OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 February 1940, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

MAORI EDUCATION (To the Editor.) Sir—Reading your paper of February 1. 1 noticed an interesting statement by Archdeacon E. J. Rich, outlining the position, as stated by him. of the administration of the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trust Board. I wish to give Mr Rich my full-hearted thanks. I did not know at the time that I replied to Mr Daniell what reception I would receive from those of my own blood and kin whom I challenged. I happen to have in my possession or, in fact, in an office in Masterton, all facts that Mr Rich has given in supporting the Wairarapa Trust Board.

I wish to again say that I am wholeheartedly supporting the Wairarapa Trust Board. I want to say a few words in reference to our meeting at Te Ore Ore Pa when Sir Apirana Ngata was present and the two M’s.P., Mr J. Robertson (Masterton) and Mr B. Roberts (Wairarapa), besides other leading gentlemen of both Masterton and the Wairarapa Valley. Sir Apirana reminded the representatives of the Maoris present that the sole purpose of the meeting there that day was to discuss matters relating to meeting houses and also a proposal for the Kaikokirikiri Papawai Trust Board to achieve these purposes. Sir Apirana said they must all take the matter up, forget the past and moreover, they must work together for the benefit of all.

Our churches are all right. There is a judge and a ruler for that purpose. What I would ask for today is for whole-hearted co-operation in order that we can be in the best of spirit and love one another to bring about a satisfactory understanding between Maori and Pakeha. May I say, Sir, that to my mind some of our young people are raising a protest about the good work of the Trust Board. I wonder if these young people would admit that there was a time of hardship in the past for the pioneers of the British people who paved the way. to bring New Zealand to what it is today. Also I may be permitted to say that education facilities were not known in the Wairarapa when it was taken over by the New Zealand Company in 1848. I have knowledge of the FortyMile Bush district since 1853. School was never known there, either in Tutaekara or Hamua till the year 1892. Previous to that they had to use a dairy cottage belonging to the late Mr M. Galman of Hamua for school purposes, and I happened to be one of those unfortunate ones to miss my chance of having any school education, as I was bush-felling. I just want to say a few more words about this trust board. Where I am living, we have fine built young men and women fit for anything in every walk of life. What are they doing? They prefer sunbathing in the morning. I have been four years here asking one and all of these young people's parents to study the future of their families and they prefer the life they have been accustomed to. They allow their parents to-give them the best that was in them for their education, and the old saying is the Maoris send their children to school, finish them up with the 6th or 7th standards and then allow them to go home and sit with their mother and father on the mat. I mean to support Mr G. Selby’s statements about the Wairarapa children —no tradesman, clerk, or shop girl in Wairarapa. Only one, that’s me, 64 years of age. a cow spanker in Hastwell.—l am. etc., K. W. R. TAMATEA. Hastwell, February 5. 1940.