Selection of Delegates

Te Ao Hou, March 1962, Page 39

Selection of Delegates On what basis are delegates selected? Generally, it seems that two types of people are invited: people with some experience in running Maori organizations, and educated Maoris who are thought to be potential leaders but whose community activities so far have been quite limited. By and large, it is a well-educated group, certainly very much above average in schooling. Many are public servants and teachers and therefore have special knowledge of some of the subjects the conferences always discuss. Their Maori cultural background varies from very extensive to an almost total blank. In making the selection, the tutors and committees therefore do not consider only the achievement of each delegate but also the way they think the delegate will develop,

Miss A. Pitama (Canterbury) and Misses N. Bradshaw and M. Bradshaw (Bluff) Delegates Come to Christchurch Conference from all over the South Island A group of Otago delegates and elders.

either as leaders or as students of Maori culture. Choice of subjects at conference follows a set pattern which goes back to the Te Aute meetings last century. This means that education, land, housing, crime are always on the agenda. Community development is also often on the list. Each conference desires to cover the whole range of ‘Maori problems’, devoting as much time to each as possible.