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Kōrero: Country schooling

School on the radio

Audio file

Kathryn Stirling of Glentanner Station, Canterbury, tunes in to a radio programme as part of a correspondence lesson in the early 1950s. The Correspondence School broadcast its lessons between 1937 and 1997.

Listen to the first Māori-language programme of 1956, for fourth formers (pupils in year 10), taken by Mr H. Wikiriwhi.

Transcript

Now to all new members, it's your first lesson in pronunciation. But don't be dismayed. Māori is the easiest language to speak. It's purely phonetic. Have you got that reading sheet set one, form four assignment opened at page three? Now let's follow page three down. It begins with the alphabet. Notice there are 15 letters in the Māori alphabet. Now that's a good start for as you know English has 26 letters. So we find that Māori is much simpler, it has only 15.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Reference: 150856

Image: Archives New Zealand, AAQT 6401/A33,133

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Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Nancy Swarbrick, Country schooling – Wider options: 1900s–1930s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/speech/16507/school-on-the-radio (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Nancy Swarbrick, i tāngia i te 1 March 2009.