MAORI SOLDIERS' HOSTEL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 235, 5 October 1942, Page 2

MAORI SOLDIERS' HOSTEL

Being a Maori, I would like' to cheer those members of the p tive of the R.S.A. who protested against the proposed site of a hOsSt? for Maori soldiers. These members - no doubt have the welfare of the Maori soldier, and the race, at heart In choosing the site the responsible authorities have perhaps been fluenced by the fact that a lane number of Maoris dwell in tfie locality. In most cases cheap rents and boarding houses have lured these people there, and while thus gaining materially, facts go to prove that their spiritual and moral fits have been little, or absolutely nil Many pakehas are prone to ignore the fact that they have arrived at their present standard of living after thousands of years of contact with civilisation, which the Maori has wife known for a century and a bit The Maori is still in a transitional a state fraught with difficulties. The pakeha, too. has experienced tlfo process of stepping out of savagery: into civilisation, but he knows little or nothing of its difficulties, for-tie reason that it is a far cry from.the present time to that of JiiHni; Ceasar, when, metaphorically speak? ing, the pakeha emerged from darkness into light. A MAORI SOLDIER'S WIFE, i