MAORI'S QUANDARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20475, 29 January 1930, Page 16

MAORI'S QUANDARY.

COMMUNAL STRANGLEHOLD.

TOO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED. LOSING FIGHT AGAINST DEBT. A Maori who has been declared bankrupt attributed his financial difficulties at a creditors' meeting yesterday to the stranglehold of tho old Maori communal system which obliged him to dispense hospitality to members of his tribe. Ho had a wife and eight 'children and from time to time, ran his statomenfc to the official assignee, Mr. A. W. Watters, "other children come and stay with me, and according to tho Maori custom I have fed and housed them during their visits. Also, on many occasions, adult Maoris come and stay and I cannot turn them

away." The bankrupt, Pchi Karaka, labourer, formerly of To Kohunga, Waikato, listed his assets as threo horses and a waggon. His deficiency was £460. He did not attend tho meeting, but sent a telegram from the Far North saying that ho could not get to Auckland in time. "I can only explain my position by the fact that I have tried to support too many people," tho statement continued. "I think that although all tho goods aro booked down to my namo, some of the natives should help mo. I have approached them and asked them to do so but without result."

Bankrupt added that he commenced to get into debt ten years ago, in connection with food and clothes supplied by a storekeeper, and then he lost his job. At that time ho owed £lßl and ho had been trying over since to reduce the debt. A dairy company supplied him with a motor-truck but his financial position was such that hq had to return it. Recently ho had been driving a truck for his son, receiving no wages. "The arrangement is purely a Maori one and I am kept by my son in food during such time as I have not got another job to go to," ho explained. Bankrupt said ho believed that ho had an interest in a block of 47 acres at Waikato Heads and another interest in about 700 acres at To Akau, near Raglan, but there wero many parties interested. The meeting lapsed for want of a quorum.