Tolaga Bay; continued from page 27 output, once the problems of drainage and raising fertility have been overcome. Some leasehold and freehold economic units will be available to those of the owners who are competent to farm them. Increased allocations will be made to development and investment funds The large incorporated blocks can then extend their farming operations by acquiring more land for development and ultimate subdivision among their shareholders for settlement. To sum up: in spite of the drift to the cities, the resident Maori population in Tolaga Bay is likely to maintain a steady increase over the years. There is, and will be, for many more years, a continued local demand for more Maori labour than will be available; this demand may well be further raised, in the long run, by the continued success of the large Maori farming incorporations.

THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL Against this social-economic background, let us now examine the functions of, and the demands upon, the Tolaga Bay school throughout its long history to the present day. The first school on the coast was set up at Waiomatatini in 1871, at the instigation of Major Ropata Wahawaha. The next school was founded a year or two later at Waipiro Bay. The Tolaga Bay school was erected about the same time and it was situated in Hauiti, on the south bank of the river. The school was a native school administered by the Native and Defence Department. The land was given by the elders of the Aitanga a Hauiti tribe and the school was reputed to have stood somewhere near the present Hauiti marae. Unfortunately all the records relating to the school during this period were lost in a fire. In 1880, Mr and Mrs R. O. Stewart, of Whakatane, were appointed to succeed Mr and Mrs Parker as teachers and they remained with their new school which had been newly erected on the northern bank of the river, for a further three years. The school was first visited by Mr Pope, Inspector of Native Schools, in August, 1880, and he found that there were only fifteen pupils in attendance. In 1888 the school changed its status as a Native School to that of a European School and came under the control of the Hawke's Bay Education Board. The Tolaga Bay School was the first European School on the East Coast north of Gisborne. Additional buildings were erected to cope with the new greatly increased roll of pupils, and the school undertook to provide equal education for both European and Maori children. Mr John M. Nelson was the headmaster of a new school of 87 pupils and he was to remain there for twenty full years until December 1908. He made a great contribution to the scholastic advancement of both races within the district and his strict insistence upon the golden rule of the ‘Three R's” bore fruit in the careers of many of his pupils. A District High School was instituted on the same site about 1926. In 1951, a modern school was erected by the Uawa River and this is where the Tolaga Bay District High School now stands. Here, the Maori children greatly outnumber the Europeans. The same is true for the three largest contributing schools which are Maori schools, while the other John Paea, Maori All Black, at work at Tolaga Bay Dairy Factory. (Kandid Kamera Kraft).