This article describes thirty years of effort to preserve, by instruction, the three aspects of Maori Arts and Crafts found in a carved meetinghouse, namely, woodcarving (whakairo), tukutuku panelling, and kowhaiwhai scroll painting. The Future of Maori Arts and Crafts by Dr. Maharaia Winiata The current attempt to organise instruction work within institutions called Academies of Maori Arts and Crafts, is really part of the movement started by the late Sir Apirana Ngata and other Maori leaders back in 1926. In that year legislation was passed aimed at encouraging ‘the dissemination of the knowledge of Maori Arts and Crafts.’ The Act provided for a Board through which one or more schools of Maori art would be set up under the control of the Board. The first school was established at Rotorua in 1927, under the directorship of Harold Hamilton, son of Augustus Hamilton author of the book ‘Maori Art’. From the first beginnings the school was linked to carved meetinghouse projects in Northland. East Coast, Taranaki, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Batches of ten students from selected areas were admitted at regular intervals. The administrative costs were borne by the Government, while Maori monies from the Maori Purposes Fund assisted. Living expenses of student-workers and the timber required for meeting-houses were the responsibility of Maori communities concerned. Works in Museums throughout the country and existing meetinghouses were studied to give the students an idea of the variety of styles of carvings. The students learnt the principles of design, they received practice in the use of the adze and gained experience in shaping the contours of figures for the slabs to which the more intricate decorative features were later to be applied. An attempt was made to get the students to visualize the finished work before and during the construction, and each man devoted his skill and energy to the actual delineation in wood. Lectures were given, museums visited, as part of the process of building up the content knowledge of the art in the student body. However the main method was still the practical one of learning by actually doing carvings for a specific meetinghouse. Instruction in Maori arts and crafts today is being done in several ways. A few schools—Whakarewarewa Maori and Minginui Maori—have had a record of instruction in the crafts. In Maori communities some of the kuias while engaged in actual work are showing the way to younger people. The Maori Women's Welfare League at their annual exhibitions show craft work that has been done by their members either privately or in classes. At Ngaruawahia under the leadership of Te Ata, King Koroki's wife, the folk are busy with Cloak and Whariki weaving. In carving, graduates of the Rotorua School of Carving while doing professional work for meetinghouses, gather around themselves apprentices that not only assist but also learn the skill. For instance Hone Taiapa has a small group going in the old buildings of the School of Art at Rotorua. They are producing high quality work for Te Heuheu's carved assembly house at Waihi. Tokaanu. Pine his brother has instructed groups working in his own area and also working among the Whanau-a-Apanui and Whakatohea in the Bay of Plenty. The more formal Academies of Maori Arts and Crafts commenced soon after the establishment of Maori Adult Education classes by the University of New Zealand. A Maori tutor started work in the Auckland Province and it was obvious to him from the start that there was need for specialised programmes in the field of Maori culture. Consultation between the tutor concerned and the late Sir Apirana Ngata set the pattern: not instruction through the schools, as the tutor had originally intended, but teaching within the framework of the meetinghouse project in the maraes. The cautious hesitancy of some authorities in Adult