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visitor to any representative Maori meeting could fail to observe the health and vigour of the young generation, its poise and. its self-possessed confident bearing, the full cradles, and the greater care of infant-life. The latter-day Maori is throwing off the shackles of the past, looking little, if at all, over his shoulder, and interesting himself in the activities and pastimes of his pakeha fellow-citizen. Socially he is rapidly fitting himself into the life of the country, where for a time he found himself in bewilderment. His deportment on the tennis-lawns of Rotorua and Wanganui, where good behaviour, sportsmanlike qualities, and control are part of the players' equipment, was favourably commented on by visitors from other lands. The communal Maori has become an individualist in. proprietorship and in his home life. His womankind, as with other races, is speeding up the process of European ization in the home life and surroundings, so that the pakeha ideal of " home " is being gradually realized, in the Maori villages throughout the Dominion. And the culture complex that centres round the term " home " (in its English significance) has with native modification been adopted. Economically and. commercially the influence of four generations of civilization could not fail to affect the Maori extensively. With the loss of the greater part of their landed inheritance, the increase in population, the increased cost of living, the raising of the standard of life, and the weakening of the protective elements of the old-time communism, the Maoris of to-day were feeling the economic pressure with progressive severity. The feature of the day was, perhaps, the desire of the young people to work for themselves rather than be casual employees of others. Much of the pioneering work in the backblocks —bushfelling, fencing, roadmaking, shearing, draining and stumping, and such like —had. been done and was still being done by the Maoris. That stage was almost passed in the industrial development of the Dominion. The younger Maoris were reacting on the already complicated Maori-land problem and were demanding individualization, consolidation, readjustment of occupation conditions, and financial assistance. Their attitude towards the balance of their landed inheritance was much the same as that of Europeans towards the unoccupied Crown lands and the large estates of the Dominion. They were also compelled to look beyond casual employment in unskilled trades and on public works to the skilled trades, and, with that in mind, to regard education and training in a new light. Intellectually the attitude of the race towards education was a revelation of the accumulated effects of civilizing influences. School attendance readily became one of the stages of the life of the Maori youth. Naturally well endowed with brains, the discipline of the schools fostered with each successive generation the ■ faculty of application, while the success of a few of their kind in the highest schools supplied fresh incentive and the motive of emulation. To-day no movement is capturing the mind of the best-thinking of the Maori youth so forcibly as that which aims, through the most suitable education, at preparing the Maori to take a fitting place in the life of the Dominion. Finally, in his attitude towards moral and religious problems the Maori is assuming an independence of judgment that signifies a fair knowledge of present-day facts. He is demanding more allowance for his racial peculiarities, and a deeper appreciation by the pakeha missioner of the ngakau Maori, the Maori heart, and its gropings. Here and then! his excursions in religious organization are, amazing, prodigal, and tending towards disaster. But these are passing phases of a, genuine desire that the moral and religious code of the pakeha, the manner of its inculcation and maintenance, shall be translated into forms, words, and works easily understood by the compa,ratively simple Maori folk. In short, the time is at an end when the Maori will bo satisfied merely to ape the pakeha. He knows enough now of the pakeha and his ways to see that the end aimed at may be reached by other paths, even by the old tracks, with less raising of dust, less bustle and wasteful hurry and unhappiness. It was with something of this in their hearts and minds that the Young Maori representatives forgathered at Putiki, Wanganui, last Easter. The brief conference offered the opportunity of reviewing the progress of the last few years. The resolutions passed were framed to indicate what had been achieved and to suggest: where further progress might be made. Quite appropriately the proceedings opened with the reading of a, memorandum from the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, Prime Minister and Native Minister, which was conveyed to the meeting by his Private Secretary, Mr. H. R. H. Balneavis. Text of Memorandum from Prime Minister. "The occasion, however, which this tournament lias provided of gathering together influential representatives of various Native, tribes throughout New Zealand should not be allowed to pass without some ;'.(tempt, being made, as was done at the great Tikitiki meeting in Waiap'u last year, to discuss questions affecting the welfare of the Maori rare. There are several questions of moment to the race which should exercise your minds at the present time, such as matters affecting education, sanitation, Native rates, and the profitable utilization of your remaining lands. The presence of the Hon. Mr. Ngata and other representatives from the East Coast, district and of Maori farmers from other districts, who possess the necessary experience in communal and individual farming, should be made use, of. An interchange of ideas and experiences in regard to the steps which must be taken to obtain registrable, and negotiable titles and loans on the security of such titles from State lending institutions, the breaking-in, handling, stocking, and development of Native lands, would be of advantage to all parties concerned. Discussions in connection with these matters are very helpful, but the knowledge gleaned should not be allowed to remain there ; it should be put to practical use. Unless the experience thus gained is availed of, and the necessary details as to the perfecting of the titles are attended to, it is quite apparent that nothing can be done to make your lands produce sufficient, at all events, for. your maintenance and the payment of rates and other liabilities which year by year are being piled up on the titles to such lands. " I must hero strike a, note of warning that no good can result by turning to movements having as one of their objects the wholesale collection of money from the misguided ones among you, aided by rosy promises of high rates of interest and financial assistance with which to farm their lands. Past experience goes to show that no good ever accrues from such movements: If you require money