HELPING THE MAORI

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 14

HELPING THE MAORI

NEW ZEALAND PROBLEM * PLEA FOR SYMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING "In his bewilderment with pakeha civilisation, still not a century old in New Zealand, the brown hands of the Maori beckon us to come and help him; dare we ignore that gesture?” asked Mr John Houston, of Hawera, in an address on Maori problems and remedies at the national conference of Rotary Clubs yesterday. “We New Zealanders are prone to complacency as to cur treatment of the Maori. That complacency has little justification in actual fact.’’ Giving figures of the high rate of mortality among the Maori people and ‘ emphasising the ill-effects of the maladjustment of Maoris to European civilisation, Mr Houston suggested a programme that could be undertaken for the well-being of the native race. Simple, genuine friendship between Maori and pakeha would do much to remove practical difficulties. Real friendship with Maori people quickly led to real progress. Not many Rotarians could point to any one Maori home in which they were known and welcome guests, or point to any one Maori who was a known and welcome guest in their own? It was said that no colour bar existed in New Zealand, but was that true? In town the Maori was often forced into the interior boardinghouse and his associates were usually from the lower orders. At home his pakeha visitors were usually of the rougher sort. The Maori women rarely met our betterclass women, though the women's institutes were making progress in this important aspect of Maori life. Distrust of Pakeha Communal life was a characteristic of the Maori. This in some respects might be undesirable, but it should be recognised as a continuing factor. Then again it should be realised that what was done in altering conditions of life for the Maori must be accomplished from within the tribe. Historically, the reason for this lay in the Maori’s deep-rooted distrust for pakeha counsels. Pakeha guidance and co-operation were essential in any reform, but it was the members of the tribe who must carry the reform into effect. Mr Houston set out heads under which improvements for the Maori were necessary. These were, better housing, .sanitation, water supply, training in hygiene and nursing, better education, technical training for trades and farming, and land development. "The Maori lives close to us as distance is measured,” Mr Houston concluded, “yet far indeed from our sympathetic understanding. He travels a lonesome road, deeply rutted with the survivals of age-old customs, and he hesitates to trust us, though he is eager to be our equal in the struggle of life. For us is the task of winning his confidence and trust, and of seeing to it that conditions are improved for him.”