PLAY CENTRES by A. Grey For both Maori and Pakeha in New Zealand, the family is the best place for a child to grow up. What a mother and father can do for a child before he is five, outweighs anything that anybody else can do for him. In the family he can learn to be himself and learn the ways of his people.

The Questions What kind of person do we want a child to be, and what are the ways of the people that we want to preserve? I think every family and every community must set about answering these questions for themselves. To help answer them, regular family meetings in the community with young children present can be organised, so that when the parents meet, not only do they meet for their own purposes but they also attend to the needs of their children. Just as each adult is busy, so is each child. The concentration of a busy pair of hands, eyes, and ears, is the beginning of real enjoyment for a young child. More than this, young children get on so well together that they can, if they are watched carefully, set an example to adults in matters of co-operation, discussion, talking things over, and working together. Talk and discussion, which are natural to children, have also fortunately been retained as a natural quality in so many Maori people, and out of this naturalness, as more and more families enter the organisation of a play centre programme for their children, I think the way of life of New Zealand as a whole will be immeasurably strengthened. Already in a few short years we have seen the so-called “shyness” of Maori children diminish. We realise clearly that ‘Play Centre’ matters, because even by five years of age a child may be well set in the pattern that he will follow for the rest of his life. A young child quickly learns that a play centre is a safe place in which to explore, to experiment, and to examine what there is around him.

Organisation Probably more than any other quality, the ability of Maori men and women to organise their own groups in their own communities is one of their all too little recognised strengths. Some organisation is essential. Children are very young when they start to listen, talk and ask questions. It is noticeable that when parents take time to listen back, talk with, and encourage questions, their children not only talk more and better in whatever language they are using, but also they make more constructive use of the equipment, tools and materials organised for them. Instead of tending to walk over equipment and leave a litter, a new awareness of how to lead from one constructive idea to the next begins to emerge. We can fairly ask, are these qualities of concentration, construction and development of ideas the kinds of qualities we want to see growing in Maori children? It is interesting that if the world he lives in is not brought to a child's attention, he pays little attention to it. Sand is just sand, water is just water, trees are just trees; but in the presence of adults who give a child the time that he needs—perhaps something like six or so hours a week of this organised play—the child uses these natural materials to further his own learning.

Equipment Here too lies a great strength of the Maori people, because their traditional powers of observation and their awareness of the resources of nature are still retained. In equipping any play group for children—one that can be recommended for the growth of the child—inexpensive natural materials should be used. In addition to the sand, water and trees already mentioned, we can include the seashore, the mud, the clay, flax, the reeds, the flowers, the insects, the animals and the birds that are around them. Greater attention to all of these aspects of nature costs nothing but brings the greatest riches in terms of human development. Also, children are interested in the community that man has made for himself—in his trucks, his cars, his aeroplanes, his motorways, his tunnels, his bridges and his dams. Children respond whenever materials are available for them to play with. Their various activities are suggested by the kind of world in