Education Play Centre in Mangakino by A. Grey One of the most pleasant features about a voluntary group working in a community is the natural way the people in the group mix together. Recently at Mangakino Play Centre on a Saturday we had a full morning session of children at play under the supervision of a Pakeha mother assisted by a Maori mother. Present also were Maori and Pakeha fathers, 16 of them. These with a few more mothers and around 20 children, Maori and Pakeha, enjoyed the morning play session. For some fathers this was their first sight of a Play Centre and the first sight of their children at play in a centre. For some fathers it was the first time in a long while that they had taken time off from the garden, the car, the races and the local to spend it with their young sons and daughters. How did the children react? Superbly. They showed what the equipment was for by using it all morning. No upsets, no squabbles, just 20 busy children at work playing with the equipment their fathers and mothers had helped to make.

Mess Gained Meaning At first the array of equipment looked pretty messy to a few fathers with tidy minds and back yards. Dough, water, finger paint, paint can make a mess. So can sand and clay. Blocks and jig saws make their own kind of mess. But with a few mothers who understand children and the purpose of the equipment, with the alert eye of a trained supervisor, and the genuine feeling of friendliness from the parents, along with a dash of pretty sound understanding from the fathers—the mess seemed somehow to gain some meaning. The paint went on paper—as did the finger paint. The sand stayed in the pit as it got shaped into tunnels and roads. The dough found its way

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