Drawing by Kataraina Mataira WORKING TOGETHER

THE KAIKOHE SCHEME Earlier This Year, Te Ao Hou attended a special meeting of the Citizens' Advice and Guidance Council in Kaikohe, with Mr J. K. Hunn, Secretary of Maori Affairs, Mr M. R. Jones, Private Secretary to the Minister of Maori Affairs, and Mr Melvin Taylor, Public Relations Officer to the Maori Affairs Department. Facing us, to give us an account of their work, were Dr M. N. Paewai, well-known in the North as a footballer of great attainments and as a physician, Mr G. Vuglar, a Registrar of the Social Security Department in Kaikohe, and Mr J. A. Gale, a master at Northland College. Mr Vuglar was the spokesman. He read to us the aim of the Council, that “where desired, it would give advice and guidance on budgeting, living expenses out of the combined family income and to advise on other matters arising therefrom.” Their system works in this way. Two volunteer sponsors are appointed to give advice to each family. A bank account is opened in the name of husband and wife and both wages and family benefit are paid into it. One of the sponsors holds the cheque book, though cheques must be signed by both husband and wife. Each week, the man and wife and their sponsors discuss the allocation of income for housekeeping accounts, reduction of debts and accumulation of savings. The husband is allowed £1 per week spending money, and the wife, 10/-. At the time of our meeting, the Society had 36 sponsors and 32 client families. Mr Vuglar made it clear to us there was no hint of racial patronage in the scheme: the sponsors are not all Pakehas, and the clients are not all Maoris. Participation is voluntary; the couples join of their own accord and may leave the scheme when they please. The sponsors meet their clients once a week, and the sponsors meet their Council Executive once a month.

EDUCATION IN HANDLING MONEY Much effort is asked of the sponsors. Counsel on family finance cannot but draw a host of other matters into the area of scrutiny—health, education, building, law—and the Society is equipped with a panel of experts who can advise on matters outside the sponsors' competence. Is the scheme working? Is it a success? Mr Vuglar read to us some typical case histories, which sounded like the “before” and “after” sections of some well-known advertisements. Before: squalor, penury and despair; after: confidence, security, hope. It seemed that an initial difficulty was discovered in the use of cheques, some families being very suspicious of them, connecting them with what they had read in the tabloid journals about cheques bouncing, and it seemed that in some of their minds, the cheque spelt disaster. The