MAORIS AND COMMISSION

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 November 1934, Page 5

MAORIS AND COMMISSION

♦ BISHOP BENNETT’S COMMENT. [PER PRESS<■ ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, November 15. Serious misgivings exist'among the Maoris just now as to the outcome of the report of the Native Commission. The Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, Bishop of Aotea-roa, who arrived from the north this morning to spend ten days in the South Island, has found this a burning topic in Maori communities all over the North Island. “The future of the ministry is causing the gravest concern,” he said, in an interview. The appointment of a pakeha as Native Minister was unsatisfactory from many points of view, Bishop Bennett said. There could be no objection to financial and administrative control by a pakeha but it was quite impossible for anyone but a Maori >to make a success of the post from a psychological point of view. There could not be that understanding and sympathy so necessary in the handling of Native questions. Bishop Bennett was hopeful that some system could be adopted by which the administration of the machinery side of the department could be left in pakeha hands while Sir Apirana Ngata looked after the national questions and filled the important role of liaison officer between his own people and the Government. Sir Apirana Ngata’s success in this part of the work was due to his wider interests. His was a national interest as opposed to a narrower tribal interest and it would be difficult —almost impossible—to find another man of similar broad views.

TRAINING OF LEADERS. “The lack of a suitable man to carry on the work of Sir Apirana Ngata shows the necessity of doing something to train the future leaders of the race,” Bishop Bennett added. “There are young men at the universities showing promise, but there is a gap of a generation between such men as the late Sir Maui Pomare, the late Sir James Carroll and Sir Apirana Ngata and these young Maoris. Who is to fill it?”

Speaking more generally, Bishop Bennett went on to discuss the future of the Native race. His ministry among his own people has extended over 38 years and he has been welcomed in all communities; travelling vast distances every year. In his early days he often made his visits as Bishop Selwyn did, trudging the back-coun-try tracks with staff and pack. Of late years, and especially since his consecration six years ago, he has been able to make his pastoral visitations by motor-car. With a warm understanding of the Maori race and a highly developed faculty of observation, Bishop Bennett has learned much and it is only after many years of experience that he says that another century will see the passing of the Maori people aS' a nation. “There can be only one end, and that is absorption into the European population,” he said. “Education of Maori children side by side with pakehas in the schools and the poor efforts made to perpetuate the best traditions of the Maori race as a race are mainly responsible,” he said. “Many children are losing their Maori characteristics and in some cases they are growing up without knowledge of their own language.” Bishop Bennett spoke in warm appreciation of the efforts made on behalf of the Maori race by Princess Te Puea, chieftainness of the Waikato. She was a wonderful woman of unusual qualities, and her efforts never relaxed. The young Maori king was developing satisfactorily and his mana was a big factor in the unity of the Waikato tribes. Bishop Bennett explained that there was no disloyalty to the British Crown in the Maori king movement. It was Innocent of harm.