CONFERENCE OF MAORIS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27985, 4 June 1956, Page 7

CONFERENCE OF MAORIS

100 DELEGATES FROM SOUTH ISLAND DISCUSSION ON FISHING AND LAND RIGHTS About 100 delegates from tribes and settlements in all parts of the South Island, including Motueka and Bluff, are attending a conference of South Island Maoris at the Addington Show Grounds. The conference, which is the first to be held by South Island Maoris since 1925. has been financed locally. The conference will end today. “The Maori custom of giving has prevailed at the conference,” said the chairman (Mr T. Pitama). The variety of food brought by the various groups, to be shared among the delegates during the conference, indicates the widely-scattered areas from which members have come. Oysters and mutton birds, which were caught a few hours before the conference, were flown from Bluff; and eels were sent from Taumutu and Little River. Two remits approved at the conference are: (1) “That Maoris reserve the right of obtaining eels in Lake Ellesmere (Waihora), including Lake Wairewa and others, and that any further attempts to commercialise the eel industry b? prohibited,” (2) “That the South Island section of the Land Court be established in the South Island, to be located in Christchurch.” Other remits, which are being discussed by sub-committees are that additional seats be provided in the House of Representatives for Maoris and that the Southern Maori electorate be confined to the South Island; that the Government be urged to appoint a Maori jury during the trial of Maori prisoners in the Supreme Court; that Maori Justices of the Peace be appointed for city areas in the South Island; and that an annual South Island Maori congress should meet at a selected centre under the auspices of the Minister of Maori Affairs. Mr A. K. Hopa, secretary of the Canterbury Tribal Committee, when discussing the remit on the land Court, said that several Maori reserves had been taken by proclamation. The only Maori Land Court was in the North Island, and South Island Maoris had to travel there to do their business.

“SEPIA ACES” WELCOMED

BULLOCK ROASTED IN MAORI OVEN A bullock cooked in a Maori earth oven, and supplemented by several hundredweight of potatoes, pumpkin, and cabbage, was the fare provided at a Maori function at the Addington Show Grounds last evening, when members of the West Indian “Sepia Aces” variety band were welcomed by the chairman of the conference of South Island Maoris (Mr L. Pitama).

They were the guests of the conference and of the Kati Otautahi Maori Youth Club last evening, and after the feast the visitors were entertained with Maori hakas and other items. The V/est Indians in turn, entertained their hosts.

“Our race has quite a lot in common with the Maoris,” said the leader of the “Sepia Acss” (Mr Bertie King), when he replied to a welcome from Mr Pitama. “I am certain that you are trying to achieve the aims that we have been trying to do—we are one big family. Though we are many miles from the West Indies, the Maori people have made us feel at home.”