TE AO HOU THE NEW WORLD

Te Ao Hou, Winter 1954, Page 1

TE AO HOU THE NEW WORLD published quarterly for the maori purposes fund board by the maori affairs department No. 8 Vol. 2 No. 4 Winter, 1954 Eight years ago, when tribal committees and executives were set up, there was a widespread conviction that they would relieve the frustration of the people in search of adjustment to modern needs. Undoubtedly the committees have helped to give new hope. They have in many places provided leadership and initiative. They have improved many maraes. This is a necessary beginning for the development of Maori communities. It establishes a basis of Maoritanga. Many committees have also helped in fighting social abuses such as drunkenness. This also can be a useful and necessary beginning. But how do we move from these beginnings to the expressed purpose of the committees: social and economic advancement of the people? What opportunities have the committees to improve farming, housing, education? The committees, being young, may not yet have fully explored these opportunities, yet their strength and leadership may lead to the introduction of a wide variety of new interests and social improvements. In a previous editorial we have expressed our view that committees might do much to help farm production. There are districts where they could also help the housing position by encouraging some people to apply for loans. They can do a great deal in education, and not only the education of children. In Wellington and Auckland there are Maori Adult Education tutors, who could be invited by tribal committees to discuss the organizing of courses and lecture evenings on any subject, Maori or pakeha. Such courses could greatly enrich communities. The Minister of Maori Affairs, the Hon. E. B. Corbett, has recently announced a new service greatly extending the work tribal committees and executives can do in education. He has undertaken to subsidize money raised by these bodies for educational purposes, so that parents in difficult circumstances may be helped to keep their children at school until their education is fully completed. Subsidies for the first year are comparatively limited, but the importance of the new scheme, if successful, will be great. Educational grants to tribal bodies may well have the effect of more Maori children reaching school certificate or higher educational standards. It is pleasing to see the Maori developing in farming, and Maori committees of management emerging at the head of some of the greatest East Coast sheep and cattle farm enterprises. These new activities, however, valuable as they are, will only provide a living for a minority of the people. Most will have to be absorbed by the labour market, and their future will depend on education for a trade or profession.