"There were not many opportunities for speaking Maori in the

city, and so many people, who were once fluent speakers, said this

was causing them to lose their knowledge of spoken Maori. In an

effort to prevent the total loss of the language, many parents and

grandparents were giving support to the work done in schools by

teaching their children and mokopuna the basics of Maori in the

home.

About one-fifth of the informants had been beaten for speaking

Maori as children at school, while many others had been put off it

as infants within the Rotorua region and in outside areas. A

knowledge of Maori arts and crafts, waiata-a-ringa, haka , and so

on, was made more important than language in being a Maori - surely

the result of decades of successful propaganda and educational

policies to get rid of the Maori language."

Source: Read the full NZCER report here