AS OTHERS THINK OF US

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 8

AS OTHERS THINK OF US

“Which State of Australia is New Zealand In?”

“HOW OFTEN DOES THE SUN SHINE”

New Zealand as imagined by some Australians must be a very queer and uncivilised place. And by the questions some members of the Methodist Maori Choir were asked, the Maori race is considered primitive and still living in a dark age. The choir recently completed a season in Australia and will soon be In England. “You ought to hear some of the questions we are asked,” a chorister wrote to a ’Wanganui 'friend recently. “Most surprising are those from school teachers. ‘Do you find it hard getting into European clothes? Do you grow vegetables other than potatoes?’

“Then they want to know how often the sun shines. Their idea of New Zealand is a continual winter with icebergs floating around in each port. One man wanted to know if I knew someone called Rangi in New Zealand. I asked him if he knew anyone called Jack in Sydney, and there was rather a deadlock then. “When we arrived (at Perth) we heard a few people talking on the wharf. One man especially was disappointed. He said he had seen a black man working on the ship, and if he was a Maori then he didn't think much of him.

“Another teacher wanted to know if we stdll ate roots. A captain on a boat asked me if the Maori still lived in grass houses. A woman from Adelaide asked: “Which State of Australia is New Zealand in?’ A' boy of 16 wanted to know if there were trains, trams and motor-cars in New Zealand, and a bank manager asked me: ‘Do the Maoris still eat one another?’

“However, the people over here are very nice, and I'm afraid we are getting a little spoilt. They do make a terrible fuss over us.”