One by one our elders “passed on” and we, who were once richly endowed with “kaumatua”, are now without a background. In the old days, when one of the younger generation showed promise in any way, our elders would always rally around him with knowledge and advice, but to-day we know not where to turn for this vital advice except perhaps to books, once it was there for the taking, yet often neglected, but to-day it is often sought after but hard to come by. Recently, it was fully brought home to our little community just how the times have changed, when one of our kaumatua suddenly passed away. Only a few days before, he had visited another old pal who was seriously ill and exhorted him “kia kaha ki a koe,” then a few days later he himself was dead. As the first crowds from other communities began to arrive to mourn, we realised that our plight was a sad one since these two old men were our last spokesmen, and here they were—one dead, and one very ill; and so our younger men had to leave the job of cooking and endeavour to fill the gap and carry on the traditional “taki”, and that's just what it amounts to. Gone are the days when we could, but didn't often bother to, sit and listen, as beautiful words and phrases flowed forth from a heart and mind, well versed in the things of his generation and with songs that were history and geography in themselves! Gone are the unhurried easy going days of our forefathers! Even if there are a few still with us, it is not the same, for they seem unable to cope with the times, we seem to move at such a tempo, that they are out-of-date. A new era has dawned for us! It has crept up on us unsuspectingly, we either didn't see it coming or perhaps wouldn't admit to ourselves that it was coming—and lo—it is here! And as we cast around for a way of escape, or else a way to combat it, we find our minds straying back to the days when responsibility was, for us, a community affair, when, by the combined efforts of our elders, almost anything could be overcome, and no one was unduly weighed down as it were, since your affair was everyones affair and treated as such. But to-day our defences are burst wide open and our foundations shake beneath us and we can repeat the old proverb in fact and in truth—“Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi.”

HALL FOR MARAENUI A Maori dining hall was opened at Maraenui in the Bay of Plenty recently by the Hon W. Sullivan, Minister of Labour and M.P. for the Bay of Plenty. The new hall has an interesting history. Originally the children of Maraenui settlement attended the Omaio School, leaving their homes at the beginning of the week and returning home at the weekends. During floods the children were ferried across the Motu River by canoe. In 1900, 16 children and two adults were drowned during this process. In 1905 a monument to those who lost their lives was unveiled by Taa Timi Kara, the then Minister of Maori Affairs. For this occasion a dining shelter was built. In 1909 this structure was replaced by an iron-roofed structure, which served till the completion of the new dining hall. The new dining hall was first suggested in 1932. Funds were raised by concerts, assignments of rents and stock drives. These functions were carried on tilll the beginning of World War II, and it was intended that the hall be used for utility purposes. However, at the end of the war Sir Apirana Ngata felt that as so many local Maori boys had been killed overseas it would be fitting for the hall to be a memorial to all the Maori soldiers killed in the Boer War and both World Wars. The hall was built by labour-only contract at a cost of £3,383 of which £1455 was contributed by the Government. The people themselves raised £2,430. Mr Sullivan praised the community fo the effort and sacrifice that such a small community had made to erect such a fine structure.