MAORI AND PAKEHA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 79, 3 April 1911, Page 9

MAORI AND PAKEHA.

NOT UNDERSTOOD.

<Bjr Telegraph.— Special to "Star.")

WELLINGTON, this day. Do Maori and the pakeha understand each other? This subject is discussed interestingly by the "Post's" special correspondent attended the native gathering at Papawai. 'To-day, he says, the young Maori is in a critical position. He has 'sold his tirthright, and he is eating his pottage. And when he is finished let one ' who is Maori speak. 'You ask mc," he said, "if the pakeha and Maori understand each other? I say, 'No.' The pakeha has had centuries with his nose to the grindstone; he may not like the process, but he is accustomed to it, at least he tolerates it. Well, it has made him the exact and exacting man he is. He is precise to his time, and the observance of time is a religion. To the Maori such precision is incomprehensible. You laugh and say, 'Ah, ah, Taihoa again.' But listen, friend, your child will skip for half an hour or bowl her hoop or do any tiring exercise she wills, tut ask her to clean the knives or do gpme work for half an hour, will not tire of it long before then? You pakeh.as work not because you like it, but because you must. You think you like it; you sometimes say you do. Gammon! Your c-hild in showing her delight in play and her distaste for work is/ true to herself. She is natural. So with the Maori; he is but a child oi nature. Think kindly of him, then, when you do not find him so industrious as you are yourselves.

"You have become as you are by a hard and, let mc tell you, an unpleasing process. The Maori is not enamoured of j-our state. He cannot understand how you can be, and you can believe mc when I say it, he does note believe that in your heart .you are.

"Now look how the Maori worked in his d4y/' the. narrator continued. "He's ha_ a house to build. Very well, then, fieie were tw-enty or thirty men to help him. All worked, fitfully if you will, but all worked with a will and worked hard, but their labour was sgieed with pleasure. It was all one great jolly game full of fun, full of taLk, laughter, jest, eong, and story. There was no time; an eight hour day was unthinkable. Pfiy began with the dawn, and when the «an>e epded. 4f with the hpuse, so'with the canoe, 'and so, top, with cultivation. Many hands made light -work. It might be'morning, it might be noon, it might be nearjng evening. Some one of the builders would Bay liet the women get the kai.' All would agree. Work then ended at once for that day, pgrhaps fpr several days. What mattered T Time was not of the essence of the contract. You can see that a people who, work as if'they pjiyed cbuld bring much energy to bear -upon the task in hand. Task! it was no task; lam call it such. It was a pleasure. No, let no man call the Maori lazy; that is not true. Bind, the Maori down to eighi; or even work, and expect him to keep at it, and you will wound iiim to death. Worry' him, hustle him, chivvy him, and he will do away with himself. He must not he harassed like a dog in a city street. The,n it Was'pointed out that the fondness of the Maori youth for billiard a, joyful socks, tan .boots, and gaucheries of an inartnetic'sort -jris foreign to him. "That is the young Maori of ffi-day," waS the reply. "ftit all you see"is bui prpof of what I cay. tfb loves pleasure, does' the Maori. Is he wrong? Is he alone in that? Where he has the means he indulges end gratifies his tastes. Is he singular in thatt It expresses itself, this love of pleasure, in coloured waistcoats', large checks, yellow boots, and brass bands. Weil, you say, the Maori is fickle in his pleasures or his, pursuits. Can you blame him for never having the environment that made you the disciplined people you are? You might have smiled perhaps- in the pa when those dancing in ths hakas •ware around them plaids as kilts. Who was it taught them" the 'magnificence of tartans? Bless yoii, they -will all be Macpheisone, Gordons,' Fraser3, Campbells, *Macyou will, if you tell them that pakeha clans took pride in such things. Think not that the colours alone, pjeased. I cannot saj what the young Maori will become, I am no prophet, but even upon the material which the present supplies I will not venture a_n opinion. ?oth now dwell together'in peace, and so they will continue, 'but friends, the one does not uni derstand th,e other, nor ever will."