TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 29 December 1934, Page 8

TIMELY TOPICS

“LAST SAVAGES” TAMED. , When the Maoris danced before Royalty at Rotorua, Sir Apirana Ngata made picturesque reference to the Urewera team as “the last savages in New Zealand, having been tamed only since 1900.” Certainly the earlier years of this century found the Urewera practically untouched. There, on his camp at Haepipi Creek, was living at that time, and over a period of years, the late Elsdon Best, who may yet prove to be the best remembered New Zealander of his period. Almost unnoticed, he worked heroically to save something of that great mass of Maori lore that was slipping rapidly into oblivion, disregarded by the younger generation -of Maori, whose contact with Europeanism was soon to be complete. Much that Best saved has been printed, and much has probably gone for ever. In place of the Urewera that was, and of its Urewera culture, we have now the system produced by contact with whites, one bright result of which is that the haka leader of the Ureweras is, according to Sir Apirana, holder of a Lincoln College diploma of agriculture. Let it be hoped that his inherited instinct for forestry will be at least as great as his acquired skill in agriculture, for the Urewera needs its old forests if it is to support its new farming. It is probably not true to say that the Urewera of 1900 were the last savages in New Zealand. The last savages are white as well as brown, and still can be found in various parts of the country, hacking or burning the native vegetation on land the grass value of which is negligible or nil.