E.—3.

education for their children ; for the remainder education has ceased at the primary stage. The two districts most in need are therefore North Auckland and the East Coast. The next question to be considered is the type of education that will be of most value to the children in these districts. To a considerable extent this should depend on what avenues of employment are open to the Maori. At present the number who make good in the professions is not large, though a few Maori men and women have taken up teaching or nursing and some have entered the Public Service. The Maori is not sufficiently far removed from his past to be well adapted for commerce,! with its demand for strongly individualistic traits, which are in such strong contrast to his ancient mode of living. Many will, of course, find their salvation on the land, but there is an increasing! number, landless yet living in a rural setting, who seem destined to make a precarious living as labourers on farms or public works, or in such seasonal occupations as shearing. Although the Maori has manual skill of a high order it is very difficult for him, owing to the distance of his home from the town, to become a trained tradesman. Because the denominational post-primary schools fori Maoris provide only academic and agricultural courses and it is most difficult for the Maori to obtain an education of a technical nature, the Hon. the Minister in 1940 approved of two major extensions of post-primary facilities for the Maori, one in Kaikohe, North Auckland, and one on the East Coast. Both of these ventures are experimental in nature and perhaps unique in educational endeavour. They have excited the interest and co-operation of the Maori people and of the teachers and all concerned in their successful development. The objectives have been defined clearly, but only very general lines of procedure have been laid down, as it is realized that room must be left for improvisation and that practice and experience will be the best guides. The East Coast scheme will begin early ill 1941, and it is hoped that the Kaikohe venture will be launched before the end of that year. The core of both schemes is home-making, home-making in the widest sense, including building construction and all its features, furniture-making, metal-work, and home gardening for the boys, and homemanagement, including cookery, home decorating, and infant welfare for the girls. The aim is to teach the skills and to develop the tastes that make the house not merely a place of habitation, but a home in the best sense of the word. The East Coast is a long narrow strip of fertile land from ten to twenty-five miles wide, stretching from Hicks Bay southwards to Gisborne. The part most closely populated is from Hicks Bay to Tokomaru Bay, including Tikitiki, Te Araroa, Ruatoria, and Waipiro Bay. Owing to the configuration of this area the proposal to establish one central post-primary technical school at Tikitiki was reluctantly abandoned. The school would have been too distant from the majority of the homes, conveyance would have been expensive, even if possible, and the influence of the school in advancing adult education would have been very limited. There are three natural sub-centres —Te Araroa, Tikitiki, and Ruatoria —in each of which is established a large Native school. It was decided, therefore, to open a post-primary department in each of these schools (at Te Araroa a Standard YII class has been in operation for two years). The qualifications required of the teachers for these secondary departments will be an appreciation of modern trends in education, ability in some practical skill such as carpentry or home-management, and faith in the inherent virtues of the scheme. In addition to the usual staffing of these departments a man trained in building construction and a woman expert in home-management and its related arts will be appointed, and their activities will be shared among the three East Coast schools. These two specialists will be provided with a covered van fitted with the more expensive tools, and it is around their work that the curriculum of the schools will be planned. Woodwork and cookery rooms will be provided at each centre. It is proposed that at each school a full-scale building project will be put into immediate operation, and the first task is likely to be the erection of a model cottage. The enthusiastic co-operation of all the parents, both Maori and European, has been freely offered, and it is well understood that education of a practical nature only will be provided. As soon as the scheme is well under way it is possible that adults will also be able to take advantage of the equipment and special facilities. It is hoped that as the boys increase in skill and knowledge they will be found apprenticeships in the trades that appeal to them, and thus they will not only have a sufficient means of livelihood but also will be active instruments in the provision of better housing for their people. In addition to the practical work, cultural activities —reading, singing, art, drama, physical education, and health —will be stressed. At Kaikohe an even more interesting scheme is being prepared. The secondary department attached to the Kaikohe Public School is to be closed and a separate institution established. This will make provision for the post-primary education of the children of both races and will be known as the Kaikohe Combined Technical School. Special staffing will be necessary, and the practical programme planned for the East Coast schools will be put into operation. In addition to the postprimary department, this school will have an intermediate department also catering for both races. An excellent site has already been acquired. The programme outlined above will undoubtedly be of great assistance to the Maori, but, as in all social endeavours, much more remains to be done. Vocational Officers, backed by strong committees of prominent men of both races, will be required to place the young Maori in work and to assist and encourage him to make a success of whatever he undertakes. In the Bay of Plenty and Waikato areas facilities in addition to those now available must be planned. The solution in these districts may be through co-operation with the technical and secondary schools already established and may mean the provision of hostels. With regard to agricultural education there is hope in the present re-organization of the courses now available in the denominational post-primary schools. A much closer relationship between these schools and the Maori land-development schemes is desirable. It may be found that these three schools —Te Aute, St. Stephen's, and Paerata -—are too far away from the centres of Maori population to be able to render maximum assistance. These and many other problems still await solution, but the progress made in 1940 will remain outstanding in the history of Maori education.

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