UNEMPLOYED MAORIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 160, 10 July 1933, Page 6

UNEMPLOYED MAORIS.

I thoroughly endorse the remarks of Mr. G. Graham in defence of unemployed Maoris. It is really not an easy thing for the Maori to obtain relief work, and he only does so, as Mr. Graham has previously stated, after the Native Department has thoroughly satisfied itself that he has either no property or so little as not to be able to keep him. He must then first pay his levy. As for not paying rent or rates, a large number of Maoris do* pay rent and rates —myself among the number. Those who do not unfortunately liavc not the money to do so. Do all pakehas, then, pay their rent and rates? As for Mr. Darhyshire's comment that the Maoris "have nev«r been better off than at present," I consider it shows his ignorance. It is rather a peculiar thing to i*e that the Maori has always more or less been made the target of much ridicule and sarcasm by the pakeha, and more especially so when one looks back to the time— and not so long ago, either —when the Maori had plenty and with the generosity and kindliness of heart that seems to be altogether his, he often voluntarily -when any appeals were made to him gave freely to his pakeha brothers. Hβ was then hailed by one and all as "a jolly good fellow." But now that he is "broke" nobody wants him—few care to call him "friend"—even in the land that has for so long been the- birthplace of his ancestors. Conditions are becoming more and more complicated, a living harder to obtain as the time goes on, so that he feels a stranger—not in his own but in a strange land. PARE TAMIHANA.