GROWING UP ON TAMAKI

Te Ao Hou, September 1960, Page 54

Three happy Tamaki children. (Photograph W. A. Taylor). GROWING UP ON TAMAKI by ALAN TAYLOR West tamaki is rapidly becoming one of the largest housing estates in the Auckland Province. And with its growth confident young Maorimen and women are establishing themselves in an area that has played an important part in the past history of the Maori people. In fields along the Tamaki River where kumaras were once cultivated and where, perhaps, the whare-maire stood, new schools and churches have been built not far from parks and recreational ground: in a word, the old has given way to the new. Not, of course, that the past has altogether been forgotten by these younger Maoris. It hasn't. There is still to be found, for instance, the traditional sense of responsibility toward the community and the old-time rules of hospitality are still quietly observed despite the tremendous changes in their lives. As for the children of Tamaki: we only have to look at the expressions on the faces of the tamariki above to see that they are happy. This is as it should be.