PAKEHA AND MAORI

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 20, 18 October 1944, Page 6

PAKEHA AND MAORI

Existence Of Colour Bar In New Zealand Denied REPLY TO MAJOR HARAWIRA Surprise and regret at the statement made ui Auckland by Major K. T. Harawira, that the colour bar against Maoris was more prouounc(id in New Zealand than in Britain, was expressed yesterday by Mr. O. T. Haddon, secretary to the Maori Advisory Council. “To assert, or even to convey the impression, tha.t the pakeha majority in New Zealand entertains a definite prejudice, a unified prejudice connoting a colour bar, in respect of the Maori people seems to me to be a rash proposition. I cannot escape the suspicion that. Major Harawira spoke as he did with the purr pose of startling his audience, and without a precise understanding of his terms,” said Mr. Haddon.

“If be had in mind isolated instances of slurs against individual Maoris, these would not suffice to indict the pakchas as a whole. At the most, unfortunate episodes of the kind would reflect the ignorance of the persons responsible. It

Is unfair to blame everybody for the illinformed actions of the few. I insist that the expression colour bar signifies a deliberate attitude entertained more or less mutually and popularly toward a minority, and I assert that this condition is lacking in New Zealand. “Again, a eoiouf- bar suggests some intention to frustrate the social and economic aspirations of the minority. These would be the practical consequence, apart from mere rudeness. It is true that the Maori people as a whole have uot attained the highest pursuits in the community, specially in the professions, but who would dare to say that they have been deliberately blocked, in the exercise of a colour bar, from more consequential activities? “It is only fair to point out that the more enlightened sections of the pakeha population are helpful and sympathetic toward the Maoris. In religious spheres, In education, in medicine and in public administration, there is clear evidence that responsible men seek and encourage the development of the Maori people, and this, in itself, is a refutation of the existence of a colour bar. “If a colour bar existed, it is strange that many Maoris have risen to positions of eminence in various capacities, and, indeed, that some have attained international notice. I believe that the Maori people will take an increasing part in conducting their own affairs, and that the present and the future are not as dismal ns some would have us think. What the Maoris most need is confidence, and I believe that there is a substantial content of pakeha sympathy aud understanding to inspire that confidence. Major Harawira is himself a personified refutation of the colour bar bogy. He is a minister of religion and he holds the kind of military rank which would surely not come the way of a downtrodden and frustrated race.”