hope that she would return to him. She never did. It's a poor ending to a story, I know, and not at all the sort of thing of which my publishers approve. But real life has a way of declining to follow the paths of romance, and that's that. What happened to Hine-mokai, or to her child if she lived to bear it, I never learned. Nor did the old lady. Nor did Jim for all his questing. Letters to the Editor about the article on education, ‘Is This Man Right?’ in our last issue. The Editor, Te Ao Hou, Yes, this man is right! I know Harry, Emma and Charlie and others like them. They live way up in the North and down on the Coast, in the city and in the smallest villages. I have heard all these sad comments, and even sadder ones … Perhaps they had been told over and over by parents, church and school authorities, but words are never enough. They can see that these people lead good and useful lives, but they have no urge to live that way—it seems so dull. The elders, too, speak many fine words during the hui and the tangi, but no-one expects them to live up to such high thoughts in everyday life. When old Rangi tells them how noble the old ones were and how badly the young people behave to-day, they are impressed by his oratory, but they recall that Rangi himself was a very ‘wild man’ once … From their point of view, it is all ‘sour grapes’; the old ones want to stop the young ones from having a good time. So we come back to the home … I am a parent too. I learn much by listening as my children talk with their friends and mine. When they behave badly or speak foolishly, I do not blame the school or the neighbour's children, but only myself. If they have wrong ideas they got them from me … Child-rearing is like kumara cultivation. Remember the old proverbs? Ka whaia te wahie mo takurua, ka mahia te kai mo tau. If you cultivate your children all the year round, tending them lovingly, the cold winter need never trouble you. Nau i whatu te kakahu he taniko taku. The garment is made before the border is added, and you as parents make your child what he is. Outside influences may add some elaborate trimming, but let him be proud to know he is who he is! E kore e taka te parapara a one tupuna, tuku iho ki a ia. ‘Tahi’ (Auckland) The Editor, Te Ao Hou. Some pakehas don't understand us Maoris. So they believe we teach our children to suspect, distrust, dislike, even hate them. Further, because they don't really understand us, they believe our children have little respect for us. And so on. Now, when I meet this kind of pakeha, I think back to what the last editor of Te Ao Hou once wrote, in the July 1956 issue. Briefly it was this: we must be careful not to generalise when either talking or writing about race relations in this country. In other words, we must try to avoid the mistake of believing, for instance, that ‘all Maori are lazy’ or that ‘all pakehas are mean’ … Could it be that the pakeha school teacher was generalising when he wrote, for example, that we have indirectly taught our children never to trust a pakeha? I believe he was. But, what is possibly worse still, it's obvious he doesn't realise it! Arene Teira (Mangere) The Editor, Te Ao Hou Although I do not entirely agree with your anonymous writer, as a Maori teacher I find his article very interesting indeed. I feel that he does not fully understand the true cause of Maori hate for the Pakeha. It is not to be found in the attitude of no-good parents living in no-good houses in no-good Freemans Bay. We must go back (whether we want to or not) to the Land Wars, the confiscations and the disintegration of tribal life. The mana was broken but the hate lived on, our sense of history does not allow us to forget … I must advise him that most Maoris who are thinking about living in town usually have no choice. Economically they must. The area of Maori land is shrinking fast. Despite lavish care even the kumara does not grow as well as it used to. It is stricken with blight. So what else is there but the asphalt jungle? I hope I do not sound too pessimistic, but your writer and many other disillusioned Pakehas must realize that the problems of the Maori child are far far greater than that of the Pakeha. Therefore they must not expect the same standard of attainment and co-operation. Atihana Johns (Atiamuri)