YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 150, 26 June 1940, Page 9

YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

GREAT WORK FOR PEOPLE,

The way' in which a group of young Maori men, by their enthusiasm and high ideals, had played' a vital part in the revival of their race was the subject of an interesting lecture by Professor I. L. G. Sutherland, of Christcmirch, in the Auckland University College last evening. Defeated in war and suffering from the economic and social effects of land sale and confiscation, the Maori people, were suffering from inner and outer defeats, up to the last , decade of the nineteenth century. Most observers then regarded the Maori ae a dying race. But, developing from the Te Ante College Students' Association, an organisation which came to bo .known as tho Young Maori Party attracted to its cause such men as' Ngata, Buck, Pomare and Hone Heke. These leaders had many difhculties to contend with, but, by tact and devotion to the Maori tradition, enlisted the support of the elders. Throughout, they obeyed the injunction of Sir James CarTOll'to hold fast to their Maorihood, and the lecturer ' outlined in graphic fashion the way in which they set about reorganising the lives and work of their people. He declared that the changed policy of the United States Government towards the Indians seemed partly due to the success attending the efforts of the Maori leaders who gained their experience as members of the -Young Maori Party.