EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3200, 28 May 1909, Page 4

EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Dr. Batchelor has done service in bringing the question of the education of girls once more before the public, in whose hands, after all, lies the power of effecing reform, says the Christchurch "Press." The present methods of educating and training girls would soon be altered if the people demanded the change. It is of no use to throw all the blame upon the Education Department. Some must rest on those parents who permit, and even require, perhaps through ignorance, \the continuance of the present system. Something is already being done by the society founded by Dr. Truby King, and by the spread of technical education. But the work of reform cannot be carried out by adjuncts to the education system—it must begin with the system itself.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS OP THE MAORI.

Speaking to a pressman, one of the leading Auckland Maoris assured him that the social conditions of his race are infinitely improved. The olden d«y raupo-thatched whare is now seldom seen, and the modern tenements are built with due regard to

health and comfort. Household arrangements are modelled on the pakeha system, and it is claimed that in cleanliness the homes are equal to those of their European neighbours. The natives have extended farming operations; are largely going in for supplying milk to butter factories; are not satisfied with any but the best of live stock; possess the best available agricultural machinery, and show an active intelligence in learning th« latest pakeha pastoral modes.