nised co-operative enterprises. They own a store and are running a lucrative ferry company. Here, then, is a Maori community that has made a striking success in adjustment to the Pakeha world. The reason lies in their isolation, say the moralists, in their long distance from the distractions of the mainland. It may be so, but looking over the history of the island I was more struck by how little, than, how much had happened. The Matakana Islanders were not attacked by the Ngapuhi's, when Tauranga was invaded; together with so many other Maori communities they learned from the missionaries how to grow crops, particularly wheat. The Maori wars, the land purchases, the corruption of the eighties and nineties passed them by: at the turn of the century they were still growing wheat. They did not know about regular crop rotation, so went on cultivating ever new areas until they too were exhausted and the Islanders changed over to other crops, oats and barley. This lasted until the twenties. When the Maori Affairs Department Started land development operations, there was comparitively little land entirely undeveloped. A few farmers had their lands gazetted, but the majority went on in the old way. Maize and kumara, too, were already grown extensively at that time. The development of Matakana Island was undoubtedly speed up through the war and the very large-scale crop growing war effort financed by the Waiariki Maori Land Board. Generally, however, this community has enjoyed little government assistance. It is a community that has grown in direct line out of the pre-Pakeha Maori people: Western civilisation filtered through slowly while the people had time, at their own place, to grasp enough of Western ideas to become successful farmers and citizens, and to grasp, essentially, far more of the Pakeha world than other groups who were forced into contact with the Pakeha at a faster and more disturbing rate. Waiting for the children. One of the smaller school buses on the beach.