TO FUSE?

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 11, 13 July 1909, Page 7

TO FUSE?

PAKEHA AND MAORI. IDEALS OF THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY. A GREAT PROBLEM SKETCHED. The Hoii. A. T. Ngata, as the guest of honour at the first luncheon of the newlyformed New Zealand Club to-day, made the event memorable by a very succinct and important summary of the objects and ideals of the Young Maori Party. He made it plain that the ultimate hope of the party was the fusion of the native minority with the European majority. He put the Young Maoris' ideas under separate heads. : — "(1). it is not/ he said, "their aim to preserve the Maori race as a separate and distinct race, or consciously to combat the influences that tend more and more to bring about the fusion of th© Maori race with the European. i '"(2.) It is recognised, naturally with some regret, that the maintenance of the Maori aa a distinct and separate race is impossible. _ "(3.) The aim and effort of the party is to secure that the fusion is brought, about on the highest possible plane, and I on a basis of mutual self-respect, to which end the maintenance of pride of race is essential. THE ALTERNATIVE. "The only other view that can be held,"' Tie commented, "is that the race is doom- | ed, that it should not be absorbed lest the white blood be tainted, that it must be left to perish as having no place in the future life of the Dominion. The party cannot credit the Pateha with entertaining the idea that the beet physical characteristics of the Maori race are not worth preserving, and transmitting, while every effort is made to. enrich, colour, and render distinctive the art, £he music, the literature, the history and science of the Dominion from the art, music, language, traditions, and customs of Polynesia. I ADAPTABILITY. ! "(4.) In pursuance of this aim the party concerns itself chiefly with the agencies designed by private or Native enterprise, by the State and the churches to adapt the physical, mental, and moralqualities of the Maori people to the circumstances and requirements of an ad-, vanced civilisation. "Physically, improvements in the dwellings, the sanitary conditions of the* kaingas, the prevention and cure of diseases are urged and enforced in practice. "Intellectually, education best adapted to a rapidly xhanging environment in a. period of -transition is advocated. It is. ■urged that the system should produca men and women fit for the ordinary avocations of a progressive community, with emphasis on out-door occupations. Morally, the juxia-posiiion. of European and aboriginal ideas and practices having i-eveaied various short-comings in* the latter, the aim is gradually to bridge the gulf between the two. Thus, marriage customs and their assimilation 1 receive special attention. 'Drink' isi combated «s a physical and moral evil. The incorporaj ion of Christian principles into the life of the people is a cardinal feature of the programme, and the or-* ganisation of Chmtfan effort, improve-, ments in method, receive special attend tion in the conferences of the party. SPECIAL TRAINING NECESSARY. " (5) The methods adopted by the party in pursuit of its objects cannot be said to have been properly consolidated. In. the inception of the movement they were necessarily iconoclastic, to a certain extent constructive in pointing out more desirable alternatives. The- experience gained in a largely experimental field justifies only tentative schemes. Bufc ib may be stated that the methods pursued have been governed largely by the consideration that in every department of civilisation in equipments a citizen of a State founded mainly on an industrial basis, the average Maori begins soms degrees below the average European, and special preparation, attention, and training are required to advance him to the pointy where he may be assumed to be qualified to face the ordinary problems, of a civilised community on equal terms.. "This governing principle has led the party _to advocate in health and sanitation, in industry, in education, in sociol reforms, and in the Church organisation, committing the developments of preliminary details to special departments and' administrative bodies, subsidiary to the departments and organisations! created by the public necessities- of the day. "(6) It is recognised that as soon as this pioneering has advanced sufficiently in any department, the justification for a special system will cease to exist. CAPABLE OF WORK. " (7) In the sphere of industry tha efforts of the party arc founded on the firm belief that the -Maori is capable o£ work, that euch capacity it in the race, that it is increasingly shown within the experience of (ho~ party in different districts and under varying conditions, and can be 'developed to a satisfactory degree by direct assistance, and by intelligent and sympathetic direction. "So far as it may bs said to have a> policy in relation to the settlement of native lands, the party hns approached the question only from this standpoint. It is not, as a party, considered details of title, tenure, oi mode pi disposition. But it has urged that the system of education should prepare the Maori to be a farmer, and has called upon the State to extend to him in a special manner, the facilities provided for tha training and encouragement of a farming population. " (8) It is the aim of the party, though' not the primary one, to preserve tha language, poetry, traditions, and rus, toms of the race, fo far as is practicable, and to promote research in the anthropology and ethnology of the Polynesian; race." THE '.'MUSEUM VIEW" DEPRECATED. Mr. Ngata deprecated the "Museum* view of the Maori. He was not to ba admired alone for his "noble and splendid past." The Maori appeared to hava suffered from the newspaper lo\c o£ ceremonies and sensations. The newspapers were commercial undertakings, and no doubt met the needs of the public, who desired that sort of thing; bui» the visitor who learned his idea of tha Maori from the tangis, meetings of the j Native Land Court, and so on, would i be ill-informed of what the Maori actually was. The Maori, for his part, also went to the newspapers for his idea o£ the pakeha, associating him with conferences, horssrating, and washing his dirty linen in public. (Laughter.) ' Neither pakeha nor Maori should ga U« tha pies-s- for v leal understanding oi e.ich other. Mi. Ngata made a strong appeal for a decision en the question of fusion of tl,e Maori with the pakeha on the highest possible plave, and the basis of mutual self -respect. '•Do you agree with that view." ha asked,, "or do you not? It is a plain, straightforward question, and the } ourg Maori Party awaits your answer." If not fusion, what was to become ofi the Maori? That question of fusion set* lied, other questions could be expe* clitiously disposed of. Mr. ' Ngata was accorded an enthusfr astic vote of thajjks, N ■-