"OUR LANDS GONE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 8

"OUR LANDS GONE."

THE MAORIS , PLAINT. HOW BARGAINS WERE MADE. MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS. (By Telegraph.—Special Reporter.) WHANGAREI, this day. Referring to the recent criticisms of the Maoris spending their money on drink at a native welcome to the acting Minister of Native Affairs, the Hon. F. Latigstouc, at Waiomio to-day, Mr. Tau Henarp, M.P. for the northern Maoris, said that thocse who had drawn attention to the Maori* drinking, at Rawene, Kaikohc and Kawaka-wa,- had neglected to point out that hundreds more pakehas than Maoris did the same thing at Wellington, Auckland and' other cities and towns. They forgot to state that' when the pakeha was introduced to the Maori in the early days he caiue with a Bible in one haiul aixl a bottle of" beer in the other. (Laughter.) It had only just dawned upon the Maoris that the land they had lost in the early days was lost largely through the influence of the bottle of beer when 'the transactions were made. "Xow, when all our laud* are gone, they turn round to us and eay drinking beer is no good." he concluded. In his reply, the Minister said he had heard an even stronger version than that given by Mr. Tau Hcnare. The pakeha, when he came to Xew Zealand, taught the Maori the Lord's Prayer. The Maori had to put His hands together and shut his eyes, and when he did that the pakeha grabbed the natives' land. That was the etory he had- heard, but it wa« before the Treaty of W&itanpri was riignpd. which bad'stopped the work of the land grabbers, and the treaty was still held sacred. >