‘Long Maori Setback’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31215, 12 November 1966, Page 3

‘Long Maori Setback’

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON,

Nov. 11.

The Maori of today had still not recovered from the severe setback his self-confid-ence received in the Maori Wars of the 1860 s.

The chairman of the Maori Education Foundation, Mr D. G. Ball, said in his annual report to the foundation this week, that the Maori Wars has brought a cessation of cooperation and a loss of respect between Maori and pakeha.

The loss of self-confidence and feeling of belonging to the community, had persisted through the generations and was a major stumbling block to the effective education and full citizenship of the Maori people, said Mr Ball. “Not only Maori education, but the stability and welfare of New Zealand, depends on the restoration of his faith in his inherent equality,” said Mr Ball.

Mr Ball said many Maoris had today come to understand the complexities and drives of the European way of life and had adjusted to them. The great majority, however, was still withdrawn and insecure and its regeneration depended to a large extent on the leadership of its own people.

The relatively poor scholastic achievement of Maori children, compared with Europeans of similar background, suggested there were factors for the Maori child, apart from those of an economic or social nature, that had

a bearing on his education progress.

In one respect, however, the Maori child suffered no disadvantage, said Mr Ball. His intelligence was not in question, although his school record tended to obscure this fact.

The findings of a U.N.E.S.C.O. inquiry published last year said: .

the peoples of the world today appear to possess equal biological potentialities for attaining any cultural level. Differences in the achievements of different people must be attributed solely to their cultural history. . .

Mr Ball said the crucial factor in the regeneration of the Maori people was that a race could not be divorced from its cultural roots. It had taken the Government and people of New Zealand more than 100 years to appreciate this.

Should their culture continue to be ignored or considered a handicap in their efforts to adjust to the dominant culture, the Maoris would, as a people, lose heart, said Mr Ball.