either as leaders or as students of Maori culture. Choice of subjects at conference follows a set pattern which goes back to the Te Aute meetings last century. This means that education, land, housing, crime are always on the agenda. Community development is also often on the list. Each conference desires to cover the whole range of ‘Maori problems’, devoting as much time to each as possible.

Round Table Discussion Most of the time of the conferences is taken up on round table discussions. The membership is split up into groups of about 25, each in a separate room. Discussions follow a detailed list of questions which are put to delegates in a cyclostyled programme. At a conference at Kaitaia last year, for instance, the subject ‘Education’ was split into twelve questions and these were again split up further. For instance: Question 1: (a) Evidence points to a smaller proportion of Maori secondary school pupils submitting themselves for School Certificate and University Entrance examinations. Is this true of your district? If so, what are the reasons? What should be done to make the proportion the same as for pakeha pupils? Question 1 (b) was equally wide. At a weekend conference, a round table has to cope with a dozen questions of this kind in just a few hours. The usual practice is for each delegate to make a very brief statement about how things are in his/her district. When everyone has spoken there is some talk about the problem as a whole: what can be done about it? Perhaps a recommendation is passed—for instance, if lack of money is thought to be behind school failure, a recommendation is passed that parents should be given financial help. Then the time has come to move on to the next item, as it is considered essential to get through the whole agenda. It is only rarely that the practical implications of a recommendation are explored in detail. At some of the conferences, lectures are given. At the Christchurch one last August, four lecturers had been invited—Messrs Herewini, Booth. Te Hau and Kawharu. These men gave addresses on the topics usually covered at these conferences—the role of tribal committees, crime, Maori land and urbanization. Round table discussions were based on the facts given in the lectures. Whether lectures are desirable at leadership conferences is an often debated point. At the 1959 conference in Auckland there were no lectures at all but a total of twelve ‘data papers’ were handed out—reports by experts on the subjects to be discussed. The idea was that delegates would read all these reports before coming to conference and that they could discuss the questions put before them with full knowledge of the basic facts. This saved the time that would be taken in reading 12 addresses and also made delegates think perhaps more independently. This principle, followed at many of the district conferences, is open to the objection that very few people, whether Maori or Pakeha, read data papers before going to any conference. They may read them afterwards. It has been found that at young leaders' conferences a small minority reads them and makes good use of them in discussion. Much help is also received from experts invited in for questioning during the discussions. In fact, the presence of these experts who are either Maoris or Europeans in close contact with Maori life, has a stimulating influence on the conferences as a whole. Every conference has its plenary sessions at which the round tables report their findings and place their recommendations before the full meeting. Many of these recommendations are very general, e.g. that more hostel accommodation is need for Maoris, that Maori clubs should teach more traditional culture. Others are decidedly practical, such as the proposal at the Christchurch conference that a body to rehabilitate Maori prisoners be set up under the control of the Christchurch tribal committee. Other recommendations take the form of requests to government. One important principle of the conferences is that they should not become political nor channels for putting pressure on government. Once a recommendation is passed and perhaps published in a newspaper, their task is over. Nonetheless, it is inevitable that where a gathering contains many people active in public affairs, the recommendations can be influential. This is particularly so if the conferences are attended by prominent persons. One example is a recommendation made by young leaders at Waihi a year ago to the effect that there should be special institutions for Maori prisoners. Mr Hunn, who was present, took up this suggestion and has been advocating it ever since. If it should one day become a reality, this will be due in some measure to the conference where the idea was first aired and proved to have popular Maori support. It is as a testing place of ideas that the conferences have been most valuable. For instance, Dr Rina Moore advocated at several conferences the introduction of family planning among the Maori people. At Kaitaia for the first time a Maori meeting, by a small minority, declared itself in favour of publicity on family planning being made. Thus the idea was launched through the young leaders' conferences. These have therefore assumed a function which the marae has been gradually losing. Conferences involve an enormous amount of preparation and follow-up. There is the sending of invitations, a task demanding most careful consideration; there are arrangements for catering