" FANTASTIC STORY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 227, 25 September 1934, Page 10

" FANTASTIC STORY."

MAORIS AND PARLIAMENT. DISCOURTESY NOT INTENDED. (By Telegraph.—rress Association.) ROTORUA, Monday. A statement telegraphed from Wellington that a number of members of the Arawa tribe who visited Parliament last week had risen and left the public gallery when the member for Lyttelton, Mrs. "E. R. McCombs, commenced to speak, was emphatically contradicted by one member of tho party in an interview to-day. According to a Wellington report, Mr. H. D. Bennett, as a representative of the Arawa tribe, had undertaken to apologise to the House for the discourtesy of several members of the tribe who rose and left the gallery when Mrs. McCombs commenced to speak. The explanation of tlieir action given was that the Arawas did not permit women to speak in public or enter an arena reserved for men. "The story is quite fantastic and someone must have been using his imagination," said tho Rev. 11. W. Munro, a member of the party of Arawas concerned. "There was no concerted movement of the Arawns present to leave the gallery, and nothing was further from our thoughts than discourtesy to Mrs. McCombs. It is true that it is not the Arawa custom for women to speak on the marae, but we do not expect our customs to be observed on the marae of other people, and would not bo so discourteous as to take the action reported merely because our customs were not so observed."

Mr. Munro said the explanation of the incident was perfectly simple. A number of members of the Ngati-Wha-kaue sub-tribe of the Arawas had given evidence to tho Native Affairs Committee of the House on a petition last Tuesday, and had afterwards been invited to take a seat in the public gallery and listen to the debate. Several availed themselves of the invitation, but after a while, as the debate was not very interesting, they gradually got up and left. They did not leave in a body, and there was no intention whatever of conveying disapproval of Mrs. MoCombs' speech. Tho whole story was a figment of the imagination of some person who had not taken the trouble to ascertain the facts.