THE NEW ZEALAND 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
AND 
TECHNOLOGY. 
VOL. 1. 
Wellington, September, 1918. 
" No.. 5" 
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EDITORIAL. 
Maori Studies and Ethnology in Education, r FI ^ 
“ There is no considerable kind of human activity involving a wide 
range and diversity of material which is not a fit subject for university 
study.”—Professor Sir Walter Raleigh 
Though ethnological studies do not form a part of the ordinary arts or 
science courses of British universities, provision is made for them in the 
chief universities by special diplomas, and teaching is provided by pro¬ 
fessors and lecturers. In New Zealand there is as yet no such provision. 
Nevertheless, studies on the history, the technology, and the traditions 
of the Maori peoples have been popular in New Zealand since its first 
colonization, and much of the results has been published during the last 
fifty years by the New Zealand Institute, and still more during the last 
twenty-six years by the Polynesian Society, which has done most excellent 
work in this field in spite of very inadequate public support. A disquiet¬ 
ing feature, however, is that those at present engaged in such research 
are nearly all elderly men, and that a new generation of Maori scholars 
is apparently not springing up. Has the time not arrived, then, when 
the University should step into the breach and encourage this branch of 
learning by recognizing it in her examinations and by the provision of 
teachers 1 
Neglect of ethnological studies is greatly to be regretted both for 
individual and national reasons—individually because a knowledge of the 
main results of ethnological and anthropological research is a necessity 
for the understanding of civilized as well as of uncivilized man. The 
decay of custom is a long process, requiring many centuries. Thus the 
habits of thought of Yorkshire villagers are still influenced by Scandinavian 
mythology. There is no section of the community more in need of such 
knowledge than ministers of religion, but, unfortunately, it does not yet 
form an essential part of their training. 
Nationally such studies are of far-reaching importance because of the 
geographical position of New Zealand. We have in our midst a race 
backward in civilization—the Maori—and still bound by ancient custom 
of thought in spite of a veneer of alien culture. The proper treatment of 
the many problems thus involved is impossible without a knowledge of 
17—Science. 
