THE FUTURE OF THE MAORI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11650, 11 May 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FUTURE OF THE MAORI.

[BY spectatoe.]

The census returns }. nlished in the Hkrau) en Thursday show that the Maon pepulation of the colony has increased since 1896 by over three thousand. This is really good news. There may be an odd man here and there who could watch the moral and physical deterioration and final extinction of the Mann with philosophic calm; but most of us have been really sorry to witness the decay of this interesting race owing to the ravages of disease, caused by want of sanitary precautions, by half civilisation, and too often by debauchery.

Though all efforts seemed hopeless, both Church and State have during the last year or two renewed this most discouraging stiliggle for the betterment of the Maori, end now at hist it seems as though their efforts will lie, ill least in some measure, crowned with success. First the steady decrease of the Maori population was stopped; then their numbers appeared to be stationary for a while: and now we have a substantial increase.

Much of course still remains to be done for the uplifting, morally and socially, of the race; but it is a great encouragement to believe that the real hard work unostentatiously done by so many unselfish people, both Maori and Luropean, has not been in vain. The results already achieved are sufficient to encourage the friends of the .Maori to work on in hope. The half-hearted character of the support which in the past has been given by the general public has been due in a huge measure, to the fact that most people had come to believe that the extermination of the Maoris was inevitable, and that all efforts to stive them were quite hopeless. More enthusiastic support of work among and for the Maoris should come with the renewed hope the census gives us.

The present is the time to act. The Covernment are doing something in the way of improving the sanitary surroundings of the nice ; the Young Maori Party are endeavouring to improve the social life of their people ; and the Church is waking up to its responsibilities. Never was the time more opportune for a determined and vigorous effort.

The interesting report of the Sessional Committee of the recent General Synod on Missions to the Maoris states : —

"As regards work amongst the lapsed Maoris, the prospect is mure hopeful than it lias been for many years past, if only the Ghurch grasps her opportunity now, and hegins "with, vigour and earnestness missionary work, chiefly in the Waikato, in Xaranaki, and in the Urewera country. The opportunity lies before the Church to-day, but if 110& taken it will probably pass away. Your committee is convinced that unless the Church, of New Zealand is roused to a sense of the responsibility now resting upon her, and makes a vigorous dibit to discharge her obligation to the Maori in our midst, the ..oik of the Church an ong Christian Maoris will crumble to the dust., and the great opportunity which new presents itself of Christianising the oth< ; Maoris will be at least partially lost."

If Anglican Church p :ople are not roused to energy by such an appeal, every accusation of lethargy and indifference which has been made against them in this connection by both friends and enemies will be more than justified.

In view of the increase in the Maori population which the census has revealed a question naturally arises as to what position these people will occupy in the more distant futme? What will be their ultimate fate? It is hardly likely that they will continue in the land as a distinct and separate race for all time. What then? Their final destiny will probably be the same as that of the Indians of Canada, who occupy much the same position as our Maoris. Our Canadian friends are making efforts to save and uplift the Indian as we are in the case of the Maori. They have their schools for Indian boys, and they also train the girls, knowing that when marriage comes the school-taught boys find it almost impossible to maintain their higher standard of life unless their life partners are like-minded with themselves. When they marry untrained girls they almost inevitably fall back, morally and socially, to the level of their wives. This is why better provision for training Maori girls is so urgently needed in Auckland.

Here are views of a recent Canadian writer as to the future of the Indian in Canada. He states that to most of the Indians " the restless pushing activity of the white man, and the arts, the industries, the mechanism, the religion which he brings with him, are still novelties which puzzle and perplex him. But they have accepted the situation, and are trying to make the best of it. alien though it may be to all their old habits and ideas. As years pass those who lived the old life will pass too. Slowly— oh, how slowly!—new ideas of home, industry, and contentment will grow up with the new generations, and it may be hoped that, in the ages to come, that curious conglomerate of raoes now pouring into the Canadian. North-West —English, Canadian, American, French, German, Scandinavian, Russian Mennonite, and Doukhobort, in a climate as splendid and bracing as the freedom they all —will unite into a more or less homogeneous whole, in which the descendants of those who once owned and roamed at will over the whole country may. we may trust, not be without a place and a record."

Is there any reason why the Maori should not eventually secure a similar place and record among ourselves? The British race in the past lias absorbed and digested many foreign elements, and is none the worse for it. Such a. fate for the Maori would be something very different from extermination. it would give him a permanent place in the history of the great race with whom he has. for good or evil, thrown in his lot, and his many noble qualities might go to enrich our national character and secure their due influence in moulding the destinies of the people of New Zealand.

We are told that a remarkably curious study in ethnology is afforded by the decline of the Red Indian tribes in the Far West of America. American sociologists say that it has come, about by intermarriage with whites. For the most part white men are responsible for it, because they have married Indian women more than Indian men have wedded white women. In the first place, the Indian women have quite a fortune, and that lias attracted some white men to them, while the Indian men are notoriously unkind to their wives, and can seldom get an Indian woman to marry them willingly. In accordance with the general rule of the Indian department of the United States, any white man who marries an Indian woman is entitled to share in the funds of the tribe just the same as the woman herself. Their children are also allowed their equal share with the mother.

Though we have done much that we ought not to have done, and have left undone much that we ought to have done in our dealings with the Maoris, they have perhaps been treated better than any other darkskinned race similarly situated. We are now honestly trying to make up for past neglect; but much remains to be clone. We have only half civilised the Maoris so far, and they have unfortunately got hold of too much of the wrong halfthe vices of civilisation. Church and State are both in honour hound to see this thing through, and to teach the native race the virtues of our civilisation. Many signs point to the fact that now is the time for a really enthusiastic and sustained effort.