THE MAORI RACE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1935, Page 5

THE MAORI RACE

VICEREGAL TRIBUTE

SENSE OF NATIONHOOD

A glowing tribute to the Maori race was paid by his Excellency the Gov-ernor-General (Lord Bledisloe) when addressing members of the New Zealand Numismatic Society on Wednesday evening. His - Excellency also made a plea for the growth of a sense of nationhood with full recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi.

If a sense of nationhood, which was a burning need in New Zealand, was to be progressively developed, he said, it was absolutely essential that the Maori people should be convinced that at least the present generation of New Zealanders intended to act up to the Treaty of Waitangi; with a full recognition that the Maori and the pakeha were on. a level footing as subjects of his Majesty the King and entitled to equal treatment before the law. , All the Maori tribes must be encouraged to perpetuate their pride in their race and maintain their old-time crafts and accomplishments; they must be brought closer together, as they were at Waitangi a year ago, and made to realise a. greater sense of inter-tribal community of interest. And last, but most important of all,, the European population must endeavour, if it could not learn the Maori language, to do all in its power to appreciate the mental and spiritual outlook of the Maori race.

He had been told, Lord Bledisloe said, that at the beginning of the present century at least one-third of the New Zealand Legislature was acquainted to some extent with the Maori language and had some knowledge;.of the mental outlook of the Native race. That could not be said today, and if it could not be said of the Legislature it probably could not be said of. the European . population at large. He was very pleased that the late Professor Macmillan Brown had made a generous bequest for the de-' velopment of scholarships to assist the study of Polynesian anthropology, customs, and languages, including those of the Maori people, and he hoped that bequest would result in an increased knowledge, of the Maori language, ideals, and outlook.

"Remember you. have in this country the finest type of coloured people in the world," he said in conclusion, "and that their fate depends on you. You have «very reason to be proud of them and the fact 'that by the Treaty of Waitangi they have been placed on a (level footing with yourselves."