The Conference Secretary, Miss Ngaio Te Rito, taking notes. (Auckland Star photograph) THE YOUNGEST MAORI PARTY by E. G. SCHWIMMER There is of course one thinly veiled ambition of any Maori student group and that is to be like the Young Maori Party. The heyday of this Party is now sixty years ago and nothing so glorious and remarkable has happened since in the Maori world. Today, the ideas of this small group of Maori students are the backbone of Maori Affairs policy. This is rather frustrating to the present generation of Maori students, for such spectacular planning cannot be done again; the main lines of policy are fixed and not seriously disputed. What else is there to do? If one has to answer in one sentence, perhaps it is this: the students of today have to envisage the picture of the cultured Maori who can successfully live in a city. But that is far too abstract and it is better to reconstruct step by step the story of my trip to the recent students' conference in Auckland. I first met the Wellington group at a meeting in a very large drawing room. There was a magnificent supper and the host and hostess were obviously anxious to encourage Maori student activity. The meeting was calm and during much of the time we sat in little groups peering at heaps of papers lying on the lush carpet between us. At other times we had formal explanations from senior people on things like educational grants and the workings of the Maori Trust Boards. We also had several pages of close typing which represented a Constitution of a Federation of Maori Students, about to be formed. Mainly the brainchild of a member who was in the South Island, this Constitution could not be discussed in detail, but members agreed it was thoroughly worthy to be placed before the conference. It