MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

TU RAKINA (THROWN DOWN). (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The Tu Rakina College for Maori girls was the result of a dual incen-

tive on the part of the foundation members. Their first, though was to provide capable home-making wives for the “educated” Te Ante boys. According to an original promoter, another motive was to remove an implied reproach that their denomination had. done nothing to educate the young Maoris who came to their Sunday schools. So now -we find a strange anomaly which arises from the good motives of each party. The scholars of the early years at Te Ante were graduated as linguists, and in what we regard as the "higher” education; but not in practical useful work of home builders, on farms, or in trades, so they must perforce return to the Takapau (floor mat), mid marry their associates where all their own acquirements are without appreciation. On the other hand the refinement of modern domestic relations in the Girls' College removed all hope of a return to their primitive life in the Maori pa. Thus these domesticated creatures with gentle manners and voices are eagerly sought by white bachelor lads as ideal life companions. History tells us that the leading men and women in every great race throughout the world owe their genius to the fact that they are the product of a cross. Conversely these ideal girls are lost as males and mothers for their own splendid race, which must eventually be absorbed by us.