SHOOT THE CENTIPEDE

Te Ao Hou, July 1958, Page 18

SHOOT THE CENTIPEDE A SCHOOL MAGAZINE FROM ORUAITI Here is a collection of stories and poems from Oruaiti Maori School. Oruaiti lies by the sea a few miles from Kaitaia. The children are putting out a regular newspaper in which their literary work appears. The illustrations in this newspaper, printed from lino-cuts in many colours, are beyond Te Ao Hou to reproduce although the reader sees we have tried. But the stories and poems can be printed and they are beautiful. They should not be read as the fumbling work of children; the observations are true and sharply expressed, they are good entertainment and also fascinating as literature. Of the eight authors five are Maori and three European, but it would be hard to say, without having the names, which are the Maori contributions. Throughout, the standard of the English, vocabularly, rhythm, the building of the sentences, is extremely high. One wonders why there should be any difficulty about Maori children learning English if this can be achieved in an isolated village among a representative group of children. The teacher is Mr J. Richardson and the teaching methods used are those advocated by the experimental ‘Northern Project’ of Mr Gordon Tovey, supervisor of the Arts and Crafts branch of the Department of Education. The title of this collection, Shoot the Centipede, may seem a little unexpected. It comes from Oruaiti.