SETTLEMENT OF N.Z.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 8

SETTLEMENT OF N.Z.

MAORI CONTRIBUTION OMISSIONS BT HISTORY ■''With thp v pakeha .pioneers who carved homes- out of thp primpyal forest thero mus.t be associated tjip brpwnskinned men \\rhp feJlecl tlie bush, sowed the burns, fenced the-eestiqnii, transported thp incoming 'supplies, and the qutgging produgp',-jiu'4. cut the drains - through the raupp swamps,'' said Sir Apirana Ngata in his adcjrgss to, tho Wellingtpn branch of the Ne>v Zealand :Hisfcoric,al Association, vfThpy have npt received eredij; for their labour, evpn though that labour was paid fpr with pnkeho mpnoy or goods, directed, by pakeha bruins and spurred pn by pakeha inspiration. Tho tale would be only lialf told, which. did no, t recount the cpn.tributicn of Maori labour to pakeha settlement in. almost overy part' of New Zealand. It would have been surprising if the race whiQh had already adapteffitself to the physical conditions of the country. d.jd not place its experience of forest lore, tracking,:water transport, and $ho makeshift of travel at tho service, of tho new settlers. Yet you will find even where the private and puljlic records tell' the story of joint labour and friendly association that the average New Zealand historian lias omitted this essential feature, dwelling only on the romance and mystery of the past-or recounting only 'factors of hostility, massacres, wars, rioting, and "sets of degeneracy."