ials are fully used and meet the needs of the children. The mothers divide their time between working with the children, observing and interpreting their behaviour, making equipment from local materials and developing handcrafts and art work. The results can be seen in positive changes in the children, their parents and also in the local community.

Experiences Shared The five days of the Conference gave us a wonderful opportunity to meet interesting dedicated people from other Pacific countries and share a rich variety of experience and concepts. For us, one outcome was a feeling that New Zealand can be proud of its pre-school development. Principles and practice in New Zealand compared favourably with the other countries represented and appeared more progressive than in Australia. Perhaps age and attitude have something to do with this. The dynamic growth of preschooling in New Zealand is largely the result of the direct involvement of the young mothers whose enthusiasm made such an impact on those attending the A.P.A. Conference.

Aboriginal Family Education Centres Established Following the Canberra Conference, on Friday 26 May, six of us, Manu Rangi from Tiki Tiki, near Gisborne, Hiria Parata from Ruatoria near Gisborne, Hine Campbell from Whakatane, Hana Tukukino from Auckland, Pearl Allen from Ahipara in the Far North and I, flew from Canberra to Sydney, then 400 miles north to Casino and thence by car to Evan's Head, where we took part in a weekend school with Aboriginal leaders from northern New South Wales. This was a follow up of a Leadership course held the previous March by Mr A. Grey, preschool officer for the M.E.F. From this course had come a request from the Aborigines themselves to start Aborigine Family Education Centres. The nucleus of each Centre was to be a pre-school group. During this part of our trip we were sponsored by Sydney University's Department of Adult Education, and under the care of Mr Allan Duncan, Tutor in Aboriginal Affairs at the University of Sydney. We were all deeply appreciative of Mr Duncan's help and support during this period. He is an enthusiast, has a great respect for the Aboriginal people and works hard for their advancement.

Mutual Acceptance There was instantaneous and mutual accepttance when Aborigine and Maori met. All meetings together had the same spirit as our meetings at home because of the empathy and warmth between us—racial differences did not exist. The first evening together, Mana Rangi gave the traditional Maori welcome which was watched with awe and applauded with vigour. After this we talked of our play centres, showed pictures of play centre activities, our New Zealand way of life, and demonstrated some of the arts and crafts practised by our people. The end of the evening came with the Hiria Parata, Mana Rangi and Betty Brown board the ‘plane for their trip to Sydney from Canberra.