THE MAORIS AND DRINK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9151, 5 September 1888, Page 5

THE MAORIS AND DRINK.

Under the above heading the following letter appears in the London Daily Chronicle of July 13:—"Sir, —Will you permit me to inform your readers that the team of Maori football players who will shortly visit England to challenge all and sundry, are abstainers? They are bound by a contract with their conductor not to take strong drink under any circumstances during their visit to this country. A gentleman in New Zealand begs me, through the press, to ask the English people not to place any temptation to drink before them. When the Maori King, Tawhiao, arrived here some years ago, the daily and weekly Press allowed me to make a similar requust on his behalf. Tawhiao had been intemperate, and had lost much dignity therefrom, but before leaving New Zealand he took the temperance pledge in the presence of Sir George Grey, formerly Governor. The late Mr. Chesson and I arranged to accompany the king and his chiefs as much as possible on public occasions, and he returned home as he came, an abstainer. Major Te Wheoro, a member of the New Zealand Parliament, an able and wealthy man, and other chiefs who had accompanied the king, had been abstainers for a long time. The king exercised a good influence among the natives on his return. The whole of the King Country was, by co-operation of the chiefs and the Government, placed under prohibition. Sir William Fox (ex-Pre-mier) and Mr. Glover, agent of the New Zealand Alliance, have recently visited the King in the interests of the temperance movement. Now the object of the King's visit has just been accomplished. The Government have restored to him and his people a large portion of the country confiscated after the war in which he was defeated. The Government will build him a house on the site of the headquarters of his fathers, and he and followers (called in New Zealand the King-ites) will take the oath of allegiance to our Queen. Tawhiao will thus become the last of the Maori kings.—Faithfully yours, John Hilton. Langveld House, Bow, E., July 9."