G—9

Environment has an important influence on conduct, and it is felt that any deterioration in standards which may be apparent, together with any undue incidence of delinquency, <;an be attributed directly to the fact that few city Maoris can enjoy the comforts of home life. Many of the Maori people who are living in small, squalid rooms, often in unsavoury localities, are compelled through their enforced environment to seek amusement in degrading quarters, where they are easily persuaded into trouble. The aim is to provide Maori families with homes which will lay a foundation for improved health and a greater sense of public responsibility. The procedure adopted provides for the Department of Maori Affairs, assisted by representatives of the tribal organizations, to select tenants, whilst administration and maintenance is the responsibility of the State Advances Corporation. The houses for allocation to the Maori people are to be interspersed in single units throughout normal State settlements. This arrangement is an extension of that made last year in respect of the houses supplied at Tamaki and Onehunga, Auckland. Of the 90 houses to be made available for the Maori people in those settlements, 22 have already been allocated to tenants, and it is hoped that the balance will be occupied during the coming year. Nine houses have been set aside at Whangarei for Maori mine-workers in the Kamo coal-mines. , Twenty-four houses have been occupied at Waiwhetu following the assurance given to the owners by the Government that those resident at the time of'the sale of the land would be rehoused. TRAINING OF MAORI YOUTHS Along with the Department's house-building operations, and as a part of those operations, a scheme for training Maori youths in the building trade is being established. This will follow broadly the lines of the Rehabilitation Trade Training Scheme in the building trade, which has been so successful. There will be modifications in the rates of pay, and there will be provisions for modified apprenticeship as the scheme is for youths, whereas the rehabilitation training is for adult ex-servicemen, with a few exceptions for men who were under twenty-one years of age on leaving the services. Maori youths interested in other than building trades will be placed on apprenticeship in other fields with Government Departments who have training schemes for young men, notably Works Department, Post and Telegraph Department, and Railways Department. The following table shows the approximate number of Maori sixteen-year-olds in the years indicated, and approximately half of these will be males. It is with the intention of assisting these young people in the choice of and training in a career that the scheme has been formulated: — 1949 .. .. 2,575 1955 .. .. 3,600 1950 .. •• 2,600 1956 .. .. 3,725 1951 .. .. 2,850 1957 .. ..3,600 1952 .. .. 3,175 1958 .. .. 3,775 1953 .. .. 3,450 1959 .. .. 3,875 1954 .. .. 3,225 1960 .. .. 3,950 The aims of the scheme are threefold, viz. : (a) Teaching the youths a worthwhile trade, (b) Erection of a greater number of Maori houses with the extra skilled labour thus released, and (c) The employment of the youths generally. In this way Maori boys will be employed in building homes for their own people, and while so engaged they will receive training in a trade which will be full enough to enable the development of a feeling of confidence in their own ability and which will enable them to hold their own in the labour market.

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