A Maori View Of The Hunn Report

Press, Volume C, Issue 29698, 16 December 1961, Page 3

A Maori View Of The Hunn Report

A Maori View Of The “Hunn Report” By the Maori Synod of the Presbyterian Church. Presbyterian Bookroom 44 pp. The Maori Synod of the Presbyterian Church is to be congratulated on producing an admirable commentary on what has become popularly known as the Hunn Report. This report, compiled under the direction of Mr Hunn. examined past policies of the Maori Affairs Department together with present problems, indicated some of the premises on which future policy might be based and offered recommendations for future consideration. The Maori Synod welcomed ■the Hunn Report as a whole as a “conscientious and sympathetic endeavour to assist our race to find firm ground for its future development, and to lessen those conflicts which divide Maori and Pakeha.” At the same time, grave concern was caused by some suggestions and proposals which were out of harmony with Maori ideals and seemed likely to perpetuate or accentuate conditions which were felt to be unjust. This commentary considers the Hunn Report section by section, recording its complete or qualified agreement in some cases and its disagreement in others. The Synod is particularly anxious to preserve the distinctive Maori social heritage of language and culture. to emphasize that the basic unit in Maori society is the tribe, the great family rather than the small individual family, and to emphasize the importance of land in providing not only a living but also the right of citizenship in the tribe. In place of Mr Hunn’s five conclusions which he offers as premises on which future policy should be based, the Synod offers eleven principles of a very different character. Even if the statutory incorporation of tribes as a solution to the problem of fragmentation of title to land can hardly be regarded as an underlying principle, they are a marked improvement in as much as they do not involve the doubtful speculations and ambiguity of those in the Hunn Report. The implications of the new list of principles, inocuous though

Stories like THE BOYS OF GLEN MORROCH (Brockhampton Press, 156 pp.), are written afresh for each new generation of readers. The principal characters of this book have already made their mark in the 8.8. C. Scottish children's programmes, although this is the first time their adventures have appeared in book form. Three enterprising school boys, one of whom is fat and keenly interested in food, become involved in the movements of foreign agents, who have various plans that bode ill for Scotland—the most elaborate one includes blowing up a great hydro-electric plant in the Highlands. What is notable about Allan MacKinnon’s book, however, is that there is a good deal of detail and that the local colour is genuine. The dialogue, too, is bright, and no doubt the scientific jargon is up to the minute. Young readers will probably not find the situations hackneyed: after all they have never read them before in the pages of Percy F. Westerman or Gunby Hadath, who specialised in adventures of this kind for boys of a former generation.

CROSS CHANNEL MYSTERY, by Sutherland Ross (Hodder and Stoughton, 123 pp.). is a routine cops and robbers story of the attempt of three children to recover the plans of a new model French car which has been stolen by racketeers. They travel to France with the designer of the car and succeed in upsetting the plans of the thieves who are left with a roll of useless film in their possession.

THE FANTASTIC BROTHER, by the celebrated French writer, Rene Guillot (Methuen, 190 pp.), is a historical romance for 12 to 15-year-olds. Lucas, the son of a vassal in the service of the powerful but aged Comte de Lieue in the time of Louis XIV, goes hunting with the count’s grandson and in time becomes conscious of a mystery in the Lieue family. He becomes involved in the mystery and goes to sea in the charge of a villainous sea-captain. A curious interlude in East Africa, in which Lucas becomes part of a Kikuyu legend. follows Eventually, on his return to France he undertakes a routine trip of adventure in which he “wins his spurs” and the hand of the heiress of the House of Lieue. Rene Guillot is a versatile writer and is a master of creating an atmosphere of mystery and romance. The story has much in common with Rider Haggard’s books which enjoyed great vogue in the past.

they may seem, involve a fundamental difference of outlook. The Hunn Report was essentially a European point of view on the problems and policies vitally affecting the Maori people individually and collectively. An expression of the Maori view point was urgently needed. The commentary of the Maori Synod is friendly and appreciative in tone, but firm in pointing out where Mr Hunn had obscured issues, where he has belaboured straw-men of his own divising and ignored important problems, and where he has simply failed to take into account the attitudes and experience of the Maori people. This commentary on the Hunn Report is indispensable to anyone interested in the Maori people and the problems facing them today. It introduces new dimensions into the interpretation of the material assembled by the Hunn Report undreamt of by its editor. “A Maori View Of The Hunn Report” is as important as it is brief and inexpensive. Esmont Egmont. The Story of a Mountain. By A. B. Scanlan. Reed. 200 pp. Visitors to Taranaki and those returning home to Hawera, Stratford, or New Plymouth, are always impressed by the manner in which Mount Egmont dominates the whole landscape. As he sailed past it with Captain Cook on January 13. 1770. Sir Joseph Banks described it in his journal as "certainly the noblest hill 1 have ever seen.” Eternal and beautiful in its silent snowcapped majesty, this glittering peak has never failed to cast a spell over humdrum lives, especially of those who have sojourned on its green lower slopes, farming and tilling its soil, sharing its weather and experiencing a sense of partnership with it. The author of this book is a Taranakian born and bred. He has made Mount Egmont his hobby, and he here shares with the reader his own affection and knowledgeable interest. He has explored its slopes countless times since boyhood days; has himself made no fewer than 130 ascents to the summit. As a photographer of more than ordinary ability, he shows how he has found its varied beauty a never-ending delight. As a writer (A. B. Scanlan has been editor of the “Taranaki Herald” since 1937) he has been just as fascinated by the Maori legends that centre on the mountain, and by its history of human adventure from the time of the first ascent by Ernst Dieffenbach and James Heberley in 1839. down to the remembered dramas of tragedy and heroism in the face of danger in more recent days.

Mr Scanlan certainly loves his mountain and its whole setting. Comprehensively appreciative without being tedious, he describes its past volcanic history, the influence of Egmont upon the climate, agriculture and settlement of Taranaki, and the magnificent forest reserve with its bush and river scenery encircling the lower slopes within the six-mile radius line of the summit. He details evidence showing that the volcano itself is not totally extinct, but merely dormant. “But Dr Wellam. a leading New Zealand geologist, puts the chances at a hundred-to-one against anything happening immediately at the Egmont volcano.” he writes reassuringly. Speculations about a possible future emulation of Krakatoa “brings no sleepless nights to people in Taranaki, and property values remain firm.”

“Egmont is still a tramper’s mountain, with its greatest scenic attractions and its most satisfying experiences reserved for the energetic." concludes the author. The useful maps which form the end papers to this book, the story as a whole from the earliest days to the present, and the 44 photographs (15 from the author's own skilful camera) will indeed be of the greatest interest to the mountaineer. Yet this is no mere guide book. It will appeal to all who know Mount Egmont, whether their acquaintance has been intimate or more casual. Taranakians especially will value this book as a felicitous addition to the literature of their province. Pipizvai In the years before the last War the pages of “National Education” used occasionally to be enlivened by first-hand impressions of teaching experience from the pen of Mrs Hamilton Grieve; and in due course what she wrote was published in book form “Sketches From Maonland” (Whitcombe and Tombs and Hale, 159 pp.) is a reprint of the volume that first appeared in 1939 Writers in this country are more sophisticated nowadays. At any rate, few of them would care to see "Maoriland” on the title-page of any of their works in 1961. But then Mrs Grieve's book is a period piece in addition to being a notable contribution to the rather small shelf ot humorous books that ring true in New Zealand. The Maori schoolchildren and their parents, whose mode of life the author surveyed with so much real appreciation and understanding, really do belong to a past generation, a point that is emphasised in the new preface for this edition specially written by Dr. A. J. Ha crop The gaiety and the generous spirit of the Maori people are probably unchanged; but these qualities took a more rugged form 25 years ago. This is an impression that A. S. Paterson's pen and ink sketches, which are as crisp and fresh as when they first appeared, would fully support Those who are ignorant of life at Pipiwai have no idea what they axe missing.