Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 14 January 1939, Page 8

Readers Write

In Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, people! seem to be more alive to the problems facing the Maoris than we are in the North. We have

HELPING THE MAORI.

heard several times of the sad state of affairs that has come

over the Maoris with the increased [ prevalence of drinking among them, j Little so far has been suggested in j Northland, however. | We seem quite content to let them |go their own way as they choose, and to criticise them when 'anything happens through their excesses. We owe a lot to the Maori and if they have not the ability to resist the temptation of modern vices, then it is up to us to help them. We will not do that by refusing Maoris the privilege of drinking. That has been tried elsewhere and the Maori drinks in such districts illegally just the same. The only real cure is to al,ter the Maori’s attitude toward such things. The only way to quell the growing incidence of the vice is to put in its place better ideas and higher principles. That is what Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, proposes to do while Northland, despite its very big Maori population, looks on and comments.

It is high time we in the North took seriously this Maori problem. They are our charges, but we neglect our duty to them. We seem to consider them not worth the trouble, of educating into better ways. Then, if adopt that attitude,, we must suffer for having in our miclst a vast population of immoral, degenerate aborigines.—“NGARARANUI.”