KING COUNTRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 September 1924, Page 6

KING COUNTRY

METHODIST CHURCH RESOLUTION.

Che; following resolution was passed meeting of the Wellington Methodist Executive on Thursday last; “The Wellington District Executive, holding office as the Temperance and Public Morals Committee of the Methodist Church of New Zealand earnestly and unanimously protests against the proposal now before Parliament for the abrogation of a solemn agreement entered into between the Government, of the country and the native people prohibiting the granting of licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors in the’ King Country. It recalls the time when the Rohe Potae was diosed against the white man. It i emembers that on the conclusion of the Maori Wars a vast area "was left through which the Queen’s writ did not run. A kingdom existed within a kingdom. It remembers, too, that when the development of the country demanded the linking of the northern and southern portions of the North Island the alternatives were a forcible entry into the Rohe Potae or • negotiations with the natives for a passage through the territory. It remembers that- in the negotiations- which followed a primary condition insisted upon by the natives was that intoxicating liquors were to be rigidly prohibited from entering the area, and it rememthat in the name of the people of New Zealand that condition was accepted bv the Government of the day.. It realises with shame that an attempt is now being made by the liquor trade to persuade a British, community to go back upon its pledged word to an aboriginal people. It reminds Parliament of the protection extended to the native people in the mandated territory of Samoa, and in view thereof marvels at the proposal to abrogate the measure of protection extended to theMaoris in the King Country. It regards this latest .attempt of the liquor trade to foist its baneful • influence upon the natives as utterly reprehensible. It is aware that there are now 22,000 natives under 15 years of age in the Dominion, and that some thousands of these are in the King Country, where the presence of an extensive Methodist Mission makes the welfare of the native people a sacred responsibility upon that church. It views with alarm the possibility of the native race, now increasing in numbers and slowly emerging into our civilisation, being destroyed body and i soul by a trade which notoriously’ looks j chiefly to its own monetary gain. It calls upon Parliament to resist the attempt now being made to‘lower the prestige of the country in the eves of the world and, further, to insist upon the enforcement of the existing law by the Government.