The Maori church with nothing round about is scientific (9)
I believe the answer is:
technical
'scientific' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the maori church with nothing round about' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'church' could be 'ch' (abbreviation on maps etc) and 'ch' is present in the answer.
'about' could be 'ca' (short for circa) and 'ca' is found within the answer.
'nothing' could be 'nil' (eg nil is zero in football) and 'nil' is found within the remaining letters.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for technical that I've seen before include "requiring special skill" , "sort of college" , "Concerned with applied sciences" , "Concerned with applied science" , "Using specialised skill" .)