THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

with which their communities identified. The assimilationist policy was not resented or resisted—though there is one request that a teacher be appointed who was fluent in Maori. In general, it may be concluded that the number of schools provided by the state (and by the community contribution of land) fell well below the level of community demand. In addition, Maori protested when 'their' schools passed to what some regarded as alien control; they believed that in public schools their children were a disadvantaged minority at times subject to unsympathetic treatment.

4.25 The general picture of education for Maori children in the region is not a simple one. There were few native schools compared with other districts, but in those districts there may well have been fewer public schools which Maori children could attend. While the number of Maori children in Hauraki attending public schools is not given, it is probable that the total number in both school systems was quite high. In 1913, more than io,000 Maori children were attending schools of all kinds, a little over so% in public schools and a little under so% in native schools, together with a small number in mission and boarding schools. Roughly, some zo% of the Maori population as estimated by the 1911 census were in primary schools (AJHR 1913 E3). If this proportion was reflected in Hauraki, it may be concluded that there was no shortage of opportunities. Nor, on a nation-wide basis, was the financial provision for native schools low in comparison with public schools. If anything, the cost per pupil was considerably higher than in public schools, no doubt because native schools were both small and remote (calculated from figures in AJHR 1900 ED.

4.26 Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to conclude that educational provision, from the point of view of Hauraki Maori communities, was less than adequate in two ways: first, there were not enough schools with which they could identify and which they believed served their interests; and second, in public schools their children were disadvantaged and at times experienced discrimination.

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