MAORIS LIKE SCHOOL?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 150, 15 September 1927, Page 18

MAORIS LIKE SCHOOL?

TEACHERS NEED HOLIDAY “SILENT MEMBER” SPEAKS (THE\SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. “WHAT is good for the European should be good for the native race,” declared Mr. Tau Henare, member for Northern Maori in the House this afternoon, when expressing his view upon the comparative treatment of Maori and pakeha children in educational facilities. Mr. Henare, who is seldom heard on the floor of the House, is regarded as truly one of the silent members of the Assembly, and a speech by him—which is always delivered in clear, concise English—is an event in the Parliamentary day. Mr. Henare said he could not help feeling that the spirit of the Waitangi Treaty had been violated in so far as the white man had come to New Zealand as a pioneer, and had said to the Maori:—“We have come to civilise you and change you from a man-eater to a bread-eater.” It was a question now as to whether the pakeha was doing his duty by the people he had undertook to civilise and look after. A plea had been entered in the House for greater holidays for the native school teachers, but Mr. Henare said emphatically that he was concerned more about the children than about the teachers, for after all, the children of the Maori people should be placed upon a basis equal to that enjoyed by their white brothers. The department, and the boards, should see that they received these equal facilities. so they would in this respect be even with the pakeha. Mr. Hockly pleaded for longer holidays for the teachers in native schools, and discounted as absurd the statement of the chief inspector of native schools, in his report, that the children were disappointed when holiday-time came. He contended that the teachers should be given more consideration, and not treated according to the ideas of the chief inspector, who stated that “the interests of the pupils were paramount to those of the teachers.” “It is a wonder that they stick to the job at all!” declared Colonel A. Bell, Bay of Islands, speaking of the teachers at native schools, who lived in very isolated districts. He instanced a school near the North Cape, 128 miles from the railway. It was a three days’ journey to Auckland, and the amount of travelling practically spoiled the teachers' holidays.

“I contend,” said Colonel Bell, “that if any people in this country deserve better treatment and longer vacations, they are the teachers in the native schools.”