THE MAORI PEOPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 138, 15 June 1927, Page 9

THE MAORI PEOPLE

!WHAT, IS "THEIR FUTURE?

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" ■'.•"■ , . (By T«Uoraph.) • • \'„ (Spititl U"Tht Evsning Poit.") .".--.■ .CHEISTOHtJBCH, This Day. '•What is the future: of the Maori

- peoplefV asked Sister Jessie at the Presbyterian Conference which opened •: yesterday. Sister Jessie, who is engag- '■'. :ed in Maori mission-work in tho Domin- * Jon, said that th« last Census had shown " .thY Msipri population in New Zealand ■ /'at 54,000, and many of thesis were ■ .half "castes./ ','.'.''.''.''.-■'■''.. ■ ':•, ''We nave Maoria. with, blue eyes," "' '. she declared..,. "Scon we will ha,ve ; Maoris rwith,pink- cheeks. There is no _ /doubt that as the old Maori passes away - ; the new Maori" will be absorbed by .our own race.- We must give them'the same opportunities as we give our own ■ 'people." . . ': ' ; : :, • ; .Human. beingiVore threefold in thoir : nature, it had jifcnsaid-^" interior, ex- ;. teripr, and bacteria." ,If the' Maoris ". were/not.developed in their threefold : 'nature,, a. crippled race would be the result. It was the aim of' the Goyorn- ' ment to educate the Maoris and help -'. "th'em'io'rise;' It was doing valiant : * V°rK to-day. To preserve the' Maori

;iifej wag' a; great aim, and to help the ■Maori women to roar their children, .eHnics :.Were' r,being; la instituted in the backblocks. One "Maori woman she knew had had a family of twelve children, but she had reared one only. .There was but a single, reason for this —the Maori woman's.ignorance. She must .toe helped; There were to-day 37 workers and 13 stations in tho North .Island. It was dangerous to give the Maori education and not Christianity. He must have both. Education by itself, was a dangerou9 weapon to place in, his hands. ';■■"■" '.'; "Weneed men who -will-go into pas fend help the Maori people.' said the Speaker. /(We need young men- to stand by them and proteot them from drink »nd: tljese cabaret people and boxing rings that aro ever about them/* :■ '•.." ;.•..-.;;:,' '