THE MAORI CONGRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 168, 15 July 1908, Page 2

THE MAORI CONGRESS.

SPEECH BY THE GOVEKNOR. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Not since the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, with the possible exception of the Rotorua assemblage, when the Duke and Duchess of York visited New Zealand, has there been brought together such a unique and representative gathering of prominent Maoris as that seen in the Town Hall this afternoon. The occasion was the official opening of the Maori Congress. His Excellency the Governor was welcomed with a stirring Maori cry of greeting, and with him arrived on the platform Sir Robert Stout (president of the congress),-who took the chair, the Prune Minister (Sir Joseph Ward), the Native Minister (the Hon. James Carroll), and Mr. James Allen, M.P., representing the Opposition in the absence of Mr Massey. His Excellency the Governor, after welcoming the delegates and others present, remarked: "There is one subject which I wish to speak about which has come before mc constantly since I came to New Zealand, and upon which I think the foundation of your future prosperity entirely rests now. That subject is the belief which is still held by at any rate a certain number of the older Maoris, that the Government of New Zealand is not to be appealed to, but that the wisest course is to appeal to the King at Home. So long as that false and futile impression is fostered, so long will the millstone hang round the necks of the Maori people, and so long will the efforts made by the educated Maoris, who are striving to raise their countrymen, fail. The upraising of your countrymen really depends upon your own self-reliance and determination to acquire the good points of the white man, and to avoid his evils, lnc Maon population and their actual well-being is at piesent in a stationary condaUon, and upon the way you consider the numerous important questions which are bemg brought before you, and the way you carry them out, depends now more than ever what your race is to be" Sir Joseph Ward said the Congress would afford an opportunity for summinc up and tabulating what had been aeeomplished by Maori enterprise along the various lines of progress. It was a°hopeful sign that the Maoris were adopting modern ideas touching the land and agriculture, and that there was a rapidly growing acceptance of the doctrine that the salvation of the people was onlypossible through labour. Mr. James Allen spoke briefly in place of Mr. Massey. To Heuheu Tukino, the noted Taupo chief, and Mr. A. T. Ngata, M.P., returned thanks, the, latter saying that tfee con-

gress was devised with the idea of bringing the best among the Maoris into contact with the best among the- Europeans. Quaint musical items were contributed at intervals by the Rotorua Maori Entertainers and by East Coast natives.