The Modern Age

Te Ao Hou, July 1956, Page 34

The Modern Age There are 10,000 acres in the Harataunga Maori block of which 3000 are now in grass. Development of the rest is complicated by the many owners who now live on the East Coast. Sheep and cattle farming is now almost as important as dairying. Two men live by selling crayfish on the Auckland market. The sea still provides a large proportion of the people's protein: fishing is traditional, kept up even in these farming days. Many farms still can only be reached by dinghy and one child has to row to school every day. The education board pays him 9d for providing his own school transport. Daily life on the Bay is still tough, but there is always joy in nocturnal eeling expeditions, in making a day-long trek through the bush to bring your horses to the show, in expeditions to the pa site where Maori adzes and fish-hooks are found, in the growing of ‘tropical gardens,’ and perhaps, as this modern age penetrates the settlement, in a library and adult education.

Horses too like to escape into the Harataunga River. Left: George Hovell, part-Maori, who works on his father's farm, spends his spare time digging for archeological remains at Te Kapoai and the nearby grottos, and also has a tropical garden with bananas, guavas, pineapples, papinas, avocado, paupau and numerous other fruits. Right: Boy with his school transport, a rowing boat in which he crosses the bay morning and night. As the distance is more than two miles, the State pays for this school transport at ninepence a day.

Left: Mrs Maremare Whitiwhiti, president of the Hauraki M.W.W.L. Council, is devoted to the revival of Maori crafts. Weaving was almost a lost art in Hauraki when Mrs Whitiwhiti started teaching: today the Hauraki crafts displays attract much attention at annual shows in Hamilton (Photo: Peter Blanc) Below: Rapaki Concert Party farewells the departing Controller of Maori Welfare, Mr Rangi Royal, in Christchurch. (Star-Sun Photograph)