Educating the South Sea Islanders

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Educating the South Sea Islanders

By F. Earl Stott, Principal of the Latter-day Saints' Maori Agricultural College

The elders and sisters of the Latter-day Saints Maori Agricultural College conference of the New Zealand mission send their greetings from the South Seas. We appreciate greatly the inspiration and information that come to us each month within the covers of the Era. I enclose, herewith, a group picture of the Maori Agricultural College cadets of 1920. These boys are placed in the hands of training officers of the New Zealand Defense Department, for military drill, on our campus, every Thursday afternoon during our school year. Our M. A. C. cadet group, all of whom are observers of the Word of Wisdom, will make splendid soldiers for this Commonwealth, if duty ever calls them to the colors. For the last three years they have been the winners in marksmanship in competition with a large number of other cadet organizations in the Hawke's Bay District. It is intensely gratifying to observe how these young natives — many of them descendants of man-eating grandsires respond to the force of a wholesome educational environment. We are giving the boys almost as wide a variety of subjects in school as the average high school boy gets in our schools of Utah. Many of them show a particular aptitude for such subjects as penmanship, drawing — — especially cartooning woodwork, and music. I am enclosing a picture of a double quartette, selected from our male voice choir, which has been invited to sing on a number of occasions before large audiences. The following words of appreciation appeared in one of the daily papers, the Hawke's Bay Herald, after our boys had responded to sing at a benefit concert, in the large Municipal theater, at Napier: "The last item of the first half (New Zealand entertainments are usually divided by an intermission of five minutes) was undoubtedly the best on the program, for the M. A. C. Glee Club are a host in themselves, their popular song, 'Just Smile,' taking greatly. The Maoris are to be thanked for the great support they had given the Miteys (Concert Company) in various ways." Our young men also have a valuable training at the College in Church activities. Wehave a fully organized Y. M. M. I. A. all the officers of which, except the class leaders, are chosen from the student body. The officers of the Sunday school, ex-

EDUCATING THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS 507

eluding the superintendent and teachers, are also students. Such experience fits them for useful leadership in their native villages. It may be of interest to the reader to know that we have

The Maori Agricultural College Cadets, and below, the Glee Club

Samoans, Tongans, and Tahitians, as well as Maoris, in our school. I wish you success in the noble work of Mutual Improvement. Hastings, N. Z.