these eighty scholarships should in future be devoted to children of special ability living in areas served by district high schools. This would leave forty for the very isolated areas where no secondary schools exist at all.

The committee accepted the proposal which was approved last April by the Minister of Education.

The decision should be received with great satisfaction among Maori parents. In spite of the entirely adequate education given by the district high schools to the great majority of pupils, many Maori parents still like to send their brighter children away from the village for their schooling. They like them to undergo the influence of the boarding school environment because they think it will bring them a new outlook and make success in the world easier. It is not a shirking of responsibility for the cost of boarding school (all in all at least £200 per year) is a considerable responsibility, scholarship or no.

A college offering a professional course is particularly valuable for the brighter child who is suitable for entering one of the professions. Too many of these fail today through cultural reasons, that is, through the gap between the home community and a professional course at high school. This is a purely Maori problem and it is right that there should be a special scholarship provision for Maoris to overcome it at the present time. Even with this provision it will take years before Maoris can get the same benefit from the country's advanced education facilities as the Europeans get at present.