First Maori Jaycee President

Te Ao Hou, March 1962, Page 9

First Maori Jaycee President Mr Monty Searancke has been elected New Zealand President of the Jaycee organization for this year. This group has 6,000 members in New Zealand, only a handful of them Maori. As President, he will be leading the New Zealand delegation to the J.C. International Conference in Melbourne this month, and in November he will lead the delegation to the J.C. World Congress in Hongkong. At both conferences there will be hundreds of delegates from the seventy-eight countries in which th J.C. movement is established. As part of his duties Mr Searancke will be visiting J.C. groups in more than thirty New Zealand towns, and will address members on the ideals of service and co-operation which the movement exists to uphold. Monty Searancke was born at Te Awamutu, the son of Pareumuroa and Graham Searancke of Otorohonga. He was educated at the Otorohonga District High School. He served for three years with the Maori Battalion during the last war, attaining the rank of Captain Adjutant. He also served for two years with the British Occupation Forces in Japan and during this period held the rank of Major commanding the Maori Squadron in Japan. He now works in the Maori Affairs Department in Gisborne. He has served with distinction in many other community organizations in Gisborne.