Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.
He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).
The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.
Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.
Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.
100 more readers take part in Libraries’ summer programme
, who said the children’s reading ability was impressive.
She said a total of some 100 children enrolled in the programme at the Paraparaumu Library and the other two main Kāpiti libaries at Ōtaki and Waikanae.
During the summer, the children call into the libraries at least fur times to discuss what they are reading with librarians and volunteer helpers.
Each time they get a small gift and their special card gets ticked to mark their progress.
Over the past few years the district’s key community library group — Friends of the Kāpiti Coast Libraries — have supported the reading scheme by donating cash for books and/or providing volunteers to help with the programme.