often enough by white liberals. Here the supposition is that Maoris become acceptable as they become less Maori and more like middle-class whites, as they show the favoured forms of diligence, temperance, and the like. There is also a counter attitude in which Maoris are admired for their simplicity and vitality. Do not think that these attitudes are held only by whites. Maori children quite often carry the same or similar attitudes, and one is as likely to hear an anti-Negro or anti-Semitic remark from them as anyone else, although of course one encounters a reverse version of the white forms of prejudice where these are directed specially at Maoris. Teachers are no less likely to be prejudiced than anyone else in the community and though in the only case that I know of where a teacher acted in a discriminatory fashion toward Maori pupils this was very strongly disapproved by his colleagues, nonetheless these same people often enough displayed innocently prejudiced thinking. Because I have seen a good deal of this kind of thing and have run all too frequently into the most astounding over-simplifications of race-relations problems I think that the time is overdue for this to become a compulsory part of teacher education.

The Problem Areas In talking to you about Maori children in Auckland schools I have tried to indicate to you the problem areas which I consider to be important. I have not discussed the curriculum area, not because it is unimportant but because there are many better minds than mine at work on the problems of what and how to teach children. I would say that at the moment there is a fair amount of goodwill in the schools towards the Maori parent and the Maori pupil. Most of my colleagues assure me that they are only too willing to discuss their children's progress with parents but they find few who are willing to come along. I think that you should take advantage of this goodwill. If my discussion has centred on the school and the problems of race relations then it is because I think this is a matter of the greatest importance. You may have wondered why I have used the word white instead of the usual euphemism Pakeha or European. The reason for this is because the difference between the two main groups is first one of skin colour and only secondarily one of culture. The gap of culture will narrow far more quickly than the gap of colour. I have tried to show also the way in which the colour-gap, if I may use the term, is a theme in New Zealand culture. There is much more to say on this point. Earlier I said that I was not optimistic about the future and remarked elsewhere that I have no programme for improved race relations. I suppose you will want me to account for these statements so I had better do so now.

Total Integration Unlikely If you are an optimist you will look forward to a time when New Zealand is a fully integrated society. I, on the one hand, think total integration highly unlikely; nor do I think it so terribly desirable. The key to an interesting life is surely variety, and cultural variety is the stimulus for much that helps to make life more interesting. However there is another barrier to integration and this is the history and traditions of the white society. This society is sick in its feelings toward other peoples and has even succeeded in communicating this sickness to them; remember the Maori children who are prejudiced against Negroes and examine your own attitudes. If we wanted other proof then we need only say two words, Warsaw and Hiroshima. The ghetto and the fire bomb are not the products of healthy societies, yet their philosophy still continues. The most that can be hoped for is that there will be fewer sick people, or that a social climate can be created in which it is unprofitable to work this sickness out in prejudice and discrimination. Children in schools at the moment are not, for the reasons I have outlined, receiving the stimulus to think out the problems of the relations of Maori and white, and this is a subject to which you might give thought.

The Conscience of our Society What can be done. I am suspicious of recipes whatever name is attached to them and I think that official moves in the race relations and educational fields can only be slow and related to specific cases. You cannot legislate people into knowledge nor can you expect much from the man in the street. It remains then for us to become the conscience of our society in all matters of race relations. White New Zealand needs the services of the needle that punctures the pompous phrase, the piece of pious humbug. Social problems are not a product of numbers alone; they exist as the product of ideas in the minds of individuals. It