PRIDE OF RACE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 59, 10 March 1944, Page 4

PRIDE OF RACE

RECOVERY BY MAORIS

AID GIVEN TO WAR EFFORT

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reported

WELLINGTON, this day,

The efforts being made by the Maoris in his electorate to do all in their power to assist in the industrial war effort, as well as in the services at home and overseas, were the principal topic in the maiden speech of Mr. Paikea (Govt, Northern Maori) in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives last evening. He also defended the Maoris against an allegation that had been made that they had been cutting down their dairy herds to take advantage of Social Security benefits.

Dealing with manpower, Mr. Paikea said that in the Auckland manpower district alone there were 6000 Maoris employed in essential industries arising from the war. me member for the Bay of Islands had suggested that the Maori people were cutting down their dairy herds to take advantage of Social Security benefits, said Mr. Paikea; in other words that they were sabotaging the country's war effort when resources were needed most. He took excep* tion to such a sweeping statement as a grossly unfair attack on the Maori people. If the Opposition had been elected to the Treasury benches the Maoris would have been back to where they were 25 years ago, when they had to live on pipi and tuna, but the Maori was now getting back what he had lost—pride of race.