Tribal influence

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 12

Tribal influence

Sir, —In your editorial of January 25, “Revising law on children,” you quote the working party as •saying that Mr John Rangihau “noted how the paramountcy accorded to the child, in the Children and Young Persons Act, subsumed the importance attached to the responsibility of the tribal group, through tribal traditions and lore, which took precedence over the view of birth parents.” Since “subsume” was a word with which I am unfamiliar, I looked it up in both the “Concise Oxford” and “Funk and Wagnall” dictionaries; Oxford gives the meaning as “include (instance, etc.) under a rule or class,” and Funk and Wagnall gives "include as the specific or individual, in the general”; both of these seem to have the same meaning,, but I am not sure if Mr Rangihau means that the “importance of

the responsibility of the tribal group” is lessened or increased by the act. Would you please clarify this point?—Yours, etc., ALAN G. RICHARDS. January 25, 1988.

[Mr Rangihau has died since he gave the speech, but his thinking is still considered important in the consideration of the issues involved. In the quotation given, the working party meant that the influence of the tribal group was reduced in importance because of the clauses emphasising the paramountcy of the child’s interests. —Editor.]