NATIVE AFFAIRS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22518, 28 September 1938, Page 15

NATIVE AFFAIRS

TO TUX EDITOR OF TUX PRESS. Sir, —Mr A. Manawatu gives an opinion “Heed not the advice of the inferior pakeha.” It Is perfectly evident from reading Hansard that many months ago the present Maori M.P. for Southern Maori electorate did not so act. Hansard again shows recently that a fellow member of Parliament made out, with unfortunately a good deal of truth, that Wellington was the electorate of the Southern M.P. Should the Maoris in their wisdom select Mr Bragg (Independent National) or Mr P. McDonald (Independent Labour) as the representative, I qan assure Mr A. Manawatu that should they act like the present member, my pen will be wielded more caustically against them (that is if the editor allows it). Does it not occur to Mr A. Manawatu that £6OOO on housing, etc., in the whole of the South Island, for Maoris, is a ridiculously small sum, when expenditure of millions is talked about. I do not think £6OOO would go far in paying for the Government Houses in Avon and available at a rental “Wiremu Teira” would not care to meet. For Mr A. Manawatu’s benefit I may say I have had my ups and downs, and have freely mixed and seen with my own eyes the social degrees of my fellow men, under various governments up to the present one. As one purely Independent, 1 am not inclined to paint the sins of the last Government quite so black as many unfortunates do, nor as white as some of the fortunates do the present Government. My letter was prompted because a department under the control of a Labour Minister approached “inferior pakehas” like myself for advice, and not a Maori. Last Saturday I visited a Maori village, and from plain observation I say a teacher and his wife are doing and have done more for their Maori friends quietly and unobtrusively than some of the leading Maori leaders. When I get a reply such as Mr A. Manawatu gives, I feel satisfied, a hit deserved has gone home. The compliments are of not much account. —Yours, etc., WIREMU TEIRA. September 27, 1938.