CENTENNIAL PLANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1938, Page 5

CENTENNIAL PLANS

PARTICIPATION BY MAORIS.. CONSIDERATION AT TRIBAL CONFERENCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.), AUCKLAND, December 28. Maori participation in the New Zealand centennial celebrations, with particular reference to a national Maori gathering to be held in Waitangi and those planned by the metropolitan executive of the Auckland Provincial Centennial Council, were discussed in Orakei by a conference of about 30 chiefs and other representatives of tribes throughout New Zealand. The conference had been convened unofficially by the -tribes themselves to consider the part to be played by the Maori race in the celebrations, both national and local. It was decided to recommend that the national gathering in Waitangi should be on a scale that would enable the whole race to be represented by tribal delegations of a size befitting the centenary of the treaty and larger than those which the Government was understood to have in mind. A committee was set up to report on other questions. Further sittings will be held, and it is- expected that the full recommendations of the conference will be available by the end of the week.