3

G.-8

to farm your lands, see to it that your titles are perfected and made negotiable securities for loans from State lending Departments. If you have money to invest, put it in the Post Office Savings-bank or other properly conducted banking institution, where the money will be safely kept for you and from which you will derive interest. "Your ancestors shed their blood in the effort to retain these lands for the benefit of, their descendants. Let the spirit, therefore, which moved them in the past to make great sacrifices move you to-day to use every effort to retain what little is left of the patrimony which they bequeathed to you. But the only way by which you can retain them is to utilize them in such a way as will enable you to profitably hold them. Such a struggle you will find, if you make the attempt, is worth while. Your great ancestors left behind them the saying, 'Me mate te tangata, me male mo te whenua.' They put this saying to the test and into practice in their day. Let you, their descendants, therefore use every effort to retain what still remains of the once vast domains for the possession and retention of which they fought and died. Tena koutou katoa. Kia ora." The meeting read a challenge in the Minister's injunction that " the occasion . . . should not be allowed to pass without some attempt being made, as was done at the great Tikitiki meeting in Waiapu last year, to discuss questions affecting the welfare of the Maori race." The Conference passed the resolutions which are set out hereunder with brief explanatory notes. 1. Thanks. —That the Conference tenders its thanks to the Right Hon. the Native Minister for his inspiring memorandum, and requests that the same be translated into Maori, printed, and circulated. 2. Education. —In regard to education (a) The Conference expresses gratification that the Government recognizes the prime importance of education to the Maori race, as evidenced by the increased assistance rendered by the Education Department, by the legislation which constituted the Maori Purposes Fund and the Board controlling the same, and by the grant two sessions ago to that Board of the sum of £f5,000 from the Consolidated Fund to assist the education of the Maori people. (/)) The Conference desires, however, to point out to the Government the need for improvement in the following respects : — (i) The adjustment of the allocation of free places or Government scholarships tenable at Maori secondary schools, so as to assure a fairer distribution between pupils from Native schools and public schools. Under the present system a disproportionately large number of such scholarships is secured by pupils of Native schools. (Note. —In f925, out of 150 free places thirteen were held by Maori pupils from public schools, although more than half of the Maori and half-caste children receiving primary education attended such schools. The other free places were held by pupils from Native schools. The latter enjoyed the advantage that they were directly controlled by the Education Department, whose special staff of Native School Inspectors kept that Department in touch with the best material in those schools. In the public schools organized in districts under Education Boards the Maori talent was not in direct touch with the Department, on the recommendation of whose expert staff free places in Maori secondary schools were secured. The result was a hardship to the Maori children of Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, and the West Coast, where very few Native schools were established. Yet more than one-half of the Maori Purposes Fund was contributed by the Maori Land Boards administering Native lands in these handicapped areas.) (ii) The provision by the Education Department of continuation scholarships supplementary to those instituted this year by the Maori Purposes Board. (Note. —The Maori Purposes Board has provided twenty-five of these scholarships, of the value of £40, tenable for one year at a Maori secondary school. The holders are selected by the Education Department from pupils recommended by the principals of these secondary schools, who are supposed to select from free-place holders in their second year. The idea is to ensure by this process of selection that the most promising material obtains the advantage; of an extra year's tuition. Incidentally, the system of extended education should raise the standard of work in all Maori secondary schools.) (iii) The raising of the value of the Government scholarship or free place from £30 to £40 a year in recognition of the increased cost of maintenance at the Maori secondary schools. (Note. —The Conference was advised that the Maori Purposes Board had made strong representations on this point to the Education. Department, which had not seen fit to accede to the request. The cost to the Department would be £1,500 a year, but this expenditure would be amply repaid by the increased efficiency of the Maori secondary schools. Te Aute College, though built to accommodate up to 140 students, can maintain only ninety.) (iv) The teaching of the Maori poi dance in the Native public and secondary schools as one of the exercises, if so recommended by the teaching staff. Instructors are available. (Note. —The Conference thought that, as physical-drilling systems introduced from other countries found a place in the school curriculum, the Department might look for a form of drill which was at once physically advantageous, graceful, and attractive, and native to the country. A short course under itinerant instructors was sufficient, and, once mastered by the elder pupils, its knowledge would be transmitted from year to year.) (v) The institution of continuation nursing scholarships. (Note.—Selection to be made from senior girls showing a desire and an aptitude for nursing to take a year's elementary course and training. Further selection then to be made of those who are fitted to take up nursing as a career.)

2—G. 8.