THE WHITE MIAN'S BURDEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WHITE MIAN'S BURDEN.

. [BY W.E., tb Ktrrri.] If the annual report of the native schools of New Zealand is pervaded with th© same common-'sense as the excerpts which have appeared in the press, there should be nothing to carp at; and I heartily agree with ' the conclusion: —■" So long as there is no ! ] definite end I believe that we are likely to make the mistake of giving the higher education to too many." This, spoken of the girls, applied with equal force to the boys. v What obtrudes itself with exasperating persistence is th© prominence given to that higher education, which finds its culmination in, one of th© professions, to the negtect of other education and other necessities which call for assistance and call in vain! There also Seems to be a widespread faith in th© fallacy that, given the Maori youth the opportunity to enter these higher schools, we have compassed their salvation, and may forthwith repose in the content, which cometh of an irksome duty neatly circumvented at last 1 ■■'■'■. This fallacy has now arrived at a point when silence on the part of those who know it to be such—becomes a wanton mishandling of the talent entrusted to their charge—nay, a criminal collusion with an absurdity which no one, having, a solemn appreciation of his share of the white man's burden, may stand by and condone. ':\Let it not* be understood by this that I imder-rate the higher education. What I wish to make clear and emphasise is that, for the Maori in his present state, it is misapplied and premature. He has not yet arrived at a stage when it can. benefit him, when there, are other things lacking of vaster importance to his welfare, -and which must take precedence in any scheme professing to save his remnants, and build them up into a virile; self-contained nation. That my contention is shared by the more thoughtful among themselves I have gleaned by inquiries and conversations with them, and, was especially confirmed in a recent discussion with one of the most modern and enlightened it has yet been my fortune' to meet, whom I shall frequently quote, and who illustrated this folly'of the higher education thus: "It is arraying him in dress suit and top hat, and forgetting the singlet and shirt!" Th© simile was apt and, invited a smile, but there was a distinct vibration in his ton© which spoke of an unqualified contempt for an inglorious failure! For he, too, had been to this fountain of knowledge and drunk thereat, hoping to quench his own thirst and tell of its virtue to those of his kinsfolk. He, too, had been to the high school and sat in th© ranks of listeners to the white man's wisdom, dreaming the while of his race, its future and progress. But an unrealised dream, which vanished, and left no token behind it!

He spoke beautiful English, 'in which ho explained why "we are being laden with wares which we have no market for. I do not even - except the medical profession. Our' higher education, to produce a result, must- advantage the race; this must be the aim of ail the nursing yon expend on us. As a doctor it is among his own race lie must expect to establish his practice. It is not.to be supposed that he will be able to compete with success on the same plan© as his white confrere in an already overcrowded profession, or be able to work up a clientele among the pakeha, where the colour line is so idolatrously sacred! Besides, to a majority of us, after we have acquired more polished tastes in our University life, it irks to go back to ponga whare and earthen, floors. And the parental heart is sore when, it noien contempt and sarcastic .sniffs; when , there ~is hesitation at the home-coming to present the nose for -is , hougi greeting, and shamefaced, glances arc "feist at'our domestic customs! And this is one, and the - principal, reason Why they object to send their sons and daughters to a race which sows * wakahihi' (presumptuous pride) into the souls of their children!" There are other professions which the higher education leads to-—hw., engineering, architecture, chemistry, etc, But these all come within, the category of "' inapplicable" to the welfare of the Maori; and tc parade & success or two merely proves his unexampled capacity to learn all the white man can teach him. But it is: the medical profession from which the advocates of the higher education, expect the greatest re- ' suits, and, if the decay of the Maori could 'be;traced to certain diseases which medicine could cope with, their advocacy would be justified. Now, ft happens that the Maori is not dying of any specific disease; he is yielding to that inevitable law of "■Nature., which warns the aggressor: " Don't interfere with me, because I shall hit back." The pakehai has unconsciously done this; he has interfered with a style of life which built up a race. He in his lordly way forbade this, and ordered peremptorily: " You must end that," thus cutting away natural prop after prop, without supporting the mass by others until it could stand by itself, "it was: " Take off that 'pureke' (coarse flax cloak), and put on this coat." "You s must sheathe your bare legs in trousers; to walk abroad in a short loin mat is indecent;" and "Get or. this horse, you. will find it easier travel." And the Maori listened', and reflected, and said; "Koia (surely), and, having put on the coat and trousers, and noted that the pakeha beside him wore boots, he wanted those also; and, having bread acres lying idle, he sold them to obtain these luxuries, and, treating them as he did his pureke and loin mat—cast them off when they cumbered his movements, regardless of weather; presently followed that be coughed up his lungs and died. He was no longer the warrior exposed to vicissitudes which kill off the weaker and the strong. He was nc longer compelled to arduously toil for his food—food which suited his system of life so well: coarse, nutritive, and plain! The Maori has no faith in his pakeba- ; taught medical kinsman; for,, when he re- | turned to his tribes, flushed with the fame | of successfully-passed exams., they flocked ' to the oracle in crowds to be eased of their I ailments, and when European-taught skill i failed (as fail it must against Nature), they I turned their backs to him, and sent for their tohunga, who brought his materia medica— a pint bottle of evil-smelling herb and rootwater, enriched with an incomprehensible jargon of senseless incantationswhich merely hastened the end. Then they held a conclave of sorrow, and discussed the inefficiency, and charged it to a departed mana, or other absurdity, not knowing, poor souls, that the ancient merely suffered from an overfeed at a tangi feast, maybe, which the herb-simples, without the mummery, would have cured; that it is not a colic he has now to combat, hut a- nation's natural decay ; that it is Nature avenging infractions! Yet, as sure as the sun will rise on the "morrow, the plague may be stayed, not with potions and pills, or doctors, however high' their degree, but a radical change of life, which conforms to our artificial aids to evolution; and to assist bin* in this, my brothers, is the weight of the white man's burden. , And, if we are true men and women, and not boastful shrievers of inadequate souls, we will grapple with it, each will—fully recognising the labour — his breath, take a good grip .hold and lift and do it with a "yo, heave ho," heartily, with a love for his call and the race. For, as Mr. Ellis, of Otorohanga (and be ought to know), so truly says: "It is out ward." We owe it a debt; therefore, let us make friends with the debtoi while yet on the way, lest the deficiency to be made up, when posterity shall examine our wardship, bankrupt our fame as trustees. The betterment of the Maori is a subject dear to my heart. I have studied his wants in all then phases. I have, to advance that study, lived his life with him, argued his problems with him, and so gained his confidence that he has unlocked to me his inner sorrow chamber and shown me its contents. I have within my limited means practiced what I preach, and tested" my theories; therefore, I claim to speak with the authority of experience: and, as it is the duty of those who have had it to come foiward and declare it—he, they, who they may— have decided to devote aD article oxtwo to temperately state what my theories are, and the result of their ' testing.