Maori rejected as a "national language’

Press, 4 August 1981, Page 23

Maori rejected as a "national language’

PA Wellington Maori members of Parliament have wrangled in Parliament over whether the status of the Maori language should be raised officially in order to advance its use.

Debate on the issue sprang from a proposal in a private member's bill by Dr B. Gregory (Lab., Northern Maori) which, if accepted, would make Maori a “language of the nation.” Dr Gregory said that official recognition of the language as it now stood was meaningless and implied no

legal consequences er right. The language had recognition only at official functions, he claimed. It should be a living language, he said. The Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Couch) exchanged phrases with Dr Gregory, but described the bill as a petty one which would make only a minor change to the existing situation and have no practical effect. "We’re here to build a nation of New Zealanders. I'm a New Zealander first and a Maori second. I don’t know whether I’m a fair

Maori or a dark pakeha. . Mr Couch said the Maon people were discussing form of a whole new Maon Affairs bill for presentation to Parliament He wanted to know where Maori was not accepted, n had official status as the language of the Maori race. Mr Couch asked if the next proposal from the Labour Party would be to make it compulsory for everyone to read and write Maori. Mr W. R. Austin (Nat, Awarua) said that no Opposition speaker had given a sound reason to change an act which already gave official status to the language. . He suggested the legal in; terpretation of the Maori Affairs Amendment Act 1974. was to give official recognition and pointed out that Parliament’s standing orders allowed House documents to be translated into Maori when "expedient” "The content of this bill is quite unnecessary," he said. Mrs Whetu TirikateneSullivan (Lab., Southern Maori) said the 1974 act made the Maori language official for Maori people only. It did not go far enough, she said. "This goes further." “We seek to retrieve from the heritage that is ours a jewel that has been overlooked," she said.

Mr W. R. Peters (Nit. Hunua) said that the clause seeking to give official recognition to Maori as "a language of the nation,” was unclear.

The bill, he said, was ambiguous and uncertain. What did the word "nation” mean, the Maori people or the country?

But Mr R. W. Prebble (Lab., Auckland Central) said that any confusion over the word nation was "rubbish.” It meant the country.

Maori, he said, had ho status for any practical purpose in law. The Court of Appeal had ruled it unofficial, be said, and the Court had said that any extension of its status was “a matter for the legislature.”

The bill was rejected by the Government.