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Te Ao Hou, 1973, Page 58

In his preface, the author expresses his hope that the illustrations and supporting notes will “together produce more unanswered questions than conclusions, and absolutely no simple ‘solution’. “The ‘implications’ listed under 13 of the 20 subjects certainly provide ample stimulus for discussion, and the graphs of various kinds illustrate the statistics well. There seem to be some inaccuracies, e.g. note 2.2 describes the pie graphs as showing population in 1956 and 1961, but the graphs are labelled 1956 and 1966, with the total 1966 non-European population component being 9.4%, including 7.5% Maori; yet the bar graph 3.1 on the next page gives the Polynesian component in 1966 as 10.2%. However, the book is well worth buying—it is undoubtedly a ‘useful source of reference’. It is disappointing that the only comments made about the Welfare Division of the Department of Maori and Island Affairs are negative in tone, and no mention is made of the tremendous amount of help given by welfare staff in establishing preschool centres and guiding the hundreds of teenagers who are accepted for trade training and pre-employment schemes. Mr Walsh's comment that ‘statistics are constantly changing’ is borne out by the fact that the introduction of Maori language teaching into increasing numbers of intermediate and secondary schools and that the number of students taking Maori has almost doubled in the last two years, makes the section on Maori language already out of date. However, the book is well worth $1.75, and should be bought by all interested in facts about the Maori. M.S.