with them. From one year's end to another, as often as one of these characteristic mistakes occurs it should be corrected on the spot. An exercise that has been found most useful is one in which the teacher reads a part of the reading-lesson in hand, and occasionally pronounces a word as an untaught Maori might pronounce it, and the pupils supply the necessary correction. The grammar of Maori is so different from that of English that special measures need to be taken to render the pupils familiar with the English means of expressing tense, number, case, &c. To this end teachers are recommended to insist on having every answer that a pupil has to give expressed in a full sentence, not merely hinted at by a few words thrown together. If a boy is asked where Hemi is, "Shoot pigeon" ought not to be accepted as an answer; nor should "Water all round" be taken for a good definition of an island. If necessary, the child may be helped to frame the answer or the definition, but until, either with or without help, a complete meaning has been expressed that answer or that definition must be regarded as the business on hand. At a later stage, when the children are beginning to do a little written composition, they should be taught to criticize an incomplete assemblage of words, pretending in the absence of a predication to constitute a sentence; to detect, for example, the moaninglessiiess of snch an utterance as "Early yesterday morning John riding over a paddock," and supply what would give it meaning. The teacher should never, under any temptation to weariness, or on any plea of having too many things to attend to, allow any written exercise to pass without proper correction, and he should never be content to bring a reading-lesson to a close until he finds that all the pupils can read it accurately, and is sure that they understand it. The Minister regards the teaching of English as manifestly the most conspicuous object in view in the institution of Native schools. He is convinced that the work done in the best schools may fairly be taken as indicating the results the Inspector has a right to look for, and he desires to have it clearly understood that in future no child that is weak in reading or in English at a standard examination will be allowed to pass. Wm. Jas. Habbns. An ex-pupil of the Maori College at Te Aute, Apirana T. N. Ngata, who is now a University student at Canterbury College, and Eeweti Morgan, who is still a pupil at Te Aute, spent their last Christmas holidays in circulating Maori copies of Mr. Pope's book, "Health for the Maori." The following letter was received from Eeweti early in March : — Dear Sir, — Te Aute College, Hawke's Bay. I read your letter to Apirana, and am thankful to hear that you are taking interest in us and in our young or newly-born " Association." I may, perhaps, inform you that it was I who asked Apirana to do the work of applying, on my behalf, for copies of "Te Ora mo te Maori," which request you kindly and promptly granted. I thereby hold myself as one of those who are