and boarding to be made; the agenda must be prepared. This too is a major task, as the data papers go into the agenda, as well as lists of questions for conference discussion. The average size is 35 pages of cyclostyled single-spaced foolscap. Numerous officials, all voluntary, help the proceedings at conference: the steering committee, the accommodation and catering people, as well as some 12 reporters who take notes at all the sessions. After conference, Adult Education produces a report based on the reporters' notes and the recommendations. This again runs into some 60 pages of single spaced foolscap. What do these conferences achieve? For those who attend, a period of discussion on matters of such practical importance is an excellent educational experience. It is adult education of the best kind—most of those who attend make an active contribution to their round table; if they are not able to put forward new ideas, they will still report conditions in their district and so begin to see their situation more clearly. Contact with other conference members is also a valuable experience, as such contact is by no means easy to establish otherwise. Do delegates manage to make changes in their communities after they return from conferences? This is hard to estimate, but there are cases where valuable work is now being done which looks very much as though it was inspired by young leaders' conferences. For instance, work on educational advancement in Wanganui and Palmerston North may well have been inspired by discussions at the 1960 conference in Marton. This work however has been done by a small group and cannot be called a ‘community’ activity, valuable though it is. Indeed, one wonders whether conferences between an educated elite will easily bring about community changes of a very fundamental kind. It is dangerous, in my opinion, to place too much reliance on educated elites, as is being done in a number of other countries seeking cultural advancement. Only too often the result of training an elite has been to draw this elite away from the rest of the people so that in the end the people were split into a high-quality elite that kept on progressing, and the common herd who were left more or less as they were. For this reason the holding of conferences where people can come only by special invitation has its own dangers. Maori adult education rightfully belongs to the isolated village, not the university lecture hall. It is easy to see how the elite system developed. With only three Maori adult education tutors it is quite impossible to give an effective service to some 50,000 to 70,000 Maori adults in rural areas. Yet, educational progress in rural areas is undoubtedly retarded when only the children, and not the adults, are educated. Good regular adult education programmes are needed, offering the people a chance to develop their thinking and their understanding of both European and Maori concepts. It is possible, if the scope of these conferences is widened, that they will ultimately help to revive in a new form the marae discussions of earlier days. The modern Maori certainly still likes to hear good talk and participate in it. The marae was the old Maoris' academy and the discussion group could be the academy of the modern Maori seeking further education. However, it should not become the prerogative of an elite. In April 1962 the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (W.A.A.F.) will have completed twenty-one years of service. The Royal New Zealand Air Force was the first of the three services to enlist women into their ranks, and at first the scheme was regarded somewhat dubiously. But it proved very successful, and by the end of the war there were 2,000 W.A.A.F., many of them Maori women. To celebrate this 21st anniversary, a Dominion-wide reunion of ex-W.A.A.F. is planned. There will be a cocktail party and a buffet dinner on March 24, and a short service on March 25, 1962. These will be held in the Students' Union Building at Victoria University, Wellington, and it is hoped that as many ex-W.A.A.F. as possible will be able to gather to enjoy the functions and talk over old times. Ex-W.A.A.F. who would like full details are asked to write to the Secretary, W.A.A.F. reunion, Box 585, Wellington, so that they may not be missed out. Aided by subsidies from the Department of Maori Affairs, five young Maoris each year will begin training as farmers under a long established and successful Auckland scheme. This has been announced by the Auckland vocational guidance centre of the Education Department, which administers the project on behalf of the trustees of the Auckland Youth Farm Settlement Scheme. In the past Maori trainees have successfully completed the training, but as individuals in the same way as other youths and not as nominees of the Maori Affairs Department. Trainees are placed with specially chosen farmers, and live and work on the farms very much as members of the family. The training extends over a six-year-period, after which those who have completed the course receive guidance in establishing themselves as farmers. They are also given a Government subsidy which may be used for such purposes as buying stock for their new farms.