YOUNG MAORIS BECOME SKILLED TRADESMEN Seven years ago the Department of Maori Affairs launched the first of a number of special training schemes in a new drive to encourage more young Maoris into skilled trades. These special measures have since been greatly expanded and in the intervening period, encouraging, and in some cases, outstanding results have been achieved. From the modest start in 1959, when ten Maori boys were recruited for training at Auckland in one trade — carpentry — the schemes have grown rapidly and now encompass an intake of 144 boys each year, with seven different apprenticeship trades operating at training centres in Auckland, Lower Hutt and Christchurch. The special trade courses are operated by the Department in conjunction with the technical institutions at Auckland. Petone and Christchurch and have the full approval of the educational and apprenticeship authorities.

Major Help to Industry Maori apprentices from the special training schemes have a high reputation with employers, because of their better than average pass rate in the preliminary trade examinations, and a comparatively small drop-out rate. The training schemes have obviously become acceptable to the Maori people and are now attracting applications from more than double the number of boys who can be catered for.

Many Advantages These courses offer many advantages, not the least of which is that in many cases they provide the only real opportunity for Maori boys in country areas to take up skilled trades. Besides giving intensive theoretical and practical instruction in each trade, the courses are specially designed to give the Maori boys extra help in essential academic subjects, such as English and mathematics. The trainees are placed in accommodation at suitable hostels, mostly operated by church organisations, and special emphasis is placed on helping them to adapt themselves to the often bewildering complexity of city life. Boys taken into the schemes become employees of the Department of Maori Affairs and receive normal apprentices' wages. At the end of the course they are placed with private employers to complete their apprenticeships in the usual way. Time spent in the courses run by the Department count towards the apprenticeship term.

Country Boys Given Preference Entry is normally confined to boys from country areas, between 15 and 18 years of age, with not less than two years secondary education. Many of the boys actually possess much better educational qualifications than the minimum apprenticeship requirement, and an increasing number have passed School Certificate. Selections are made at Wellington by a committee comprising representatives of the Department of Maori Affairs, the Department of Education, the New Zealand Apprenticeship Committees, and the particular technical institutes conducting the courses.

Variety of Trades Maori boys wishing to take up apprenticeship training under this scheme now have a range of seven different trades to choose from. At first, only carpentry was available, the first course being at Auckland in 1959. A second carpentry centre was opened at Gracefield, Lower Hutt, in 1961, followed by a third centre at Weedons, Christchurch, in 1962. These are all two-year courses. An interesting feature is that the carpentry trainees spend twelve months on actual house building under normal field conditions, supervised by experienced building instructors. The boys are split into gangs of six, each gang building three different types of house, which on completion, are sold to Maori families. Since the carpentry scheme started in 1959 the trainees have built nearly 150 houses, as well as completing a number of other building jobs. One-year courses in plumbing and electrical wiring were started at the technical institutes in 1962, and a motor mechanics course was introduced in Auckland in 1963. The follow-