Page:Picturesque New Zealand, 1913.djvu/393

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A MAORI SCHOOL AND ITS PUPILS
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part crust; in other words, it was a mound of fruit topped by a thin crust less than two inches square. As a bottom crust apparently had not been mentioned in the recipe, none was discernible.

In Wellington an American chanced to see a real pie, under the cognomen of tart, in the window of a tea-room. Marveling greatly, he stopped to stare, and as he gazed fondly on the pie he wished that he was hungry; but as he was not, he finally tore himself away with the resolution to return when he was prepared to eat. He neglected, however, to note the tea-room's location. For two days he searched before he found it; then into it he strode.

"What kinds of tarts have you?" he asked a waitress.

"Apple, cherry, and black currant," she replied.

"I'll have one of each, please," he ordered, and joyously sat down and ate them then and there.

A dozen miles from Herekino is Ahipara, celebrated for its beach, one of the finest and longest in New Zealand. Ahipara also is a Maori stronghold, and has one of the largest native schools in the country. When I was there this school had more than one hundred pupils, who were instructed by a white man and his wife and two Maori assistants. Although it was a native school, eight or ten white children attended it. In New Zealand mixed attendance in Maori districts is not uncommon, and it is marked by little, if any, friction between Maori and white pupils on account of race distinctions.