The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1937. AFTER TE HAPUA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1937. AFTER TE HAPUA.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the tcrong that needs resistance. Far the future in the distance, And the good that tr.e cen do.

During the visit of the Minister of Lands, I Mr. Lang-tone, to the Far North there was; brought to his notice the state of the little tribe of Maoris called Aupouri, living at To Hnpita. Their living conditions he described! as "shocking," and those who read the details of Hit! Ministerial party's observations "will agree that he did not exaggerate. Mr. Langs tone declared that he would not rest until measures had been taken to ameliorate the conditions, and no doubt he will be as good as his word. But much more than ameliorative action is required. Amelioration too often means little more than the expenditure of money, and nothing was clearer at Te Hapua than the fact that the natives there do not need more money —at any rate, in the long run —but that their condition is in part attributable to their own misspending of the money now available to them. When it is reported that, while the natives, many diseased, sleep- crowded in dirty hovels, there is an extensive traffic in "an alcoholic concoction containing permanganate of potash and methylated spirits, with a little wine and brandy added," and sold at 6/ a bottle —in the absence of which concoction there is another, home-brewed, containing maize and tobacco —it becomes as clear as daylight that what this community needs is not more money, but guidance and control in the spending of what it has. The nature of that guidance is not a question to be decided in a day, nor should only the Aupouri be considered; it involves to a considerable extent the whole policy of the Government, and the attitude of the pakeha toward the Maori. Much confusion of thought, not only among private citizens, but occasionally in Government quarters, results from regarding the Maori as one people on a common level of culture; in short, from the conception that "all Maoris are the same." Only ordinary powers of observation are needed to compel the realisation that they are not. Some —a few —lose nothing by comparison with any pakeha; others have adapted themselves fairly well to pakeha customs and standards, but (often through lack of secondary education) tend ever tb fall behind; others, again, have merely acquired European vices while losing Maori virtues. No formula can be devised usefully to fit all three divisions. But a formula has been devised; .the formula of "complete equality with the pakeha." It sounds well and comfortipg, but in fact is in many cases not in all) 'meaningless, and even cruel to the Maori. To tell the natives of Te Hapua that they are "equal to the pakeha" would be nonsense; or, if not nonsense, it would mean only that they have equal opportunity to indulge in pakejha vices. If Mr. Langstone carries out the suggestion he has already tentatively made, of building a school hostel at Te Hapua "for teaching the children housekeeping, cooking and other useful things, the ptopils being allowed to go home only at the week-ends," he will do something likely to give the children a start in life equal to the pakeha child. It would j be at the least a valuable experiment, and certainly more economical than any palliative! that is likely to be devised. I