The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1936. THE FUTURE OF THE MAORI

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 134, 2 March 1936, Page 8

The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1936. THE FUTURE OF THE MAORI

Lord Bledisloe’s five years’ sojourn in this country as GovernorGeneral of the Dominion has provided him with an abundance ot material for authoritative statement when addressing the British public , on New Zealand topics. Since his return to England he has shown on various occasions his readiness to promote a clearer understanding of our domestic problems. We could not have a better exponen or advocate. We knew him in this country as a keen observer, and a discerning critic. One particular service of many that prompted serious reflection was the attention drawn by him to the need tor a sympathetic attitude toward the Maori race, and a constructive policy in regard to its participation in co-operation with European fellow-citizens in the development of this country and the direction of its destiny. This was earnestly stressed by him when with Lady Bledislie he made the generous gift of the Waitangi Treaty site. He has now reiterated his view of the matter in an address (reported on Saturday) to the Dominions and Colonies Section of the Royal Society of Arts. Therein he declared his conviction that “the most attractive and potentially the most civilised of the so-called native peoples of the world” had reached a crisis in their history, which, “in the absence of great understanding on the part of Britain, might eventuate in their “irretrievable decadence if not their racial obliteration.” To most of us this statement may seem to be over-drawn. Die Maori people are increasing in number. They do not lack opportunities for social and economic development, . education, and participation in the affairs of the country. There is.no bar to. the attainment by able representatives of their race to the highest positions in the citizenship of this nation. Three of them have reached Cabinet rank, and one of these was acting-Premier. These facts, however., are not in themselves proof that all that can be done for the Maori people has been done. About the time, of the Waitangi.celebrations the country was made aware of the existence of a certain degree ot unrest among them. What actually is taking place is a movement from the ancient tribal concept to the ideal of a unified Maori community animated by new hopes and aims, and an organised consciousness of its rights. As long as the Maoris were divided by tribal animosities they were content to drift aimlessly and apathetically wit.i the current of European civilisation. “Less than a century ago, said Lord Bledisloe at the Waitangi celebrations on February 5. 1934, “nothing short of a miracle could have brought together tribesmen from as far asunder as the North Cape and the Bluff,, but that miracle has happened to-day.” In the same speech he reminded his European and Maori audience that in the three brief clauses of the Treaty of Waitangi, “the British Government undertook that in return for the surrender of the country’s sovereignty it. would ensure to the respective tribes their landed possessions, their forests and their fisheries, and that it would ever thereafter cast the protecting mantle of British citizenship over them and their descendants.” What Lord Bledisloe obviously had in mind in his address reported on Saturday, and what the European community in New Zealand would do well to reflect upon, are the possible reactions from the study by the present united Maori community, and its leaders in the new forward movement, of the manner in which this trusteeship has been discharged, and of our future obligations in regard, to it. The recent boil-over of Maori feeling should serve as an indication to us that from the native point of view there remains much to he done. There are various societies and groups from which the new Government may draw inspiration for its native policy, and it would be an admirable gesture to the Maori race if a worthy representative of it were admitted to co-operation in the administration of native affairs under the Government’s plan of co-optation. It has been urged from the Maori side that the present basis of Parliamentary representation is not in adequate proportion to the increasing number and rising social and economic importance of the race. But is it not possible that Maori opinions and aspirations might. find more effective representation, more influentially command public attention, through the intelligent and efficient exploitation of the means now provided at Waitangi for bringing their social, political and economy problems to a focus, and resolving their opinions and activities or a community basis strengthened by a spirit of unanimity? Here we may recall the ideal symbolised in the IVhare Runaiujn (House of Commemoration) on the Waitangi estate and expressed in felicitous sentiments by Lord Bledisloe when laying the foundation stone two years ago—the preservation of all that is best in native ■tradition and culture and those personal attributes which in our early encounters with them commanded our admiration and respect, to the end that these will enrich the New Zealand people as a whole: and contemporaneously a systematic effort to raise in all respects the standard of living of the Maori. "This,” said Lord Bledisloe. at the dedication, “is destined to be an historic structure. Let those whose brilliant conception it is endeavour to typify in it the nobility of the Maori race, enshrining within its wails all that is best and loftiest in their ideals, and thus provide a fitting rendezvous to which their people can resort on occasions of national rejoicing or national mourning. It will, let us hope, provide a common meeting-ground where old feuds will lie forgotten and new friendships will be forged, where national issues can he debated, and where national problems ran be approached from the Maori standpoint, and explored in such a way as to assist the fwkeha in fully understanding and appreciating the Maori mind.” There is embodied here, in short, the idea of a forum of Maori opinion from which may regularly emanate statements of views that, given adequate publicity, will promote a fuller understanding of the aspirations of the Maoris and further their wel fare.

The greatest hope of the Maori race is the movement toward progress from within its ranks. In a report of a conference held at Wanganui in 1927, under the aegis of the Young Maori Party, it was emphasised that the race had reached a stage in its development when young men, not soured by past tribal grievances, must get together and gather into a coherent conscious organisation the fragmentary progressive attempts made by the Maori to fit himself into his present environment. “Apart from the statistics of the last census,” it was stated, “no visitor to any representative Maori meeting could fail to observe the health and vigour of the young generation, its poise, and its self-possessed confident bearing, the full cradles, and the greater care of infant life. The latter-day Maori is throwing off the shackles of the past, looking little, if at .all, over his shoulder, and interesting himself in the activities and pastimes of his pakeha fellow-citizen?’ That is the right note, and it is for the European community to get in tune with it.