Equality of Occupation

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 8

Equality of Occupation Nearly 40% or some 350 of the pupils of the High School in Rotorua are Maoris, and in the town all but a few positions are open to them when they leave school. They are doing well in shops, offices, trades and Government Departments. It is interesting to know that Maoris are in the majority in the telephone exchange. The new houses being built for them in Rotorua under the direction of the Department of Maori Affairs are up to the standard of State houses, and are being well kept. While problems enough remain for the Maori people, the developments that have taken place in Rotorua show the shape of things to come. In more isolated areas, difficulties of adaptation are in general greater than in Rotorua. In such districts there still tends to be a wide gulf between the attitudes of the old generation and the new. Many young Maori pupils go back to their villages after leaving school. And because of the desire of their parents to have their children about them before moving to the larger centres in search of work, a year or two of their adolescence is often spent in a district where regular work is not readily available and comparative idleness results. At about 18 or 19 they realise they must start on some permanent form of employment; but at this age the opportunities for entering trades as apprentices are limited, and much of the benefit of their schooling is lost. The welfare section of the Department of Maori Affairs spends a lot of its time persuading such parents to see where their duty lies. Another interesting development in the Rotorua-Taupo area is in connection with the timber industry. Maoris owned large reserves of native timber in the Taupo area. Previously they used to grant the culling rights to European companies; but for the last 10 years they have been successfully working the timber themselves in incorporated groups. One group was selling as well as logging. This was a significant development as

Maoris had made very few excursions into commerce. True equality between Maori and European can only come if their occupation spread is proportionately similar. An examination of the data relating to occupation as shown in the 1951 census indicates that relatively few are employed in the skilled trades or in the professions. The Maori of old was a craftsman, and this ability to use tools successfully persists today but proper training and experience are necessary. Special facilities are now provided by the Labour Department to assist those desirous of qualifying as carpenters, motor mechanics, electricians, plumbers, plasterers and painters. The main concern of Government Departments is to increase the proportion entering skilled trades and professions. Figures supplied by the Education Department showed that a very large percentage of Maoris tend to enter farming, domestic and factory work and not enough were entering the skilled jobs. The experience of the Department of Maori Affairs since 1951 when hostels for apprentices were established in collaboration with Vocational Guidance Officers and the Labour Department has been favourable and encouraging in every way. Religious and other organisations have since been subsidised to provide further hostels for Maori youths and girls in any kind of employment. The Department of Maori Affairs last year expressed great concern that large numbers of Maori youths qualified and able to become apprentices could not do so. The Department rightly regards the apprenticeship movements as a positive scheme to raise the economic rehabilitation of the Maori people. It would therefore be regrettable if a promising start were allowed to fall behind for lack of public help in its early stages. Probably in a year or two Maori economic and social progress will enable the race in time to look after its young people; but at present active European help is needed. Maori apprentices in general do very good work and are warmily praised by their employers. For many reasons, the community should recruit The latest hostel for Maori apprentices to be opened is Rehua Hostel, 79 Springfield Avenue, Christchurch. The opening ceremony took place last April the day after the completion of the Maori Women's Welfare League Conference. Hostels have an important part to play at the present time, when further education for the young Maori is often impossible without them. (Christchurch Star-Sun Photograph.)

and train more of them. This new desire of the people for higher education springs from the realisation that if they are to succeed in life they must equip themselves to compete in the European economy on equal terms. They have had sufficient experience to know that under-educated people cannot compete with people of greater education for the jobs in which greater education is looked on as necessary. There is, therefore, a steady demand for more and more vocational training and up to last year 411 apprentices had been taken on throughout New Zealand under the Apprenticeship Act. Increasing numbers of Maori students are taking up the teaching service as a career. There are a number of private residential colleges for Maori students run by the different churches with the assistance of various welfare organisations. Medicine, dentistry, teaching, agriculture, science and theology are greatly favoured while there is a trend in recent years towards a wider field, including the Arts, Science, Law and Fine Arts. The numerous cases of Maoris who have succeeded as individual sheep or dairy farmers, who have graduated at the University, and who have qualified as skilled tradesmen indicate that there is much ground for optimism. There is however no room for complacency in the rapidly changing world of today. Progress must be the watch word of those desirous of ensuring to both European and Maori a stable future.