GOVERNMENT OF MAORIS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27224, 16 December 1953, Page 12

GOVERNMENT OF MAORIS

Plea For Measure Of Autonomy APPROACH TO QUEEN SUGGESTED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 15. An appeal to King Koroki to go to Waitangi and there ask the Queen for a measure of Maori self-government was made today by Mr Hirone Wikiriwhi. an Arawa chieftain, who is a school teacher in Wellington. In a statement, Mr Wikiriwhi said that a deputation from the Waikato Confederation of Tribes, asking the Government to arrange a visit by the Royal party to Turangawaewae had been refused, and quite rightly so. “Why should there be discrimination, friend Koroki?” said Mr Wikiriwhi. "Let us both go to Rotorua and Waitangi. Let us remain sane and sensible. We have so much to do, and so little time to do it in. The visit by our Queen has given us the opportunity to present the memorial which our fathers before us tried to submit for Royal consideration, namely the request for our mana motuhake, that is, for a fair measure of self-government. “Do you not think this is of more importance than squabbling over sacred soil and other things? You and I today are reduced to the status of beggars, and we have literally to crawl on our knees with our requests to whatever Government is holding the whip. We are to meet the Queen at Waitangi, and let us there ask her for a fair measure of self-government. It was promised to us by the Treaty of Waitangi, but it has never been ratified.

“Let me explain our case in these words,” Mr Wikiriwhi said. “You and I are living on the limb of one huge tree. There are many other limbs, and on these limbs are the other races which now live with us in our country. But these other peoples are not so unhappy as we are, because the trunk and the roots of this huge tree are made up of themselves. Not so with

“The Government forms this trunk and its roots, and it also holds the axe. If it thinks that the limb on which you and I are placed is a burden to it. it will just lop it off, and you and I will fall to the ground. Is this democracy? “There are many trees in a forest, but here in our country they want only one tree. Yet we help to nourish this tree. Surely we should be allowed to plant our own tree. Our request to Her Majesty is that we be given the right to plant, nurture, and look after our own tree. This is the meaning of mana motuhake. It is a request for fairness in the sharing of self-govern-ment. Providence has given you and I this opportunity to serve our Maori people,” Mr Wikiriwhi concluded.