Call For Reform Of Maori Affairs Dept

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31761, 19 August 1968, Page 26

Call For Reform Of Maori Affairs Dept

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, August 18.

Reform of the Department of Maori and Island Affairs was advocated in Hamilton today by Dr D. I. Sinclair, past president of the Maori Graduates Association.

Dr Sinclair was opening the University Students’ Associaticn’s conference on race relations.

Maori affairs should be removed from Ministerial and political domination, he said. At present Maoris were the object rather than the subject of administrative decisions because they did not have the social and economic status of Europeans.

He supported one of the recommendations of the Hunn report—that a widely-based commission be set up to investigate the anomalies between Maori and pakena, and to find more effective means of removing them. It had been suggested that an impartial commissioner, rather than the Maori Affairs Committee, should deal with Maori land problems, Dr Sinclair said.

The effectiveness of Maori pressure groups, such as the Maori Council and the Maori Women’s Welfare League, had been limited. Because they received their funds from the Government they tended to be Government oriented.

The changes that needed to be made in Maori land, health and educational programmes could most effectively be brought about by a change of Government, he said. In this situation the Pub-

lic Service would be more receptive to modification. Dr Sinclair said the Maori Affairs Amendment Act was the most discriminatory piece of legislation passed anywhere in the world in the last 10 years.

"The whole country is responsible for this legislation,” he said. “People allowed it to be passed because they were apathetic, mercenary, or materialistic.”