G.-8

4

3. Industrial. — (a) The Conference expresses pleasure at the increasing interest taken by the Government in the encouragement of industrial pursuits by Maoris, especially farming, as evidenced by the legislation and administration of recent years, notably by the undertaking of schemes for the consolidation of scattered interests in Native lands, and by the provision of funds, through the Native Trust Office and the Maori Land Boards, for assisting Maoris desirous of farming their lands. (6) The Conference, however, desires to emphasize the need for improvement and extension in the following directions : — (i) The increased employment of Maoris on public works in what may be. termed Maori districts ; (ii) The application to other districts of the " Parenga scheme." (Note. —The " Parenga scheme," now being carried out under the supervision of the Tokerau Maori Land Board, makes use of funds held by the Board on behalf of the owners of lands at Parengarenga for preparing some of the land for subdivision into family and individual farms. The labour of the owners is used and paid for at a moderate rate to execute a drainage scheme, preparatory to laying down in pasture and the establishment of dairying.) (iii) The supervision, co-ordination, and organization of existing scattered and ill-organized Maori attempts in industrial and farming pursuits. (Note. —These attempts may be found up and down the country, but for want of organization and support some of them become half-hearted and fail. A civilization which came with a deliberate mission to convert the Maori to the ways of the pakeha should now produce an organization to link up worthy attempts to respond to its demands, to foster and assist them to the point of success.) (iv) The more extended training of Maori youths in normal, technical, and engineering schools and establishments. (Note. —The mechanical ability of the Maori, as evidenced by his past history and achievements, has not perhaps been sufficiently emphasized and. developed in his school career. Some of the Maori secondary schools are remedying this by the institution of an agricultural and farming side. Other schools should specialize in technical education.) 4. Maori Arts and Crafts, and Ethnological and Historical Research. — (a) The Conference is gratified to know that Parliament has, by the establishment of the Board of Maori Ethnological Research and the Board of Maori Arts and Crafts, and by sundry votes by way of financial assistance, whole-heartedly recognized the need of recording the history and traditions of the Maori branch of the Polynesian race, and of perpetuating, with modifications and adaptations, the arts and crafts of the Maori people. It congratulates the Government on these acts, and also on the results of the Commission of Inquiry into the Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa Native Villages. (b) The Conference desires to make the following recommendations in this connection :— (i) That increased assistance be given by the State towards the finance of the Board of Maori Ethnological Research. American activities in regard to general Polynesian research have been lavishly financed. v ii) That an organized attempt be made to preserve, or reacquire with a view to preservation of, ancient Maori-pa sites. (iii) That a certain amount of work be taught in the Maori secondary schools and approved Native and public schools preparatory to the special course in the School of Maori Arts and Crafts. (iv) That it is desirable that each tribe establish an organization for the collection of data relating to its history, tradition, arts and crafts, and especially for the compilation of genealogical records, songs, and incantations, the collection of objects illustrating its material culture, and the recording, with explanatory notes, of historic place-names. (v) That periodical exhibitions of objects of Maori manufacture be promoted. 5. The Settlement of Old-standing Grievances. —The Conference desires to place on record its appreciation of the opportunity afforded by the Government, through the setting-up of Commissions of Inquiry into alleged Native grievances relating to confiscated lands, early land-sales, and the like, of dispelling many misunderstandings which for a long time have alienated the sympathies of sections of the Maori people from progressive movements, and of remedying such grievances as inquiry may find to be justified. The psychological effect on the Maori people of this belated but laudable act of justice must be immense. 6. Health and Social. — (a) The Conference desires to express its appreciation of the work of the Department of Health in the special branch of Maori hygiene since its inauguration on modern lines in 1900. The pioneering work of the Maori Councils then constituted under the Maori Councils Act made possible, when these institutions became defunct or lax, their practical supersession by the Department, with which they became associated in an advisory capacity. (b) The Conference thinks it is a matter for sincere congratulation that the statistics of the last census, borne out by the figures of school attendance and by observation in several Maori districts, show that the decline of the Maori population has not only been arrested but converted into a steady increase. This is the best evidence that the work of the Department, together with the influence of education and of the partial solutions of Native-land difficulties, have combined, with other beneficient civilizing factors to improve the physical and social condition of the Maori people.