ANCIENT MAORI CUSTOM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 122, 21 April 1927, Page 6

ANCIENT MAORI CUSTOM.

MINISTER’S WITTY SPEECH. THE NATIVE OUTLOOK. WANGANUI, April 19. “The order of welcomes in this country has been revised. Now the Pakeha welcomes the Maori. In the olden days the Maori welcomed the Pakeha. Our homes were always open and so were our ovens, but the Pakehas had caught them in their pots.” Thus spoke Sir Maui Pomare at the big Maori gathering in Wanganui. He then went on to say that the Maoris had paid dearly for the progress they had experienced since the pakeha came. They had not known the value of land and other saleable articles which had been sold for Jews’ harps, blankets and such like things. Some likeness had been found between the Scots and the Maoris, but while the Scots believed that money was made flat to pile up, the Irish believed it was made round to go round. As things had gone it seemed the Maoris were more akin to the Irish in regard to this matter of holding on to money or rather not holding on to it. Some pakehas had offered a lot of advice. “It was very good to advise,” said Sir Maui, “but circumstances had to be taken into account. It did not necessarily follow that where one had achieved success another, by adopting the same methods, would achieve equal success. Maoris had their own ways of looking at matters. Thus it was incumbent upon them in the main to solve their"own problems along their own line of thought and action. Advice offered was appreciated- in the spirit in which it was given, but it had to be taken to some extent ‘cum grano salis.’ ”