MAORI DEMOCRATS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 15, 17 July 1918, Page 2

MAORI DEMOCRATS

IN DAYS OF 01/ D.. In his address on "Social Usages of tht Maori" at the Masonic Hall last evening, Mr. Elsdon Best, the well-known authority in. all Maori matters, referred to democratic practices of the old-time tribes—"the referendum, with the initiative in the hands of the people,' 1 as one cry used to have it. As ,the meeting was under the auspices of the Workers' Education , Association, these passages did not lack approval among a proportion of the aiulieticd. "The Maori was, and is, a peculiar combination of democrat and aristocrat," said Mr. Best. "He ever held his high-born chieftains in esteem so long as they conducted themselves in an able, unselfish, and conscientious manner, Should they fail, however, tp uphold the standard demanded by the people, then their influence waned, and others were elevated to such positions. At the same time the Maori, in many way 6. was a democrat. Every freeman and woman had a right to public speeeli in the arrangement of any matters connected with the family group, the dan, or the tribe. The chief would lay proposals before the tribe or clan, and the ; latter would accept or reject them. The chief would not, indeed could not, command the people to act on his own initiative. Secret diplomacy was an imj possible thing; all political and social ! matters mupt be discussed and settled by the people. , No Maori community would commit itself to a course of action not approved by the majority. "Apart from such serious matters as were dealt with and punished by the I gods, any mintr trouble was settled by a meeting of the group or clan at which such matter was discussed at length by the people, all having the right to j spealc. Sooner or later, some arrangej ment would be come w. The keynote i of all Maori arrangements, all proposed j activities, was public discussion."