Maori Scholar Recognises U.K. Racial Tolerance

Mana (Auckland), Volume 2, Issue 1, 6 April 1978, Page 4

Maori Scholar Recognises U.K. Racial Tolerance

The British are more tolerant than New Zealanders about race relations.

That is the verdict of the director of Waikato University's centre for Maori studies and research. Mr Robert Te Kotahi Mahuta. who has just returned from Oxford University, where he was studying for a doctorate. ‘‘There is a growing awareness in Britain that race will be a major problem in the future, if it isn’t already,” he said. ‘‘They're acknowledging it by establishing organisations to at least look at the areas of conflict which involve a worsening situation.”

Mr Mahuta said greater emphasis was given to race relations councils and ethnic committees than in New Zealand. The Maoris were in exactly

the same position as the black races in Britain. Mr Mahuta. who is a descendant of the Maori kings and paramount chiefs of the Waikato tribe, said. ”We are both oppressed economically.” In terms of New Zealand's image overseas, he said it was "not as good as we would like to believe”.

The topic of Mr Mahuta's doctoral thesis is the ideological conflict between Maori and pakeha since the first contact up to the present. He points to Bastion Point and Raglan as areas of ideological conflict and sees the Government’s attempt to come to grips with them as "pathetic”. "Maori leadership is going to have to move from the young articulate urban Maori elite,” he said.