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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9070, 22 April 1908, Page 4

Whatever Rua, the Maori "Prophet," may think or say in deprecation of the education of the Native youth, the Hon. G. F«wlds, Minister of Education, is perfectly satisfied as to its great value. He has visited a large number of Maori schools during the pas'; few weeks, and has just remarked to a Christchurch interviewer: "Nothing I have seen in my tra\els has pleased me more. I am beginning to feel that in the matter of education, at any rate, we are doing, our duty to the Native race." He states, that the teachers are applying themselves to their work with "magnificent enthusiasm," and are achieving most valuable results. Not only are these enthusiastic teachers imparting the ordinary school education to the Maori children, but they are also training them in habits o£ order and cleanliness and industry. The Minister compares these schools in-these respects somewhat to the disadvantage of the European schools.. "The floors and desks and walls of almost all the schools I saw," he add?,, "would be a credit to any secondary school in Canterbury." This is certainly a most gratifying state of. things, and the Minister is- to > be congratulated on the this brancn of his department is achieving.