Leadership Conference at Auckland Last July in Auckland there was a highly successful Leadership Conference, the first of its kind to be held there for some years, which produced a great deal of interesting and energetic discussion concerning the Maori population of Auckland. Perhaps the clearest sign of the value of the meeting, and the importance of the matters discussed is that on the last day one of the subjects debated with most vigour was: how soon would Auckland be able to have another conference along the same lines? There is so much to work out, and so many people interested in the questions involved. After the opening ceremonies on the first evening the guest speaker. Mr C. M. Bennett, Assistant Secretary for Maori Affairs, who until recently was New Zealand's High Commissioner to Malaya, spoke on the place of Malaya, and Malaysia, in the modern world. After the ceremonial welcome to Mr C. M. Bennett, Assistant Secretary for Maori Affairs, Adult Education Organiser Mr Koro Dewes (on floor) gets a dig from three of his fellow participants, Messrs Huta, D. Hansen, and B. Nepia. Photography by Ans Westra Mr Timi Paoro (Jim Paul), a leader of the Ngati Whatua people, speaking at the opening. During the conference four speakers read specially prepared papers dealing with different aspects of Maori life in Auckland; after each paper had been given the delegates divided into groups to discuss what had been said, later bringing forward their conclusions and resolutions at a final plenary session. All of the speakers had much of interest to say. One of the papers, ‘Maori Children in Auckland Schools’ given by Mr Roger Oppenheim, is published in a slightly shortened form on page 12 of this issue of ‘Te Ao Hou’; we only wish that we had the space to publish the other papers also.

An Inescapable Question Mr Harry Dansey's paper, ‘Being a Maori in Auckland’ was an eloquent general discussion of the situation in which the 20,000 Auckland Maoris find themselves. After speaking of the antiquity of Maori associations with Auckland—‘one of the ancient meeting places … one of the highroads of Maori history’, he discussed some of the implications, both material and spiritual, of the Maori migration to the city. In particular he spoke of the question which, he suggested, confronted city Maoris in an especially inescapable form: ‘whether to be a Maori with all its cultural implications, whether to be what is in effect a brown Pakeha, or whether to strike a balance between the two’.