MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1939, Page 11

MAORI MEMORIES

FIRST TECHNICAL SCHOOL IN N.Z.

(Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”)

The Maori King and his big crowd of followers assembled at Kohekohe to hold a Runanga with the object of discussing various current events. Te Wheoro, a near relative of the King, was a Queen’s Magistrate there, whose duties included that of a policeman. He was then supervising the erection of a courthouse. Among the King’s “ministers” w*ere some part owners of the proposed site. Te Wheoro was warned not to finish the building. Sir George Grey then decided to add a defence barrack to the courthouse, and to imitate the plan of the King’s followers by training a band of loyal Maori youths as police and defenders. Sir George was anxious to have a similar force in upper Waikato, but found it would be bitterly opposed. He then decided to substitute an industrial school which might even be joined by the King's young followers, though no doubt it would soon be recognised as a trap. It was hoped that the offer of school clothing and good food would induce loyal service. These institutions in Upper and Lower Waikato were entrusted to the care of the magistrate, Mr Gorst, who subsequently attained eminence in the British Cabinet as Sir John Gorst, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The proposed barracks at Kohekohe had to be indefinitely postponed because our few pit saw men had to “liquidate” the week’s wages at the itinerant pub, then take another week or more to recover. “Te Awa Mutu” (mouth of the river) Mission School with its 200 acres was handed over to the Government for its first Technical School.