Houses being built for the new owners in the province of Foggia (Summer 1952). and yokes. They did not believe in fertilisers apart from animal droppings, which they carefully collected and spread over the ground. They often knew little of villages two or three miles away; the dialect differences were enormous. The troops later, however, had an opportunity to visit the great, highly civilised cities like Rome. The education officers briefed the men and issued pamphlets, telling them what to expect in the cities about to be visited. In this way an impression was left of older and more established cultures than the New Zealanders had seen before. As Mr Nepia said, when you take a man to St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, and encourage him to look at it not only as a church, but also as a work of art, then you have done something for that man. What else did the war and the Italian campaign in particular do for the men of the Maori Battalion? First, it generally broadened people's views. Then, it enabled influential New machinery is brought on to the farms in accordance with the Twelve Year Plan for the development of Italian Agriculture (Mantua — 15 January 1953). Maoris of different tribes to come together and express opinions. Although the battalion was organized in tribal units, and therefore no complete breakdown of tribal barriers would occur, the war did undoubtedly promote mutual understanding of tribal points of view. The tribal representatives became more tolerant of each other. In the beginning there may still have been some distrust deep in their hearts, although perhaps not obviously so. At the end of the war little of this distrust remained. Undoubtedly present-day Maori leadership owes much to this change. In the ten years since Taranto the Italians, too, have had some very profound experiences. First, the destruction of their country; statistics show that one-third of Italy's national wealth was destroyed during the war. Then reconstruction: by 1950, five years after the end of the war, most of the obvious traces of destruction had vanished. Houses, roads, bridges, aqueducts, railways had been rebuilt, olive groves and vineyards replanted. Most important of all: the new Italian Republic is gradually taking measures to lift the primitive peasant of the backward south of Italy to a higher standard of living. This great movement, Italy's twelve-year plan for the south, may perhaps be of some interest to Te Ao Hou's readers, especially those who have learnt to understand these (Continued on page 64)