Little Minds

The Foundation is being criticised by a large number of people, the majority of whom are those with the "little minds" associated with segregation movements, those who will under no circumstances befriend a Maori because in their opinion they belong to the "lower order" in race relationships. The criticism is that the Foundation is paying too much attention to the Maori people, that the Foundation has been organised to disguise Governmental deficiencies in educational policy concerning the Maoris, and that the Foundation generally is, another method by which the general public might be mulcted of more money to provide for a select section of the community.

The second area of criticism comes from those who have the welfare of the Maori people at heart and who believe that the Foundation while a good and necessary aid, is going about the matter in entirely the wrong way.

The answers to these criticisms are not easy. As far as the "little" people are concerned, if they could not moan about the Maori Education Foundation then they would find something else about which to moan and their primary trouble is apathy, more specifically a hand out for what can be got, not a hand giving what less fortunate people need.

Those people who have travelled through the Maori areas of Gisborne and Hamilton, down the lower reaches of the Waikato and into the Urewera from Whakatane will know of the great crying need for Maori leaders with brains and initiative to improve conditions generally. Not only in the areas mentioned, but also in many other parts of the country does this problem exist.