THE KAIKOHE SCHEME

Earlier This Year, Te Ao Hou attended a special meeting of the Citizens' Advice and Guidance Council in Kaikohe, with Mr J. K. Hunn, Secretary of Maori Affairs, Mr M. R. Jones, Private Secretary to the Minister of Maori Affairs, and Mr Melvin Taylor, Public Relations Officer to the Maori Affairs Department. Facing us, to give us an account of their work, were Dr M. N. Paewai, well-known in the North as a footballer of great attainments and as a physician, Mr G. Vuglar, a Registrar of the Social Security Department in Kaikohe, and Mr J. A. Gale, a master at Northland College.

Mr Vuglar was the spokesman. He read to us the aim of the Council, that “where desired, it would give advice and guidance on budgeting, living expenses out of the combined family income and to advise on other matters arising therefrom.” Their system works in this way. Two volunteer sponsors are appointed to give advice to each family. A bank account is opened in the name of husband and wife and both wages and family benefit are paid into it. One of the sponsors holds the cheque book, though cheques must be signed by both husband and wife. Each week, the man and wife and their sponsors discuss the allocation of income for housekeeping accounts, reduction of debts and accumulation of savings. The husband is allowed £1 per week spending money, and the wife, 10/-.

At the time of our meeting, the Society had 36 sponsors and 32 client families. Mr Vuglar made it clear to us there was no hint of racial patronage in the scheme: the sponsors are not all Pakehas, and the clients are not all Maoris. Participation is voluntary; the couples join of their own accord and may leave the scheme when they please. The sponsors meet their clients once a week, and the sponsors meet their Council Executive once a month.

EDUCATION IN HANDLING MONEY

Much effort is asked of the sponsors. Counsel on family finance cannot but draw a host of other matters into the area of scrutiny—health, education, building, law—and the Society is equipped with a panel of experts who can advise on matters outside the sponsors' competence.

Is the scheme working? Is it a success? Mr Vuglar read to us some typical case histories, which sounded like the “before” and “after” sections of some well-known advertisements. Before: squalor, penury and despair; after: confidence, security, hope. It seemed that an initial difficulty was discovered in the use of cheques, some families being very suspicious of them, connecting them with what they had read in the tabloid journals about cheques bouncing, and it seemed that in some of their minds, the cheque spelt disaster. The

sponsors quickly convinced them that all cheques don't bounce, and that even some quite respectable people make use of them, and that their money was safer that way.

Some of the case histories made sad hearing. We heard of one family constantly in financial difficulties. The husband had some land in the neighbourhood which he was selling piecemeal, in order to defray his debts. One Friday afternoon, £250 was paid into his Post Office account. His wife did not see him again until Sunday night when he returned home without a penny, and this had happened three times when the wife asked the Council to help. From these depths, the family has been raised to confidence and security by the work of the Council. Many others told of homes crippled by inordinate drinking: now, after some months of guidance, these families can face their lives ahead with confidence.

And the community? Do they welcome the Scheme? It seemed so, almost generally. Grocers, fruiterers, butchers, and other providers of food and goods, would obviously welcome a scheme which ensured prompt payments. The newspaper gave the scheme much editorial comment and favourable publicity; only the hotel proprietors viewed with a somewhat jaundiced eye a plan to limit their best customers to £1 per week. But generally, the whole of the business, professional and social community welcomed the scheme with the liveliest sympathy.

DEPARTMENT GIVES FULL SUPPORT

Mr Hunn's reaction was immediate. He welcomed the scheme, highly praised its practical idealism and offered the support of the Department of Maori Affairs, subject to his Minister's approval, to what he said would be known in future as “The Kaikohe Scheme” in honour of its first movers. The Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Hanan, proved equally enthuiastic and a Press Statement was released at the beginning of March, endorsing the Kaikohe Scheme, recommending its adoption in other areas, and praising the whole conception as “a vital step to aid the Maori people to establish themselves in modern life.”

From such small and apparently insignificant beginnings a whole people may be transformed, as history has frequently shown. In our own context, the great value of this scheme, as Mr Hunn pointed out, is its voluntary and spontaneous character. It cannot be considered as a State handout, with the blessing of officialdom: this is a body of private citizens working for their community. To Maoris, the Pakeha may often seem grossly marterialistic, his first care and greatest energy devoted to feathering his own nest; to the Pakeha, the Maori can seem shiftless, feckless and improvident. That both pictures are partial and false, this fine Scheme demonstrates; in it, we have Maori and Pakeha working together for the benefit of the community as a whole.