Maori Language Is In Danger Of Being Lost In Sth. Island

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 78, 4 August 1950, Page 4

Maori Language Is In Danger Of Being Lost In Sth. Island

There was a danger that the use of the Maori tongue in the South Island would be lost, said the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, recently. The position was “not at all hopeful.” Bishop Bennett was commenting on a report from Blenheim that the principal of the Marlborough College is to make inquiries about finding a competent instructor to have Maori students at the college taught their own native language. “In the North Island, a great deal of Maori is still spoken in the homes/ and the children are able to understand it, although they themselves make replies in English," said Bishop Bennett. He pointed out that the children attended schools where English was the only language spoken and this was causing the children to forget their own language very considerably. i

“On the East Coast parents are trying to keep up the Maori language for there is no desire on their part that their own language should be forgotten, but their task is made harder because of the continuous contact of their children with European children who do not speak the Maori tongue.

“I am very much afraid tha,t in the South Island the position is not at all hopeful,” said the Bishop when asked whether he thought the Maori tongue was likely to disappear in the South Island. “The position there is really difficult because I would estimate that only 20 to 25 per cent of the adult Maori people in the island understand their own Maori ; language,” he said. “They have become almost completely anglicised and although many are making a worthy effort to keep up native traditions and customs by holding small gatherings periodically among their <pwn people, they are having a hard struggle.” i