Maori Talents ‘Untapped’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31091, 21 June 1966, Page 6

Maori Talents ‘Untapped’

fN.Z. Preu Anociatlon) HAMILTON, June 20. Opportunity alone would not make the Maori a firstclass citizen. A demand must be created for his untapped talents in all fields of national life, said the Rev. Dr. M. Bennett, New Zealand's only Maori prison chaplain. “There must be a demand for the Maori’s potential in the fields of knowledge, skills and social development,” he said. “After all, it is demand which regulates supply. The pakeha is in demand for his higher skills, the Maori is in demand only for menial tasks.” Dr. Bennett said there would never be full integration under present circumstances because there was no distinctive New Zealand culture into which the Maori would fit. The pakeha had a European culture. Dr. Bennett said that but for the Second World War the Maori people would almost certainly have become

conditioned to accept the role of “second-class citizens.” Their plight would have become as hopeless as that of the Indians existing on the reservations of North America. “Had there been a continuance of past policies, which seemed to have reached their lowest point in 1939, it is more than likely the Maori people would have become so conditioned as to become satisfied with the role of secondclass citizen,” he said. “To the Maori, life was reaching the stage of hopelessnesswhile it did not actually reach this point, it came perilously close.”

The war, which imposed national demands on Maoris and gave them a sense of being needed, brought the whole race out of despondency. “The road back to full, first-class citizenship is going to be a long, hard one but the break-through is starting to take place,” said Dr. Bennet. “Maoris must not only be given an opportunity—which is being done—but there must be a demand ere-

ated for their talents in all fields of national life. In the natural balance of things instead of being liabilities, they will become assets to their country.”