G.—s.

95

W. W. BIRD.

refused to recommend any girl for a position as a probationer nurse, unless it has first satisfied itself that that girl intends to practise amongst Maoris, and not amongst Europeans. That same idea applies in the case of boys. lam sure Mr. Pope will support me in this contention. 122. Suppose a Maori girl makes a first-class nurse, and she wants to go to a European hospital, you will not allow her to go?— Not if we can help it. I may say she is trained first of all in a hospital, and I would not object to her remaining in the hospital so long as there was no work for her to do outside amongst her own people; but I know to my own knowledge that that time has not come. There is a great field for Maori nurses as fast as we can train them. I repeat that if a Maori girl were trained as a nurse and deliberately turned her back on the Maoris, I should consider her a failure from our point of view, no matter if she made a name for herself as a nurse second to none in New Zealand. 123. You would not encourage European nurses to go amongst Maoris if they chose to go?— I would not object to that at ail. 124. Would they not be lost to the Europeans? —It would be a gain to the Maoris possibly. We have asked the hospital authorities to admit these girls to be trained on the understanding that they are to be trained for work in Maori centres, and we are particular about choosing these girls so as to make sure they come from pure Maori centres, and centres remote from other medical aid. 125. I suppose the general tendency is to go back to their own people? —No. That is where lam afraid of the ultimate success of the nursing-scholarship scheme. I hope by the time these nurses are ready we shall be able to find places for them in the cottage hospitals in Maori districts. So long as the girl has a salary, and so long as she knows she has a position to go backto, she will not hesitate to go back. Now, as I have said, you will find that the majority of the boys who have qualified do not proceed to these higher schools. Some of them find occupations at home, and others, if there is a manual school attached to their day school, get quite sufficient manual instruction there to satisfy them. I know that from my own experience. With regard to the question of technical instruction at To Aute, I should like to say there was, it is true, a certain amount of technical instruction given there. It amounted to about twenty-six lessons in the year, three hours a week being given. Two carpentry lessons were given in three weeks. That would make about twenty-six or thirty hours a year. At the present time there is practically none. The workshop and the buildings that were made by the boys under the old scheme have been turned to other uses. As a result of the development of the whole scheme of education it was thought desirable to make a change also in the curriculum at Te Aute. The young Maori people know this themselves. They have seen the change coming. Indeed, they quote the proverb, " The old net is laid aside; the new one goes a-fishing." They apply that to the new ideas in education. At Te Aute lately, when there with the members of the Commission, I noticed in the lowest class of the school three boys who are personally very well known to me, as are also their parents and general circumstances. Last December they were, I suppose, contented and happy enough in their own kaingas—two in the far north and one in the Bay of Plenty. They had never heard of formal grammar, Latin, or algebra, and now that they are face to face with these formidable subjects--formidable to a Maori boy—l am certain their happiness is not quite so manifest. Taking these three boys as typical cases of the Maori boys who go to Te Aute, and knowing their circumstances, I cannot help feeling that it is rather hard on these boys to put them under this car of Jauggernaut simply because two or three boys are likely to go up for the Matriculation Examination. You see, it has been held that Te Aute is the only school affording a secondary education for Maori boys who want to get a classical education, and this classical education is to prepare them for the higher walks in life. These words, I think, are quoted from one of the trustees' letters. These higher walks of life ore walks that most Maori boys—l should say ninetynine out of every hundred—will never tread. If we take the evidence that has gone before we find that, of the boys who have been trained at Te Aute, there are two lawyers, two doctors, eighteen ministers, it is said, and thirty-six farmers, the latter being in one district only. Surely that shows that the majority of the boys, at any rate, might have done without Latin and these other subjects. And it is hardly true to say that secondary education or a high-school education is afforded to Maori boys only at Te Aute. We have now two Maori boys attending the Auckland Grammar School as holders of scholarships granted to Maori children attending public schools. As it has been said that all attempts to educate boys at the Auckland Grammar School have resulted in failure, I thought it was worth while to write to the headmaster and ask his opinion on the subject. 126. How do you mean "resulted in a failure"?—l am referring to the evidence of Canon Mac Murray, who said that one boy he had in his mind was the most complete failure he had ever known, and that generally these attempts had ended in failure, not only in discipline but in general results. Mr. Tibbs, the headmaster, has written me this letter: "Auckland Grammar School, Auckland, 19th May, 1906.—Dear Sir, —In reply to your telegram, I have to state that, with one exception, there has never been anything to find fault with in the discipline of Maori boys attending the school. The boy who did not satisfy me boarded with a person of no education and of doubtful character, and, though well behaved at the school, was so irregular in attendance that I was compelled to ask the governors of the school to insist on his boarding at St. Stephen's School or withdrawal. Their work has, up to a certain point, at any rate,-been satisfactory, and each boy has generally shown ability in some particular direction— e.g., mechanical drawing. Of their subsequent career I know very little. I have often inquired about them, but have not yet heard that any are engaged in Government or private offices, or are following professions like most of their schoolmates. lam inclined to think that, while the boys have caught something here of the old public-school spirit which we try to cultivate, and have derived benefit from being associated with colonial boys of a good stamp, our curriculum is in some respects far beyond the