SIR MAUI POMARE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 April 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

SIR MAUI POMARE

CAREER OF TARANAKI MAORI BOY.

It has been said of Sir Maui Pomare that "the Maori people owe more to him than to any other one Maori in their history" and a little reflection on his career of usefulness to his race, his country and his Empire bears that assertion.

Born in a small kainga in Taranaki, the future Native Minister was reared in a.n atmosphere far from conducive to the shaping of the career he ultimately followed. At the historic pa at Parihaka he imbibed freely at the fount of Maori knowledge and wisdom, but while he absorbed the legends of his fathers, he did not allow the embittered conservatism of his people to overwhelm him. He responded with wonderful aptitude to the call of English education and when, after some years spent at high school and at Te Aute College, the time* came for a choice of a career, he determined to become a doctor and the first native to minister to the medical needs of his race. He realised that, the decline in the population of the Maoris would never be stayed until the health of the people was attended to by a Maori doctor possessed of the confidence of the natives and of a knowledge of the mental processes of the native.

Accordingly young Maui Pomare’.* people sent him abroad to study medicine and surgery and at the age of 2-’ he graduated as M.D., being appointed two years later the first Maori health officer to the Maori people. For ten years he travelled and laboured among the tribes in the North Island and by his persistence- succeeded in turning the downward drift in native population statistics.*

As the pioneer Maori doctor, .he found that something more than bodily ills was wasting the ranks of liis peo pie. They were suffering under a lethargy due to a fatalistic belief that there was nothing they could do for themselves in the face of the introduction of the pakeha and his industrial system. In response to the urging of his people and his own desire to serve them in a still wider field, he contested the Maori seat and was elected to Par-

STUDENT, PHYSICIAN, STATESMAN AND AUTHOR.

liament as representative of the Western Maori electorate in 1011, a position which he has held ever •sin'ce. The year following his election he was appointed to the Executive as representative of the Native race. For a great deni .of the legislation of recent years redressing the wrongs of his people, 'Sir Maui may fairly take credit. It was chiefly through his persistent advocacy that a Royal Commission was set up to investigate tribal grievances over the confiscation of land after the wars; this commission vindicated the Maori cause and recommended payment of compensation in various districts. As late as last year Sir Maui attended a big assembly' at Waitara, (where he addressed the Taranaki Maoris on the subject of the justice of the (Government's grants and the disposal of the nioncv sio granted. In "recognition of his great services during the war, and of his services to the ' Maori-Polynesiau race generally throughout his lifetime, he was knighted. The administration of the Cook Islands, Niue and other South Sea dependencies of the. Dominion devolved upon Sir Maui as Minister in charge and this portfolio gave him art opportunity of displaying statesmanlike qualities in a wide and interesting field. His gifts as a writer and an orator are known throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand. While studying in America for his degree he wrote and spoke widely upon New Zealand: his reports to the Health Department in the days 'of his capacity as a 'Medical Officer were masterpieces of thoughtful and forceful construction; he has written many short stories, inspired by his actual experiences -among the North Island tribes; he was one of the chief founders of the Maori Ethnological Board and was largely instrumental also in .establishing the Board of Maori Arts and Crafts, with headquarters at Rotorua. Book-tovors are looking forward to obtaining the best of Sir Maui Pomare's literary work in "Legends of the Maori," which is now in course of publication, and in the production of which Sir Maui is collaborating with Mr. James Cowan.