NEWS IN BRIEF…

Te Ao Hou, June 1960, Page 63

NEWS IN BRIEF… Fourteen unior field supervisors attended a short course in Hamilton last month under the auspices of the Maori Affairs Department. The course was aimed at helping the supervisors, both Maori and European to assist Maori farmers in their areas. From districts scattered all over the North Island, the supervisors were experienced in dairy, sheep and cattle farming; each man had the responsibility of aiding in the administration of up to 60 farms occupied by Maoris in his respective area. Each man was a graduate of Lincoln College. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ Waimamauku School, near the northern boundary of Waipoua Forest, held its 75th anniversary celebration on March 26th. The school has one teacher and 28 pupils. It was opened on January 23rd, 1885. Its first committee gave the school a good start by imposing a fine on all parents whose children failed to attend. The school's name has been translated as “the waters of the tree farm”, a reference to the river which flows beside the school and has its source in an area of ferns in the nearby forest. The first volume in a new series of bulletins in Maori for post-primary schools has been issued by the publications branch of the Department of Education. It is “Ko te tahae nei ko Tawhkai!”—“That rascal Tawhkai”, and contains five stories of a young Maori boy today. They are written by Mr S. M. Mead, headmaster of Waimarama Maori School in Hawke's Bay, and illustrated by pen and ink drawings by Mr W. Jones, of Auckland. Commenting on the publication, the Minister of Education, Mr P. O. S. Skoglund, said that “everyone interested in the teaching of Maori will welcome this imaginative way of stimulating interest in the use of the language as a literary medium. Over the last hundred years, a great deal has been published in Maori in New Zealand, but it has had a limited circulation, and certainly was not written for postprimary pupils. This is the first time the school publications branch of the department has issued a publication in Maori. “The general title of the series,” continued Mr Skoglund, “is ‘Te Whare Kura’, the old Maori college of learning, the name and functions of which have been transferred to the schools of today. The second volume, ‘He Pakiwaitara’ (folk lore) will contain a number of traditional stories collected by Mr John Waititi and Dr Bruce Biggs and illustrated by Miss Evelyn Clouston. It will be issued later this year.”