An American visitor looks on while Mr Rourangi teaches the junior group the words of a Maori action song. tended, to the business affairs of the club; Mr Kingi Tahiwi conducted, the singing and language classes; while Mrs Heketa and her daughter, Miriama (now Mrs Scott of Wellington) took over the arts and crafts work and coached the action songs. Miriama, club leader from 1937 to 1947, designed the red, yellow, black and white bodices which the girls worked themselves in taniko. The club soon got under way, but they were greatly handicapped by not having a meeting-place of their own, and practices had to be held in what ever vacant rooms or halls they could find. In spite of this by 1939 the club's performances had reached a very high standard, and during the war years they became widely known as a first class concert party. In 1943 the American Red Cross Club vacated their headquarters in the Hotel Cecil Buildings and the government gave the people of Ngatiponeke the use of the hall rent free. The club had found a home at last. If the club had a written constitution (being modelled on a tribe, it has no written constitution, but acknowledges the full authority of its tangata whenua, or elders) it would certainly have in capital letters this main aim: to recapture and develop our knowledge of Maori culture, and to bring the young people together. The word recapture is very important, for it must be admitted that many present members have little or no knowledge of the Maori language, and many of them have never attempted an action song or a haka or swung a poi before joining the club. To some critics this initial ignorance may seem a weakness to the club's work, but no one is born knowing how to do an action song or the poi, and there is only one way to learn, by trial and error and practice. I once heard one of the coaches, Mr Nan Amohau, persuading a would-be member to get up and join in. Come on, he said, we are all learners here. And that is quite true. One has to have a desire to Children of the city who go to these classes will not grow up ignorant of the arts of their ancestors. At their most impressionable age, their natural sense of rhythm and movement will be developed along with their normal European education.