Gr.—11

1944 NEW ZEALAND

MAORI PURPOSES FUND BOARD ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1944

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section 14 of the Maori Purposes Fund Act, 1934-35

Meetings The statutory annual meeting only was held during the year under review. Personnel of Board The Board welcomes the new members of Parliament representing the Maori Race : Messrs. T. P. Paikea and T. Omana ; also the Very Reverend Mr. J. G. Laughton, who, with two of the present members, Sir Apirana T. Ngata and Mr. Johannes C. Andersen, was appointed by the GovernorGeneral in Council for the statutory term of three years from 15th December, 1943. At a farewell social gathering of Maori and pakeha to the retiring Under-Secretary of Native Affairs and Native Trustee, Mr. Owen N. Campbell, Deputy-Chairman of the Board, the Board's tribute to his personal service and uplifting personality was paid by Mr. Andersen, who presented him with a set of the Board's publications. His successor is Chief Judge G. P. Shepherd, who brings a wealth of experience on Native affairs to the Board. Operations Education. —The annual grant of £500 was continued to the Education Department in respect of the year 1943 as a contribution towards the cost of the 251 Maori Free Place Scholarships, comprising 225 at Maori and 17 at State secondary schools, and also 9 at Universities. A further amount of £250 was paid into the special fund administered and disbursed by the Education Department on behalf of the Board in meeting necessitous and/or deserving applications for educational assistance from Maoris who are not otherwise eligible for State scholarships. The sum of £750 granted over the past three years has been fully expended to the extent of £754 6s. sd. The number of students who benefited was 31, of whom 5 received assistance over more than one year. As the existence of this fund has become more widely known, so have the calls on it increased. In assisting the education at either secondary school, university, training college, or as nurses of these Maoris who but for this help would oftimes not have been able to continue their studies, the Board has utilized a large portion of its very limited income in one of the wisest ways. This long-range policy should accrue in a small measure, with the other sociological and educational endeavours being made under the aegis of the State, for the social and economic absorption of the Maori into the fullest responsibilities of citizenship in the Dominion. Ethnology. —The work of the Polynesian Society, Incorporated, in publishing its excellent journal, and also, from time to time, memoirs on Native affairs, was assisted by the further granting of a sum of £300. Some fifty copies of the Board's most recent publication, " Native Custom and Law affecting Native Land," were sold during the period under review, and it was necessary to bind the remaining two hundred copies. There' has been a demand for the other books of the Board on the part of visiting overseas servicemen. As the reprint of a lecture " The Coming of the Maori," given in 1925 to the Cawthron Institute, is now out of print, the author, Dr. Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), has announced his intention of writing an up-to-date version with additional text and more illustrations, to be called " The Evolution of Maori Culture." The Board expects to be fortunate enough to be able to publish this work. Under consideration for the use of research students in the future is a manuscript of Maori proverbs and sayings which has been offered to the Board.