Intermarriage Is “A Saving Grace” Of N.Z.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31943, 21 March 1969, Page 2

Intermarriage Is “A Saving Grace” Of N.Z.

Acceptance .of .inter-1 marriage by both Maoris J and pakehas had been J one of the saving graces j of New Zealand, Dr Rina Moore, of Nelson, said at j a Mothers’ Union diocesan conference in Christ-, church yesterday. "When a pakeha marries a Maori, he cannot help but understand and become in- 1 volved in the problems of the : Maori,” said Dr Moore, who was the first Maori woman to graduate in medicine from Otago University. Married to a Nelson lawyer and the mother of four child-1 ren, she is a social psychiatrist engaged in private prac-1 tice.

“I can understand the fears and worries people have about intermarriage, but I am not prepared to understand sheer prejudice,” said Dr Moore. “Mostly we find that, in intermarriage, Maoris and pakehas marry into their own class, but where the pakeha throws up his hands in apprehension when a mixed marriage occurs in the family, you must remember that we do the same.” “Chosen People” Tracing the history of race relations in New Zealand, Dr Moore said the Maori, like many races in the world, regarded himself as belonging to “a chosen people.” Fortunately, early missionaries left the Maori people with their own sense of pride and dignity. “This seems very difficult to maintain even these days when one race tries to help another into the living standards of the majority of the world,” she said. As a result of the tragedy of the wars between the Maoris and the British soldiers, Maori and pakeha lived in suspicion of each other from the beginning of this century. “Part of this was because, although the Maoris lived a rural life, they felt a great bitterness at the loss of their

land. The Europeans, on the other hand, tended to become insensitive to the needs of the Maori people,” said Dr Moore. The poverty of the Maoris increased until, after World War 11, they were forced in increasing numbers to seek work in the cities. Rural Life “For roughly 50 years, the life of the Maoris was rural. Now we estimate that 50 per cent of Maoris are urban. The two races are forced to live together with some suspicion and some misunderstanding. “They are people who do not know each other and I think both races meet this new intermingling very well,” said Dr Moore.

“Of course, there is unreasonable dislike and a lack of understanding from both sides, but to me it is simply what would be expected not only between two races, but between two people of the same race who do not like or understand each other.” The old idea that there were pure races was a misunderstanding pure races simply did not exist, she said.; “For all the misunderstandings and Injustices that have occurred between our two races, I do not think that there is a Maori in the country who .would not prefer the

signing of the Treaty of Waitangi,” said Dr Moore. “They see and know what has happened in other countries and I, of course, prefer the reasonable living between our two races, with the faith of a better future and the knowledge that the Maoris have at least been granted a certain amount of pride in their lives.”