TE PUEA'S WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1938, Page 8

TE PUEA'S WORK.

His Excellency the Governor-General yesterday invested Te Puea Herangi with a commandership of the Order of the British Empire. It was an honour fully earned, and it was fitting that the investiture should ta£e place when and where it did. For the occasion, the opening of the new house Turongo, marked a further advance in a work which is unique in New Zealand. Te Puea is teaching the Waikato Maoris (though her influence extends far beyond the Waikato) to help themselves, to respect themselves and to be proud of their heritage. That has been, and is still, no easy task. It required, above all, individual inspiration and personal leadership, and it has had both from Te Puea, in whom the necessary qualities of heart and mind are happily blended. She is building up, at Ngaruawahia, a Maori community centre which is valuable in itself, and still more valuable in its example. The quality of Maori craftsmanship in the new house is such that many a museum would assess it as priceless, and the house itself is a most interesting blend of European and Maori arts and crafts. But Turongo is a sign and not the measure of Te Puea's achievement. That achievement is to give the Maoris who have come within her influence new hope and a new spirit of self-reliance. In doing this she is serving her own race; but she is also serving the pakeha, from whom in the past she lias had less help than she deserved.