FAR NORTH MAORIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 6

FAR NORTH MAORIS.

FHE NEEDS OF THE AUPOURI. TRIBES WITHOUT LEADERS. (By J.C.) The disastrous results of European impact on Maori life are nowhere illustrated more tragically than in those parts of North Auckland lately visited by the acting Minister of Native Affaire. It is all very easy to blame Maori communities for their improvidence, their lack of foresight, their carelessness in money matter*, their indifference to sanitation. In these defects of living they are simply the victims of their pakeha environment and of the gradual sapping of tribal character which has been going on over a period of a century. The European population of the Far North contains elements which have done nothing to elevate or guide aright the easily-influenced native race, but have done a great deal to weaken its spirit and ite health. Pakeha interests, moreover, early acquired most of the good land, taking advantage of the Maoris' lack of commercial acumen and Tack of care for the future.

The people of the little tribe called Aupouri, like their more numerous neighbours on the south of the Rarawa, were a vigorous and industrious tribe when Europeans first made contact with them. They were active and resourceful and hard-trained, ready to fight when necessary, and skilful in obtaining food on land and sea. They caught great quantities of fish, they grew food crops in their beet patches of soil, they killed birds of sea and shore and preserved them in their skilful way as "manu-huahua." Their ruin began with the arrival and the settlement of Europeans. Their One Hope. If that primitive condition, rough but efficient, could be restored all would be well with the Aupouri. But that is not possible, and the new generation has acquired new wante and new ways; its food range has been restricted by alienation of land; the nomadic habits of the kauri gum fields destroyed industrial continuity of purpose. The one hope now liee in settling the people on land where they can become a self-supporting community, preserving so much of the tribal system as is helpful and giving each family its own holding, in a group or series of groups of farms. The Far Xorth Auckland peninsula is suitable for sheep and cattle grazing, and to this work the Aupouri men have become accustomed, though mostly as employees. Unfortunately land monopoly exists in the remote North. There are large holdings which could very well be subdivided and which with the addition of Crown lands could support the whole of the Aupouri comfortably. Mr. Langstone when at Te Hapua last week asked the people to let the Government know' what it could do for them, and his speeches there and elsewhere indicated, a grasp of the situation and a strong desire to settle the tribe on suitable land and help them to become a healthy and prosperous community. Certainly the Maoris deserve that helping hand.

Leadership. But land, and the best land available, with adequate State financial assistance, is not the only want. Just as important, or perhaps even more important, .is leadership. Many pakeha politicians and missionaries, and others who have had to do with the Maori, did their best to destroy the principle of heredity chieftainship. One- influence and another gradually broke down '. the healthy old system under which a strong- man became a kind of dictator, usually a benevolent dictator, his mana strengthened by the law; of tapu. Now it is realised that the perianal influence of a high chief is the strongest of "(act ore in the tribal life. The modern examples %i Sir Apirana Ngata and Te Puea of Waikato are proof of the need for similar leaders in-every division of the race. The oki leaders —whether hereditary chiefs like Wahanui of Ngati-Maniapoto, or men who attained'leadership by personal gifts and force of character, such'as Te Kooti —were successful in keeping their people together, compelling industry .and united action. When Wetere te Rerenga, of Mokau Heads, died his people went to pieces, as they eaid themselves: their rata tree had fallen and there was none to shelter them. I have seen in many places the sad results*of a tribal ruler's death. In the North ..Auckland country this want of leadership in particularly marked.

It is most unfortunate that the representation of the Maoris in Parliament is so inadequate in every electorate in the Dominion except Sir Apirana Ngata'e, the Tai-Rawhiti. The masterful old chieftains having gone, the Maori M.P.'s and the representatives of the race in the Upper Houee should take their places. But they are inarticulate; they we not the men for the times. Pakeha Should Help. There may be latent gifts of leadership in the young college-bred generation of Maoris. I hope there are coming-on young men with the needful intellectual capacity and patriotic fire. In the meantime, until such men appea'r, the powerful pakeha must come to the rescue as guide and adviser and firm controller. Warm sympathy and ability to take the Maori point of view are the first essentials. There are a few pakehas in official positions who have those qualifications, and there are other men who are in a position to help the Government to rehabilitate a small tribe that has fallen upon evil times through no fault of its own. We have seen what can be done'by the Maoris under efficient organisation in other parts of this island, given the material help that the people have a right to expect from the clever and wealthy pakeha race that has acquired nearly all their country.