of the campaign. In the early weeks four series of activities were organised: there were social evenings with hangi meals every Friday, card evenings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and ‘housie’ evenings on Wednesdays. The social evenings especially were most enjoyable and were financially successful. The four ventures alone involved a lot of work and organisation for those concerned. The net total profit was about £15. Successful Gala Day The official opening the carnival was marked by a gala day for which each committee provided tents and stalls. The Maori committee's tent was very popular, selling such things as flax baskets, Maori bread, pois and leis, as well as European goods. They also ran a coconut shy, ice-cream stalls and a hangi, which proved equally attractive to both races. But probably one of the most popular attractions of the day was a series of performances given by the school concert party, which had been organised only about four weeks previously among the local Maori children. In this time they had made astonishing progress, and despite a nervousness which commonly accompanies first performances, they acquitted themselves most creditably. A jamboree was next on the schedule; translated, this meant a dance on a big scale held in a large woolshed. This had the promise of being a roaring success, but on the advice of a Maori welfare officer, it blew itself out rather early; certain sections of the crowd were becoming uncontrollable. The last major undertaking was a talent quest, with performances by the children's concert party as well. This was originally to have been a local affair, held on a Wednesday evening, but it was changed to a Friday night and held in a nearby town. The attendance was quite small, however; this was due, I think, to poor advertising and to the fact that it was not held on the most convenient night. Numerous weekly raffles brought in a steady income. Two last-minute dances were financial failures. Last by a Wide Margin When the final figures were counted at the end of the carnival, it was revealed that the Maori committee had lost the race financially by a very wide margin. In fact, the winners had earned almost three times as much as the Maoris while the second to last committee had collected twice as much. Can we then interpret the Maori effort as a failure, and how can this failure be accounted for? And can other Maori money-raising committees benefit from this committee's experiences? I believe that they can, for in many spheres they did fail, and my hope is that others should recognise these pitfalls and try to avoid them—a task which would be by no means easy, and which would require all the determination of the controlling committee. It has been argued that the Maori committee did extremely well to raise as much as they did, and I agree. But I am convinced that they could have done much better had they directed their efforts towards more fruitful resources. Lack of Effective Organisation Within the committee there was a lack of firm and effective organisation. Many things were proposed but few were followed through, and I attribute this to a lack of firmness on the part of the committee's controllers. Their explanation—a quite valid one—for allowing themselves to be carried along with popular opinion, was that if they disagreed, they were afraid that the Maoris would be offended and would withdraw from the organisation—in other words, the only way to win their confidence was to agree with their suggestions! There was no strict adherence to the minute book, formal correspondence was ignored, and many agreements and arrangements were made orally and not through the proper channels, with the result that many promises of help did not materialise. What probably deprived the Maori committee of that little extra efficiency was a lack of sound economics. With many of their ventures the nett profit did not justify the expenditure and the amount of labour which were put into them. Far too much time and work was invested in trivial evenings which earned literally only a couple of pounds. It would have been much easier and more profitable to have worked hard and done a good job of organizing one or two functions a week, rather than four or five. No-one had any real control over expenditure and thus too many unnecessary expenses were incurred. Instead of the treasurer's authorising money matters—purchasing goods and paying accounts—any member could go out and buy what they thought was needed. And of course the payment of these unexpected accounts meant a further dwindling of profits