DESTINY OF THE MAORI

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21273, 29 August 1932, Page 6

DESTINY OF THE MAORI

LIVE NATIVES' WELFARE BEFORE CURIOS AND MYTHS PLEA BY BISHOP BENNETT More interest in the welfare of the fiative rare of to-dav and less concern for the Maori curios and myths of the past was the plea of the Bishop of Aotearoa, the lit. Rev. F. A. Bennett, in the course of an eloquent address at ft luncheon of the New Zealand Club in Wellington last Friday. The way in which " New Zealand's welfare was wrapped up to n largo extent iri the destiny of the Maori tace was referred to by Bishop Bennett. The bishop said / that the future welfare of New Zealand was dependent on a very large number of factors, but not the least was the destiny of the Maori race. The more they could do to carve out a path for the future of the native race the greater -would, be the honour due to the people of New Zealand. He recalled a conversation he had had with the com- ■ modore of the United States Navy on the occasion of the last visit of the American Fleet to New Zealand waters. This officer, ' he said, had stated that notwithstanding the beautiful scenery and other remarkable features of the Dominion, the most ■wonderful thing was the harmony that existed between the Maoris and pakehas. Traditions of the Past The old Union Jack, tattered and torn, *ras still flying proudly over the seven seas of the world as it had done for centuries paist, but notwithstanding that it beheld everyone in the Empire to uphold the traditions of those who had borne the burden and heat of the past. There were many bright gems in the British Crown, but of all those gems the one that scintillated most brightly was the wonderful way the Empire had moulded, fashioned and doveloped the native races of the Empire. Maori and British people had many characteristics in common. They had the same love of sport, the same lovo of fair play, the same desire to push ahead, and if they were not as far ahead as they should be it was not altogether their fault, but the fault. of some of those concomi- ' tants that followed in the wake of civilisation. The Maoris had their own weaknesses as a race, and they knew them, but in addition they had been up against some of those demoralising tendencies that had come among them as a result of civilisation. Tribute to Sir Apirana Ngata It was rather hard to realise how much the native race owed to the splendid work of various Governments, the speaker said. He was not going to single out any one Government, because all of them had been kind and generous to the Maori ' people. But having said all that and given credit to all those to whom credit was due, h© was going to say that at present they had as Minister of Native Affairs brie who was a native himself, a man who .f?as one in ten thousand, keen and patriotic, and keenly interested in the "development of his own people, both materially and spiritually. Sir Apirana Ngata understood the psychology of the Maori people. He firmly believed that the / encouraging position of the Maori race today was to a great extent due to the splendid way in which the present Minister of Native Affairs had handled the problem of the race. Up and down the whole country today was a different outlook among the Maori people, said the bishop, and notwithstanding }he hard times they were hopeful about the future. Educational schemes had done a great deal for the Maori people, who also owed a great deal to the Church. , "We want your sympathy, we want 'your co-operation, and we want you to feel interested in ns as a people," added BiEhop Bennett. "We do not want you to spend your time over Maori curios and myths. We wfent your interest in something more important than that—the welfare of the live Maoris."