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1943 NEW ZEALAND

MAORI PURPOSES FUND BOARD (ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1943)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section 14 of the Maori Purposes Fund Act, 1934-35

Meetings The statutory annual meeting only was held during the year under review. Personnel op Board It is with much regret that the Board records the deaths of two of its members since the close of the year to which this report relates —namely, the Honourable Mr. P. K. Paikea, who had been on the Board since 1938 in his capacity as a member of the House of Representatives representing the Maori race ; and of the Right Honourable Mr. J. G. Coates, a member appointed by the Governor-General and who had sat on the Board since its foundation in 1925. The Board records its thankfulness for the valued service given by them for the benefit of the Maori race. Operations (a) Education.—The annual grant of £500 was made to the Education Department in respect of the year 1942 to help increase the provision of Maori Free Place Scholarships for Maori and State secondary schools and also Universities. Commencing last year, £500 has been paid into a special fund, administered and disbursed by the Education Department on behalf of the Board, in meeting necessitous and/or deserving applications for educational assistance from Maoris who are not otherwise eligible for State scholarships. To date grants totalling £418 Is. sd. have been made to nineteen Maoris the continued education of whom at either secondary school or University, but for the Board's assistance, would not have been possible. Several other applications for the current year are at present under consideration. (b) Ethnology.—A further grant of £300 was made to the funds of the Polynesian Society, Incorporated, to assist the cost of issuing its excellent journal and also the publication of memoirs on Native affairs. This year has seen the launching of the sales of the Board's publication " Native Custom and Law affecting Native Land," by Norman Smith. It has met with a ready response from the legal profession as well as those individuals interested in the Maori, two hundred and fifty copies of the book having been disposed of already. It is felt that it fills a long-needed contribution to the literature on Maori social and economic organization as affected by the impact of western civilization. In showing clearly the marked difference between the mental outlook of the Maori and the pakeha in relation to the ownership and possession of property, it demonstrates why our administration and special laws applying to Natives are necessary, and it should contribute towards the mutual understanding of both races. At the date of writing this report, the programme approved to preserve the characteristics of the Maori language by phonographic records has been commenced. The N.B.S. recording unit cut some fifty discs of waiata, patere, and haka at the National Centennial ceremony at the opening of the ancestral meeting-houses of the Te Arawa tribe, the " Tamatekapua " and " Tawakeheimoa," at Rotorua. These records will be selected and permanent processed copies taken. (c) Arts and Crafts. —Specific donations from various District Maori Land Boards have enabled the following meeting-houses and maraes to be assisted to the extent shown : Tamatekapua, £475 ; Hinemaurea, £25 ; while a further amount (£4O) was granted from the Board's own fund for the renovation of the Tokanganui-a-noho Meeting-house. The workshop and cottages which comprised the Maori Arts and Crafts School at Rotorua have been disposed of to the Arawa District Trust Board, which proposes to use it for teaching the joinery trade and Maori arts and crafts, especially for rehabilitating returned Maori servicemen.