MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 April 1939, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

WORK IS THE TRUE'EDUCATION.

(Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”)

Ten years before the Te Awa Mutu proposed training school was taken in hand the Waikato Maoris fully realised Ihe advantages of such a practical in-' stitution for their thousand young men, and had proved their earnest desire for civilisation by handing over JJOO acres of good land with a condition and the promise that a Maori hospital and industrial school should be erected.

For the fulfilment of that promise they had waited in vain for ten years, and now sought to resume possession of their property. As a matter of fact useful work and industrial knowledge did not enter into the curriculum of our schools, colleges, or universities, so no teachers of hand crafts were available here or in England. This same handicap only began to be overcome in New Zealand by the introduction of the Technical Schools a few years ago. Yet 30 years have elapsed since the Negro teacher, Brooker T. Washington, startled the American Academic World by announcing and subsequently proving by his attainment at Tuskegee College that “Education consists in learning to do useful things.” There can be no doubt that the Maori criticism of our inaction and injustice was fully warranted. The Maori gift at Te Awa Mutu was a pure act of friendly benevolence. Maori youths in large numbers sought admission to the school, others hesitated because they could not trust Government promises until they were fulfilled.

So pronounced was their distrust of us at Te Awa Mutu that it would have been wiser to start the school elsewhere.