AKARANA ASSOCIATION.

Auckland Star, Issue 265, 8 November 1929, Page 10

AKARANA ASSOCIATION.

ASIATIC QUESTION AGAIN.

OPINIONS from: the north.

RESOLUTION PASSED.

Members of the Akarana Maori Association, at their weekly meeting last

evening, were surprised to receive a visit from several native people who voluntarily attended to ventilate their views on the Asiatic trouble. The spokeswomen, from North Auckland, went into considerable detail to show that there was an organised attempt for some time past to persuade young native women to leave their homes In. the country for allegedly lucrative employment on Chinese gardens. According to the visitors, none of the facts published regarding the Asiatic menace had been exaggerated. The difficulties of Maori parents in their district was to prevent daughters from being lured away for the purpose mentioned. The northern natives heartily approved the action of the assocition.

After some discussion, a resolution was passed -regretting that the Rev. A. J. Seamer, of the Methodist Maori mission, had,alleged exaggeration of the statements made by the association in connection with the social evil arising from the employment of Maori girls oil Chinese cultivations. The resolution, which is to be sent to the Methodist Mission Board, disputes the right of Mr. Seamer to speak with authority on general Maori conditions, as his work only concerned a denominational section of the native people.