MAORI & PAKEHA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 303, 7 December 1931, Page 11

MAORI & PAKEHA

BISHOP BENNETT’S PLEA TOR INTEREST AND SYMPATHY. “RATANA’S TOMFOOLERY.” “The Maori race, like the pakeha race, has to a large extent been swallowed up in the vortex of materialism,” said Bishop Bennett in an address to the Hastings Rotary Club on Friday, “and the Maori has been looking to the pakeha for an example. We are teaching the Maori that one of his duties to-day is to stop and think for himself, and to act for himself, and the Maori race are quickly reaching the position in which they are doing both those things. The appointment of a Maori bishop to take charge of their spiritual welfare has greatly enthused the Maoris, and has instilled into them the higher ideals of life in a way which nothing else could have done. They are realising for the first time what a large part they have to play in the spiritual life of this country, and I hope that in time the Maori will come to the rescue of the pakeha in seeking higher spiritual ideals. ‘‘The organisations that now exist for furthering the welfare of the Maoris, ’ ’ the Bishop continued, ‘ ‘ are helping them to stand four-square to all the concomitants of our present civilisation. There are 133 native schools working for the education of Maori boys id girls. The pupils may obtain a Government scholarship which entitles them to go to a secondary school, and ultimately ey may go on to a university, though not many pass the very stiff pxamination. Those who have gone on to a university, however, have done remarkably well. A Maori from this district (he s a nephew of Sir Apirana Ngata) has passed the master of arts examination and is also a bachelor of laws. I am sure that the day will come when he will assert himself and become a great and famous leader of the Maori people. Another Maori has become a doctor of medicine, and yet another is sitting for his final examination for the medical degree this year. A Maori boy now at Canterbury College was educated at the native school at Whakarewarewa, and after beinrr at Te Aute College for three years went on to the university. He is the son of a guide at Whakarewarewa, and this year was very near to being selected as a Rhodes scholar. It is the first time that a Maori has gone so far in that way; he is a young man of humble mind, and is deeply interested in schemes for th. improvement of the Maori people. A CENTURY’S CHANGES. “He is one of seven men who were selected by the Canterbury College students as Rhodes Scholarship nominees, and every vote given for him was given by a pakeha. That is a wonderful thing, and shows the great harmony that exists between the two races. He just missed being selected as a Rhodes Scholar; and I «sk you to remember that he and the other young men of whom I have spoken are the children of a race who, only a hundred years ago, were cannibals. It is wonderful to think of that son of a native guide obtaining high a position in the world of scholarship; it says a great deal not onlv for the Maori race, but also for the great white race who are doing so much to build up the character of the Maori.” Going on to refer to the Ratana movement, Bishop Bennett added: “It is nothing now but a bit of tomfoolery. There is nothing good in it now. It has become degenerated and demoralised, and the sooner it dies out altogether the better for the Maori people. It exists only as a political organisation, and has lost the value that it once had as a means of enabling the Maori to express his racial ideals. There are still some of our Maori people who are living in a cloud of superstition, and Ratanaism is acting as a brake on the efforts to lead the Maori into the right way of thinking and acting. “The Maori to-day is very much awake to the spiritual and material needs of his race, and some of the development schemes that have been established are most interesting and full of great possibilities. There are thousands of acres of waste land in this country, "and much of it is owned by the Maoris. The Maori, however, has not the knowledge or the capital with which to develop such land, and under the direction of Sir Apirana Ngata and with the assistance of the Government a large amount of that waste land is being steadily broken in. AN ENCOURAGING FUTURE. “Forty-one schemes are being developed under the direction of native land boards, and the total area is 591,424 acres. Of that area 248,200 acres are cultivatable. Of the total area 437,000 acres are situated in the North Auckland district, and there are two schemes being carried out in the Hawke’s Bay district. The schemes are financed by the Native Trustee, the Native Affairs Department, and the Native Land Boards. None of the money is taken from the Consolidated Fund, but onlv from amounts accruing to the Na'' ” Affairs Department and specially earmarked for the purpose. The money represents the profits of the Native Land Boards, and £174,000 has been spent so far. It means that funds subscribed for charities, and the unemployment funds, are saved thousands of pounds, and by the development of these schemes the country is being saved a great deal of expense. “It is remarkable that the Maoris have held themselves up as well as they have done. Many of them are young men and women, and they deserve as much encouragement as we can give them. It is not only men who are at the head of these development schemes. One Maori woman, Princess Te Puhia, is at the head of one, and has done splendid work. Manv pakeha women also are helping. What I have told you of this work will enable you io realise- that tlio Maori is now establish-

ed on a basis that is full of encouragement for the future; it is going to add to the material welfare of this country, and it is going to be a great asset. “In the Bay of Plenty district the Maori farmers are supplying half the milk to a dairy factory, and are working most consistently on their development scheme, which has been in operation for some years now. They are adapting themselves in a most wonderful way to their new experiences.” MAORI SPIRITUAL REVIVAL. Speaking of his work as a bishop, Biehop Bennett said that he bad recently been in the North Auckland district, and so many Maoris had at tended the services that the churches were not large enough to hold them. He had taken with him a marquee which would hold four hundred people, and he had had to have it erected day after day wherever he went. It was filled at every service. One of the features of the services had been the wonderful singing by the Maori congregations, it was most beautiful music, and more like the sound of an organ than like vocal music. It was entirely unaccompanied, and the Maoris would not only sing the ordinary four parts, but would break out with their instinctive sense of music into the most exquisite harmonies. The bishop went on to speak of some of his more amusing experiences, and related a somewhat comical happening at Mohaka. He was in bed, and suddenly a Maori man jumped in beside him. The bishop asked him whether he had a match, and the man said “No.” They wqnt to sleep, and when the Maori woke in the morning and saw who was his bedmate he stared wildly, and looked absolutely frightened, no said: “By golly, I made the big mistake. I thought you were my old man.” He said he had joined up with Ratana, and that he did not recognise the Bishop. “1 said,” the Bishop continued, “you have met your Bishop before, and now a good spirit has brought you back to his side.” The Maori replied: “All right; I come back.” A REMARKABLE CHANGE. After recounting some experiences with i>. -Us that whistle, and with oysters that grow on trees, the speaker went on to say that during his tour of North Auckland he was greatly struck by the energy of the Maoris who were farming- the poor gum lands in that district. It was difficult to realise the marvellous change that had come ovei the Maori people. The Maoris in Hawke’s Bay were sometimes criticised, but it should be remembered that they were in a state of transition. They had been rather spoon-fed sometimes; they had sold their land at good prices, and were resting on their oars a little. They were gradually changing, however, and there need be no fear for their future. They would rise to the occasion, and with the assistance of Sir Apirana Ngata and the Native Land Board scheme they would make much progress in the days to come. “I want you to interest yourselves in the work that is being done for the improvement of the Maori people—and not necessarily on the spiritual side only,” the Bishop concluded. “1 always feel that the white people are interested and sympathetic in what is being done among the people of the Maori race. I want you to realise the struggle that is being made by a small people to go ahead and to prosper. They are trying with all that is best in their native character to attain to something better, both spiritually and materially. They have been left too much to themselves in the past, and have not had the necessary leaders. Now they have leaders, and those leaders arc doing a ftemendous amount of work in the effort to help the Maori. The future is more hopeful than it has been for years past.”