THE MAORI HOUSE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23109, 27 August 1940, Page 10

THE MAORI HOUSE

TO THE EDITOR OP THE PRESS. Sir— I have read from time to time letter’s appearing in your paper about the Maori house. “Pakeha’s” letter suggests Mawhera, Greymouth, or perhaps Arahura. That brings me into it. It appears to me that toe stumbling block is money. If the money is not found to buy the house, what will the Government do with-it? I would suggest that the Government give the house to the Maoris o 1 the West Coast. At the last sitting of the Native Land Court at Hokitika, we, the Maoris of the West Coast, gave 48 acres of the finest land in South Westland to the Government for an aerodrome. We have also given pieces of . land for roads. We Arahura Maoris realise that aerodromes and roads are essential and we don’t stand in the way of progress, so we gave. I suggest that the Government give us the Maori house. This house could be erected on the nofth bank of the Arahura river. This river is sacred to my people. It is the only river in the world in which the greenstone is found. It is glso a river over which the Crown has no rights. It absolutely belongs to the descendants of the Tuhuru- The front of the house will face the Southern Alps—the landmark over which we Arahura Maoris claim Kupe saw a long white cloud hanging. The Southern Alps with their winter coat on and Mount Cook in the distance were the landmarks that Kupe saw. The Christchurch-West Coast express and the main south road to the Franz Josef and . Fox glaciers will pass its front door. On the left of it will be the railway station and our little church. At the rear will be seen_the setting sun and the waves of the Tasman Sea. On its right will flow the sacred river softly to the sea. Above it toe Cook Strait Airways aeroplanes will fly to and from Wellington. So there we have the finest place in the South'lsland for the Maori house.

My people are not rangitiras by what they possess, but rangitiras for W “Kia h Qra S Arowhenua" stated in one of his letters that they have a model Maori pa. Now, they have something Maori to show the visitors. We Ara hura Maoris have worked and lived with the pakeha and we hayeerected six new bungalows with ■ all conven ences on pakeha lines. Now this Maori house situated amidst these beautiful bungalows will give the Maori touch to our pa. time we have had visitors from England, America, Holland, Switzerland Suva, Australia, and many other pails to take away with them greenstone, and we give to them and do our ut : most to oblige them. This Maori house will be just the place to entertain these visitors, and they could inspect the beautiful work of its states the Maoris of the South Island are mostly of an mdigent class. • This is surely evidence that our Maori friends are deserving of a helping hand from the pakeha. If “Pakeha” wants to help thp Maoris, I will suggest to him that the pakehas as a whole appeal to the Government to put the Treaty of Waitangi on the statutes. If Britain had taken this beautiful country as Germany has taken Denmark and Holland, we Maoris would have had nothing to say. Our noble ancestors were never defeated. The Treaty of Waitangi. drawn up by Queen Victoria and signed by our noble ancestors, bound the Maori to the Crown. We have stood by the treaty; we have been loyal to the Crown; we have done all the Crown has asked us to do. And now, if the Treaty of Waitangi is put on the statutes, the pakeha people will only be carrying out the British justice that the Crown to-day so nobly boasts about. —Yours, etc., TUHURU TAINUI, Chairman. Runga, Arahura Maori Pa. August 26, 1940.