G.—ll.

Operations. (a) Education.—After paying interest at 4£ per cent, for the whole of the financial year ended 31st March, 1941, aggregating £643 10s., the long-outstanding principal commitments were liquidated at the close of that year as follows : St. Stephen's Maori .Boys' College, £10,000 ; St. Peter's Rural Training School for Maori Boys, £1,600 ; and Turakina Maori Girls' College, £2,700. The usual grant of £500 was made to the Education Department in respect of the year 1940 towards the cost of Maori Free Place Scholarships. A donation to the library of the Wellington Teachers' Training College of a number of Maori text-books published by the Board was made. Minor applications for particular educational assistance were either referred to the Education Department for full investigation and report back, or else were declined because of lack of finance. (b) Health. —The only payment under this'heading was that of £20, financed by the Tairawhiti District Maori Land Board, towards the medical expenses of Maori triplets. (c) Ethnology.—The funds of the Polynesian Society were augmented by a grant of £300 ; while the remaining 1,250 unbound sheets of the publication " The Maori" by Elsdon Best, were donated to that society, the proceeds from the sale of that book being credited to its Memoir Publishing Fund. The question of preserving per medium of the comparatively recent scientific achievement—the electric gramophone —of Maori song (waiata), speech (patere), and haka for such purposes as the transcription into musical notation by research students of the future, has been again considered by this Board. The kind co-operation of both the National Broadcasting Service and the National Commercial Broadcasting Service has been promised to the Board in this connection, and it is hoped that some plan will be evolved to enable the Board's archives to be added to, so that they may be comprehensive in this domain. (d) Arts and Crafts. —Prom specific donations from most of the Maori Land Boards, £602 was granted to the cost of erection of the Te Kaha Carved Meeting-house, while timber Valued at £98 was donated from the Board's stock. Sundry minor applications for various meeting-houses were regretfully declined through lack of finance, especially since the Carnegie Corporation grant has been exhausted. Repairs have been effected to the School of Maori Arts at Rotorua, which was sublet during the past year to the Arawa Trust Board. (e) General.— I The usual annual grant of £104 was made to the Waikato-Maniapoto District Maori Land Board, being half the salary paid to Princess Te Puea Herangi for the year ended 31st March, 1940. An outstanding grant of £25 in respect of the Waitara memorial meeting towards the cost of a Whare-Kauri party was liquidated. The Board's paraphernalia for meetings—e.g., Taiaha, piupiu, &c. —was again loaned for use at Maori concerts and public functions. Carnegie Corporation Fund. In addition to the £300 shown in last year's report as being reserved in the Carnegie Corporation Fund for a programme embracing the revival of Maori cloak-weaving, the balance of £42 ss. has also been specifically allotted to that purpose, the time for the commencement of which is not deemed propitious. In submitting a recent application to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for a renewal of the grant for the preservation of Maori arts and crafts, incomparable in their type, by adult education in the various branches—namely, " whakaira," or wood-carving ; " tukutuku," or decorative interior wall panels; the painting of rafters and house battens in characteristic scroll-patterns, or " kowhaiwhai " ; and the interior lining of roofs and sections of walls with " toetoe " reeds, or " kakaho," &c.—it was stressed that in spite of the uncertainties of the war upon the social and cultural life of a nation, the perpetuation of art and culture in all forms should be encouraged, particularly at a time when in so many countries of the world cultural expression is very much in abeyance. General. Administration. —The administrative organization of the Board whereby the Secretary is an officer of the Native Department, and the Native Trustee is banker for the fund, is proving efficient. Assets previously unaccounted. —Of the amount of £148, representing assets unaccounted at the date of death of the late Secretary, assets totalling £115 have been located, and the remainder has been finally written off as irrecoverable.

Approximate Cost of Paper.—Preparation, not given ; printing (405 copies), £2 15s.

By Authority: E. V. Paul, Government Printer, Wellington.—l94l.

Price 3d.'\

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