OBLIGATIONS TO THE MAORIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 5

OBLIGATIONS TO THE MAORIS.

MB. J. R. KIRK'S ADDRESS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 12. The Victoria League initiated its winter session of lectures very happily by a fixture devoted to New Zealand interests. Mr. J. R. Kirk, M.B.E of Gisborne, lectured on the subject, New Zealand: Has the British race fulfilled its obligations to the Maori!" There was a very full attendance at the meeting. Miss Gladys Potts, who was in the chair, said a word of appreciation of her visit to New Zealand last year. Mr. Kirk explained briefly the theories'now holding the field as to the origin of the Maoris that of Professor Macmillan Brown of a primitive fair race whose migrations can bo followed through the archaeological remains across New Zealand, Asia, Japan or the islands of the Pacific, to New Zealand; that of Mr. Percy Smith, who said that the race had its origin in India; and the Maori story of their coming from, liawaiki. Two points the audience were asked to think over; (a) that if the ancestors of the Maoris were of Aryan origin, they might not be so very far removed from the white race; ("2) Professor Macmillan Brown's question, the answer to which seemed difficult, that if the Maori ancestors came in the manner described by Mr. Percy Smith, through lands with a knowledge of pottery, why was there no evidence of pottery among the Maoris ? The lecturer then dealt with the religion and mysticism of the Maori race, ■with their rare gift of oratory, their vocal attainments, their knowledeo of : warfare and their wedge-shaped formation, similar to the Macedonian and Roman phalanx, and of their navigating and hunting ability. Incidentally he paid tribute to the work of Sir James Carroll, the Hon. A. I. Ngata, Dr. Rangihiroa (Buck) and Sir Maul ; Pomare, of each of whom he gave ai I brief and interesting description. I Sketching briefly the history of its ' European connections with Cook and other explorers, he then gave some I some graphic details of the Maori wars. I Then, in answering the question which (formed the subject of the lecture, Mr. J Kirk showed how well the Maori was (now tended—the provision for nurses 'and medical attention in the parks and ■villages, Maori schools of excellent 'standing, provision for secondary and I university education, which Maori stu- ' dents enjoyed, representation in Parliament, protection in their dealings, interpreters in the Courts, sympathetic judges finding titles for their lands, State help in their farming operations, and equal privileges with the European. He mentioned the grant of £6000 per annum to the Arawas, and the excellent use it was being put to, showed what the church had done in the early days and described the friendly feeling existing between the brown and the white men. He thought that absorption, as education advanced and the vea.rs went on, would be the fate of the "Maori, but before that happened steps were being taken by Maoris and EnglishMaori scholars, to collect and preserve for posterity a history that r-ould bo enthrallingly interesting, nd which would for ever mark he Maori as the highest type of native ver known. Concluding his address, Ir. Kirk reminded his audience that he next day would be Armistice Day, nd he said could a more fitting answer o given to the question he had put to hem than the answer of the Maoris hemselves, when they rushed to the ecruiting offices to offer their services, nd, as so many did, to give their lives n order that freedom and fair treatnent that they had received from the British Empire might not pass from the eorld.