DEPARTMENT GIVES FULL SUPPORT

Te Ao Hou, June 1961, Page 7

DEPARTMENT GIVES FULL SUPPORT Mr Hunn's reaction was immediate. He welcomed the scheme, highly praised its practical idealism and offered the support of the Department of Maori Affairs, subject to his Minister's approval, to what he said would be known in future as “The Kaikohe Scheme” in honour of its first movers. The Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Hanan, proved equally enthuiastic and a Press Statement was released at the beginning of March, endorsing the Kaikohe Scheme, recommending its adoption in other areas, and praising the whole conception as “a vital step to aid the Maori people to establish themselves in modern life.” From such small and apparently insignificant beginnings a whole people may be transformed, as history has frequently shown. In our own context, the great value of this scheme, as Mr Hunn pointed out, is its voluntary and spontaneous character. It cannot be considered as a State handout, with the blessing of officialdom: this is a body of private citizens working for their community. To Maoris, the Pakeha may often seem grossly marterialistic, his first care and greatest energy devoted to feathering his own nest; to the Pakeha, the Maori can seem shiftless, feckless and improvident. That both pictures are partial and false, this fine Scheme demonstrates; in it, we have Maori and Pakeha working together for the benefit of the community as a whole.