The school ground at Pouto (Photo: Peter Blank.) the secretary Mr James Jericevich. The tribal committee and league are helping to finance the youth club and to renovate the old marae. Headmaster of the Pouto school is Mr Edward Baker, originally from Whirinaki, who some years ago was chosen out of many aspiring actors to play a part in the film The Seekers. However, since then he has given up the film world and settled down to school teaching. Meanwhile, the farmers are settling down to the production of butterfat. There are now 13 dairy units; six of them are farmed by Maori settlers under leaseholds while the other seven are farmed by milkers on wages, on the understanding that when these milkers have proved themselves they too will be offered leases. All the lessees produced over 12,000lbs of butterfat over the last farming season, one of them as much as 17,607lbs. Four of the milkers also exceeded the 12,000 mark. Can we say therefore that from a farming viewpoint Pouto is already a success? Not entirely. What has been produced so far is a hopeful beginning but no more. One has to recognize that the Pouto farmers do not merely enjoy better conditions, but that the demands upon them are much heavier. On the older Maori farms, a settler doing 200lbs per cow is a little above average; probably, his debt is not very high and he can live without too much worry on his present level of production. However, at Pouto and other modern schemes most farmers will owe a total of £11,000 on settlement. That is for improvements, stock and chattels. Repayments and interest on this figure, for at least the first ten years, would be over £800 per year. After that it would drop to below £600. To this, one must add all the usual farming costs. It follows that a man producing 12,000lbs of butterfat can keep alive but not much more. Experts say that the Pouto farms can yield 15,000lbs to 17,000lbs of butterfat under good management. Of course it takes a while until the new settlers learn how to get that yield. However, if they get close to that figure, there is no doubt that they will be financially very comfortable. The majority of the farmers are already showing a pride and an absorbing interest in their calling. There have been visits by the instructor of the Department of Agriculture, as well as by the supervisors of the Department of Maori Affairs. Such visits have led to much discussion (Concluded on page 55)