from the Waikato, but also from the King Country. Apart from the regional and industrial centres already mentioned only five other towns have over 250 Maori residents. The bulk of others live on farms or interspersed with pakehas in small rural areas, and on the fringes of the larger towns. The traditional pa still survives only in areas where farming is not a major activity for the Maoris, and where employment for wages can be readily obtained within easy reach of the settlements. The pa is probably best developed today along the shores of lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti, on the Volcanic Plateau and in the Urewera—at Te Whaiti and Ruatahuna. A few similar settlements are found in areas where most of the land has been occupied by pakehas for many decades, and the Maoris live mainly by working as labourers in primary and secondary industries—as in the Waikato, Matamata and Piako districts, in the vicinity of Opotiki and around Gisborne. The movement from pas to individual farms, to towns and to cities, and the high rate of increase of those Maoris who live amongst pakehas contribute to bringing Maori and pakeha closer and closer together. This inevitably gives rise to new problems. The most obvious and urgent of these problems arise in the cities. The acute housing shortage has forced the majority of Maoris to congregate in the poorer parts of most towns, where over-crowding and inadequate sanitary arrangements endanger their health and standards of living. During the last few years, Maoris have been constantly moving into the better residential areas in the various centres, and have been entering the trades and professions in ever growing numbers, but their places have been quickly filled by new arrivals from the country. Consequently, the urban Maoris as a whole have as yet been only partially successful in adapting themselves to pakeha conventions of urban life and industry. These problems are rendered all the more acute by the fact that everything favours the continued growth of the Maori urban population.

Hostel for Maori Girls Cabinet has approved a subsidy of £5600 for the Methodist hostel for Maori girls at the corner of Ladies' Mile and Remuera Road. The cost of the building, which was previously a rest home, was £11,250. A further £3000 will be spent in alterations and renovations to the building. It is hoped the hostel will be ready for use towards the end of the year.—Auckland Star.

Maori Singer to Tour South Africa Inia Te Wiata, the Maori bass singer, who went abroad to study some years ago, will be a member of the Covent Garden Opera Company which is to sail from London for South Africa on July 26. The tour will be a brief one, as the company will return to London by the end of August to prepare for appearances during the Coronation season. Gloriana, the Coronation opera by Benjamin Britten, is to be performed during the South African tour, and for the Maori singer the composer has specially written an aria in the second act. The company began a tour of the British Isles on February 16, and Inia Te Wiata is travelling with it. In addition, he has made a series of records of Maori songs, including ‘Waiata Poi’, ‘Hine e Hine’, the ‘Nikau Waltz’, and ‘Pokorekare’. The singer, in a recent letter to friends, says that he is in excellent health, and weights 15st. 51b.

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