182 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



and action should all be brought to operate in the case of 

 native children ; and, whilst the effect of contact with a higher 

 civilisation should be felt, it should only be manifested in the 

 higher producing capacity of the natives along their own 

 creative lines and concepts. 



As for the "special settlements" for natives, the plan is 

 simply the old "flour and sugar and blanket" system of the 

 earlier history of the colonists. The natives have been spoilt 

 by the insensible and ignorant method of destroying their self- 

 reliance and independence. As a people they are powerful 

 in government, but the loss of their recognised leaders and 

 the hurry of reformers to make the " Maori a pakeha " has 

 brought retrogression rather than progression among them. 

 The Maori wants responsibility, and the moment he feels 

 responsibility upon him there will be hope for his continuance 

 as a living and progressive factor in the community. The 

 Maori Council may be a means of doing good, but it has 

 already been pointed out by many intelligent natives who are 

 interested in land that the difficulties surrounding their in- 

 terests are increased because they understood the plan of the 

 Government, but now the "Councils " do as they please, and 

 owners of "interests" are worse off than before, owing to 

 their ignorance of the newer conditions. But the difficulties 

 that appear at the outset of a scheme need not cause anxiety. 



The functions of the Maori Council are important, and if 

 rightly carried out will certainly tend to create a great interest 

 in the internal affairs of native life and growth ; but an im- 

 portant aspect yet remains neglected, and perhaps it is this that 

 will affect, for better or for worse, the whole success of Maori 

 regeneration. I refer to the home life as represented by the 

 women. Suggestion has been made by me for the establish- 

 ment of " cottage hospitals " in Maori districts. At small cost 

 there could be provided in centres like Nuhaka, Tolago Bay, 

 Tokomaru, Waipiro Matakawa, Waiapu, and other native 

 centres " cottage hospitals," under the control of trained hos- 

 pital nurses, assisted by the native girls drawn from a high- 

 class native girls' school like Hukarere, in Napier. These 

 hospitals might be made the very centre of a civilising influ- 

 ence such as cannot be introduced by any other means. 

 Sympathy, kindness, home training, the healing of the sick, 

 training in cleanliness and in cooking, could all be shown 

 and illustrated, and the introduction of a humanising form of 

 training such as could be carried out in the wav suggested 

 would bring the native women under the active influences of 

 that form of living that is so much lacking among them to- 

 day. 



There is hardly a more pitiful sight than the Maori 

 woman, ambitionless, homeless though not houseless, in- 



