OUR ADULT MEMBERS WERE VALUABLE

Te Ao Hou, June 1961, Page 13

OUR ADULT MEMBERS WERE VALUABLE The three non-teaching adults in our party were a great success. The school committee secretary helped with the administration; both ladies took much responsibility over the meals—the cutting of lunches, and any help needed by the cook. All three went along to most of the educational fixtures and learned a great deal. In this respect 75-year-old Waitai was perhaps the most remarkable. He observed the factories most minutely, greatly enjoyed the music, and felt that new vistas were opening before him. Not only that: he carried out his own research in his special interests, tribal genealogies, speaking in Maori at the Matakana concert, he traced the relationship between certain Punaruku families and the Matakana people themselves, thus establishing kinship, the principle of cohesion in the Maori world. He became great friends of the elders of the places we visited; thus he cemented a close bond with our hosts. The children sensed his value to the group. Whereas they had previously looked upon him as a tedious old man, he now became highly respected. They saw that both in learning ability and in stamina he was more than a match for them; indeed in those few days he returned to wonderful health; and thus the tour had another valuable result—a closer bond between children and elders at Punaruku.