LAND OF THE MAORIS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3286, 31 March 1931, Page 6

LAND OF THE MAORIS

CONQUEST OF THE RACE

AN IRISHMAN ENJOYS HIMSELF. London, February 12. The Irish Independent publishes an article over the signature of Terence O'Hanlon, which is a masterpiece of misrepresentation. The writer metions that Archbishop Croke's first episcopal appointment in the seventies was that of Bishop of Auckland.

Dr. Croke left the Native population of New Zealand (he continues) in the throes of a fierce land war, only to find the native population of Ireland heading rapidly in the same direction. By the time Michael Davitt had founded the Land League in Ireland the British Government had already came down with a heavy hand upon a somewhat similar movement among the black Natives of New Zealand.

Just how far his close experience of the cruel wrongs perpetrated in the name of law and order against the rightful owners of the soil of New Zealand influenced Archbishop Croke in the stand he took on the side of the people when he returned to Ireland, it would be hard to say. There can be little doubt, however, as to the shock his lofty sense of justice must have experienced when he learned the true circumstances in which the colonisation of New Zealand had been effected.

It was a case of seven bitter centuries of Irish history rolled into a single generation. On one side a brave race clung to their land and fought and, died for it in tens of thousands, while on the other hordes of hungry land-robbers, backed by military force, seized the finest tracts of the country and claimed them as their own.

Complete Extinction.

As if to complete the parallel with Ireland, the three islands of New Zealand were at length proclaimed a Crown colony, and officially named "New Ulster," "New Munster," and "New Leinster." But this only incensed the Natives more, and for 20 years of the last century the so-called Maori wars raged on, costing England thousands of lives and millions of money. Finding themselves beaten in the field, the Maoris adopted a policy of passive insistence. Rum and the rifle had, however, reduced the race lamentably; and when, in 1882, Te Whiti and his Land Leaguers were released from prison the last conquest of the Native New Zealander was already over.

In a few circumscribed reserves, mostly in Dr. Croke's old diocese, the remnants of the Maori race, like the bison herds of North America, now await complete extinction.