TE WHAITI NUI A TOI

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1954, Page 31

TE WHAITI NUI A TOI The very rev. j. g. laughton, as Superintendent of the Presbyterian Maori Missions, is the spiritual father of the Te Whaiti Nui a Toi Farm and Training School. With only 26

Te Aute College for Maori boys is one of the few secondary schools with an agricultural course backed by full farming facilities. The central picture shows Te Aute as it is to-day. Te Aute College, Puketoi. (photographs—r. w. orr) boarders, hidden in the midst of the Urewera and started only in 1937, this small college is yet important in the history of Maori education for its bold and effective planning. Mr Laughton believes that the Maori people are at present in a period between the break-down of tribal discipline and the arrival of family discipline. In this period there is an urgent need for real character training for Maori boys. He also believes that education in backblock areas has to be very practical to fit the situation confronting us; a lot of young people are not really fitted for advanced education and are made into better citizens by good practical training, with a core of normal education and skills. In 1937, Te Whaiti Nui a Toi consisted of 440 acres of undeveloped Crown land. The mission bought it and built on it, teaches the boys in the morning and dedicates the after-noons to farming and land development. Core subjects are taught and formal instruction lasts about 15–16 hours per week. Arts and crafts are emphasised and much Maori carving is done, some very interesting in quality. The practical and theoretical aspects of agriculture and horticulture are always taught together; for example, at dipping times lessons and practical activity occur simultaneously, with lessons often in the open. Even arithmetic and simple book keeping are integrated with the practical farming activities, such as the books of the poultry farm. Milk testing is done at the school laboratory. Experiments in manuring are made in the school vegetable gardens, proving for instance the effect of the trace element molybdenum. Since 19–18 Te Whaiti Nui a Toi has been a registered post-primary boarding school. The boys' ages vary from 13 to 17, the majority being 15 or 16. At the beginning of this year, about 300 acres of the land had been developed and dairy and run cattle and sheep were carried. At present the school faces the decision of whether or not to start offering school certificate courses. It is to be hoped this will ultimately be done. I visited the school on the first day after the annual holidays, and while I was inside talking a truckload of boys arrived. An hour or so afterwards we went to see the cowshed, and there were the new arrivals, including some “new chums”, calmly and quite independently occupied about the shed, as though they had never been away. Nothing could show more clearly what the school meant to the boys and that they had absorbed a new way of life.