TRAINING MAORI BOYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 365, 28 May 1928, Page 11

TRAINING MAORI BOYS

NEW COLLEGE TO BE OPENED ROMAN CATHOLIC INSTITUTION Next Sunday the Right Rev. Dr. Cleary, Bishop of Auckland, will open the St. Peter’s Rural Training School for Maori Boys at College Road, Northcote. This lias been established by the Roman Catholic Church on an area of 40 acres overlooking Shoal Bay. The buildings, designed by Mr. .T. O. Owen, were erected at a cost of £6,000. Part of the cost was borne by the diocese, and part by the Government. The Very Rev. Dean Van Dijk, Superior of the Maori Misisons, has Superior of the Maori Missions, has branch. The Rev. Father Spierings will be in charge of the manual department. The invitation card which has been issued contains a resume of the objects of the college. It reads: “As one step in the furtherance of this worthy and patriotic purpose, St. Peter’s Rural Training School for Maori Boys has been established on some 40 acres of land within the borough of Northote. In this school, Maori boys who have pasesd the sixth standard, or who have gone past school age, will receive from clerical and lay teachers as sound a training as is possible within the period of instruction in agriculture, carpentry, elementary ironwork, etc., with a view to sending them home as skilled, self-reliant, and useful members of their several communities. The students will be selected by virtue of ability, educational standard (as stated above), and good character. The course of training will extend over two years, and it will be gratuitous throughout. As in every system and phase of Catholic education, a place of supreme importance will be given to the formation of character through the religious and moral training of the students. Part of this training will consist of a thorough grounding in Christian doctrine, sufficient to equip them to take if required the important part of assistant religious teachers or catechists on their return to their own people, especially in districts not provided with Catholic schools. St. Peter’s Rural Training School is thus an effort on our part to turn out young men of the native race soundly equipped to be an uplifting moral influence among their people, to cultivate their lands to the best advantage, to improve their homes, and to add to the material prosperity of our Dominion.”