NEWS IN BRIEF ….

Te Ao Hou, December 1961, Page 49

NEWS IN BRIEF …. A memorial to Rahiri, the famous Ngapuhi ancestor, is being built at Whiria Pa, near Pakanae, where Rahiri used to live. Contributions have been made by people throughout Northland. Rahiri lived about fourteen generations ago, in the early seventeenth century. The monument will face the memorial to Kupe on an adjacent hill. Organizer of the appeal is Mr S. W. Maioha of Russell. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ The Maori Appellate Court has allowed an appeal of the owners of Maori land at Mount Maunganui against compensation awarded in 1959 for the Whareroa Block taken by the Crown. The owners have been granted £43,582 instead of the earlier £35,846, as well as the cost of the appeal. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ A hostel for Maori apprentices is to be opened in Gisborne by the Salvation Army early in December. Known as Pine View, in Russell Street, the building will accommodate about thirty apprentices. Though aimed at Maori boys it will be open to European country boys. It is also intended to include some older men ‘to act as elder brothers to the boys’. Maori Unclaimed Moneys provided £5,000 towards the cost of buying the building, while the government is providing a subsidy which will be in excess of £4,000. Nonetheless, the Salvation Army's own contribution is to be a very substantial one, and they will be wholly responsible for management. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ The well-known ‘Kaikohe scheme’ to guide Maori families with family budgets has been introduced to Kaitaia where some clients have already been successfully helped. Mr T. Hawthorn, college principal, who acts as co-ordinator, states: ‘You might think the hotels are the main cause of the trouble, but so far our experience is that liquor is a very small menace compared with the system of usury which goes under the name of hire purchase.’ £400 hire purchase debts are common, he says, and grocery bills suffer. With the help of sponsors under the budgeting scheme, families soon see daylight in their financial affairs. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ The Maori owners of the Tarawera Block on the Napier-Taupo highway have offered to donate the first £5000 profit from government development of their lands to the Maori Education Foundation. They resolved this last July when agreeing to the government developing this block for eventual Maori settlement.