THE MAORI RACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 17 November 1937, Page 9

THE MAORI RACE

'To The Editor) Sir. IVniiit mo to (metaphorically) |>at you on I lie hack for your lender in Saturdays ■‘Mail,” in reference, to Sir Apirnnn Ngala's plea for better water supply and housing conditions foi the Maori people. They are worthy of all tile Pakelia can do in assisting to preserve I his admirable raec. Tin: negligible few who lack a due appreciation of our .Maoris would do well to remember and ponder the altitude of dial line English gentleman, Lord lilrdi.sloo, toward the Maori. To llio.se of us who already appreciated and loved the Maori, it streuglliened and deepened out regard. Before tlie advent of die Pakelia, tin's land of ours was owned by a virile people of a very high standard of physical, moral, and mental development, brave, chivalrous and self-reliant,. They lived entirely by their own resourceful ness—no boats bringing food or merchandise of any kind to supply tlieir needs! Sir, just pause a moment to imagine that. And no race suicide on the pretext of economic necessity! Given ample opportunity, encouragement, and vision now. die Mao> - i may some day conic ba> l; into Ins own by the simple, inexorable law of die survival of the littost. it is abundantly eleai that we shall cease Lo exist as a race in an alarmingly short time. That being so, let us do all we rail to ensure that die Maori, rather than any foreign people, may enjoy pos-j session of the land of his valiant fathers. > 1 am, etc., j 11. E. ! Nelson, Mill November. j