SCHOLARSHIP FUND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1943, Page 4

SCHOLARSHIP FUND

IN MEMORY OF NOARIMU V.C. AND COMRADES ( i OPEN TO ALL MAORI CHILDREN ( I PROJECT WELL ADVANCED I < (By Telcgniph—Press Association.) ItUATORIA. October 6. { An announcement that contributions < to a proposed Ngarirnu V.C. and 28th ' Maori Battalion Memorial Scholarship ] fund by subscribers in the Ngati-Porou t tribe’s district, which extends from 1 Gisborne to Torere, now totalled £3850, ' ■was made by Sir Apirana Ngata at the Maori Victoria Cross investiture celc- ■ brations at Ruatoria today. Sir Apirana said that the suggestion ■ that the awards to members of the Maori Battalion should be commemorated in a worth while way was made by a European resident of the district. The sum aimed at was £7500, and the £3850 already subscribed did not include some very substantial contributions on the way from tribes in the Eastern Maori district. The scholarship fund would be open to every child of every tribe in New Zealand. It would be a matter for the Education Department to set up a board of trustees and define the scope and conditions of the scholarships. The fund would be invested in Government stock, and already £2OOO had been invested in the War Loan. He suggested that the Minister of Education should be ex-officio chairman of the board of trustees. From what he had been told by a prominent member of the Cabinet, Sir I Apirana added, the Government would] consider subsidising the fund £ for £ up to £7500. The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, had only just told him that he would recommend it. He thought that in defining the scope of the scholarship some attention should be made to the teaching of Maori culture.