HISTORY OF THE MAORI

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21829, 18 June 1934, Page 10

HISTORY OF THE MAORI

HAWKE'S BAY PROVINCE REQUEST TO ROTARY CLUB ! [by TELEGRAPH —rRESS association] HASTINGS, Saturday Following upon an address in which: the Bishop of-Aotearoa, the Et. Rev. F. A. Bennett, asked the Hastings Rotary Club to sponsor an organised , effort to collect and compile an adequate written record of Maori history relating to this province, the club president, Dr. Bathgate, undertook to make a* requests to have the subject introduced'for discussion at the next New: Zealand conference of Rot&rians in Wellington in August". The bishop suggested "that Rotarianj of the Dominion as a whole might tako a lead in furthering his proposal with relation to the entire country. He sug- - gested that papers might be prepared with the assistance of Maoris, to bo read at club luncheons and afterwards published in book form. Such history would have not only a sentimental' value, but also a great scientific value. There was nothing in the way of an adequate written record in existence, said Bishop Bennett. He proposed as topics especially meriting historical treatment such things as Maori religion, art, medicine, cooking, house building, sanitation, diet, methods"of fishing and hunting and fire-making. He believed the Maoris had soma psychological powers ' that we to-day Jknow nothing about, and much raystio knowledge which had always been a secret from the pakeha.