MAORIS AND THE CITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 122, 26 May 1939, Page 8

MAORIS AND THE CITY.

In calling attention to the drift of young I Maoris to Auckland and its vicinity, where | some are living under appalling conditions, j Mr. J. Rukutai has sounded an alarm which i should ring l loud in the ears of the authorities. The urgent nature ot the ' problems thus involved was very emphatically stressed by Mr. Rukutai when he said if the present drift were allowed to continue it would be beyond the power of nny authority to remedy. Those are weighty words, coming as they do fTom a man who i has won the respect of pakeha and Maori alike by his work for his people, and they j should act as a trumpet call to action before J it is too late. The present conditions, said the speaker, reflect on the whole Maori race, I but they reflect much more seriously upon the pnkchn, and the problem must not be allowed to conveniently slip into the background. Unless a solution be found more Maoris will drift into the city under conditions of housing and employment, or unemployment, which win sap the moral | i Z2Z. «♦ r l C t That process is Soing on I to-day; lt must be arreted, and that quickly.