Maori boys and girls like to attend school, and to do so many of them travel astonishingly long distances. In one school an inspector found that in a single week many children had covered one hundred and twenty miles. Heta Harewi, a lad fifteen years old, walked twenty miles every day to attend school in 1910! Another North Auckland Maori youth had an easier way of getting to school. He rode a young bull to the house of instruction.
At Ahipara I saw several Maori boys and girls hurrying to school after it had been called one morning.
"You are late," said I to a boy. "Are you late every day?"
"Yes," he breathlessly answered to my surprise. "I have to come six and a half miles."
The parents of Maori children also show an interest in education. One father rode ninety miles to be present at the examination at which his two children, who were only in the preparatory class, were presented.
The Maori child is just as apt a pupil as the white child, the Secretary of Education informed me, but he labors under a disadvantage. He must first overcome the language difficulty, and he must learn an alphabet nearly twice as long as his own.[1] Naturally, some of his replies to his teacher's queries are of peculiar construction. In explaining the meaning of "angry foes," one boy said: "Angry foes are friends to fight with." In
- ↑ The Maori alphabet is as follows: a, e, h, i, k, m, n, o, p, r, t, u, w, ng, wh. Accentuation usually is on the first syllable.
