NEWS IN BRIEF NEWS IN BRIEF Mr T. T. Ropiha, Secretary, Department of Maori Affairs, opened the new dining hall at Ranana, Wanganui River, last April. The site of the dining hall is an old Maori pa. Ranana is the centre of some 5,000 acres of Maori lands belonging to the Wainui-a-Rua people, which was put under the Maori Affairs Department for development under Sir Apirana Ngata's scheme. * * * The biggest gathering of its kind ever held in the Far North was attended by about 1000 people at Te Kao last weekend, when many representatives of Waikato and Rotorua tribes travelled northward to escort Piki, daughter of King Koroki. Piki was paying a special visit to the Aupouri people, who are relatives of her husband, Whatu Wetere Paki, through his mother, a former Aupouri woman, Frances Brown. To mark her visit to Te Kao, Piki unveiled the cornerstone of a new meetinghouse to be built in full traditional style. The meetinghouse is to be named Rongo Patu Taonga. It will be the only carved house in Mangonui County and the first to be built in the district for generations. * * * Mr R. L. Whatu has been awarded the Hugh Jenkins Memorial Scholarship, which entitles him to almost the whole cost of fees for a course at the Palmer School of Chiropractics in Davenport, Iowa, United States. Mr Whatu was awarded the scholarship for his thesis on Man as an Evolutionary Vertebrate. He is the first Maori to gain the award, which was made to him by the president * * * The Rev Warren Foster and the Rev Te Teira will gain preacher status at the Presbyterian Maori Synod meeting at Murupara during Easter. Mr Foster is the first student to complete the full course at the Maori Theological College, Whakatane. Mr Foster, who comes from Dargaville, is a member of the Ngapuhi tribe. Older students, including the Rev Te Teira, have previously completed shortened courses at the College. Mr Foster will now be licensed as a preacher and will be ordained after two years' probationary service. During these two years he will take extramural studies. Mr Foster has been appointed to Taumarunui as assistant to the Rev Hemi Potatau. * * * An Order-in-Council was recently published in the New Zealand Gazette, redefining the boundaries of the various Maori Land Court Districts. The new boundaries make adjustments between the Tokerau and Waikato-Maniapoto Districts, where the new dividing line is the northern boundary of the Waitemata County and between the Waikato-Maniapoto and Aotea districts where the new line runs along the northern boundaries of the Clifton Ohura and Taumarunui Counties. It is more than forty years since the boundaries were last defined and it was considered advisable to set all the boundaries out again and to ensure that the descriptions all referred correctly to current blocks and maps. * * * A young Maori naval man has had the distinction of playing Rugby for a Welsh team. He is Vivian Hata, of Te Karaka, the former Poverty Bay representative, now a leading seaman in the Royal New Zealand Navy. Hata went to England in H.M.N.Z.S. Bellona to join the new New Zealand cruiser Royalist, and at Devonport made friends with a Welsh naval man, with whom he spent his Christmas leave in Wales, As a guest player, he took the field for Aberavon against Cross Keys, Pontypool, and Maesteg. Welsh sporting writers wrote that he was an acquisition to the team. * * * Former Maori Battalion men are-taking a prominent part in the running of the Te Kaha Dairy Co., Bay of Plenty. Hone Waititi, who held the rank of Major with the battalion, has recently been appointed chairman of directors. All the directors are Maori. Secretary of the dairy company is Norman Perry, who served in the battalion with the Y.M.C.A. Though a pakeha, Mr Perry was until recently District Maori Welfare Officer for the Rotorua-Bay of Plenty area. The first assistant buttermaker, Tiaki Parata, and the manager of the company's new general store, Tini Paora, are both ex-C Company men. This year the company has produced an attractively illustrated calendar for suppliers setting out fishing and planting times in relation to the phases of the moon. * * * For the first time for 32 years, a Maori Rugby League team is to make an overseas trip this year. A 15-match tour of Australia has been arranged to begin at the end of July, following a tour of Australia by a New Zealand Kiwi team which will end on July 4. The tour has been booked by the New Zealand Rugby League on condition that all Maoris chosen must first be available for the Kiwis, which means that some Maori players will do two tours. All players selected must have one-quarter or more Maori blood. The Maori team will play mostly in Australian country districts, but two games have been arranged in Sydney, with another in Bris-