MAORI AND PAKEHA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22167, 22 July 1935, Page 6

MAORI AND PAKEHA

PAST AND THE rRESENT LORD GALWAY'S SPEECH ii?i ■ 'v: NEW PACT AND ITS MEANING " At such a time as this we are re. ? minded of the great Waita'ngi Treaty signed nearly 100 years ago ; . between Queen Victoria and her Maori people, We are all of us determined that tin principles of that treaty shall be car. ried out in the future as in the past," said the Governor-General at the wel.|f come to Viscountess Galway and him.ii self by the Maoris at the Omahu pa Hawke's Bay, last week. Viscount Galway continued: For a period of about 75 years after that treaty, we may feel, the face of the country was greatly changed by agrf. cultural development, and many Maoris must have thought that the spirit of the treaty was being changed at the same time. " But the Great War of 1914 to 1918 changed the whole face of the world. The Maori people ranged themselves beside their pakeha brothers in the fight for the cause of justice and liberty. At the end of the war another pact between the Maori, and the pakeha wag made. It was not made in paper and ink; it was not made by signatures or sealing-wax or documents. " This pact was made on the one hand by the thousand Maoris who gars' their lives in the! cause of the Empirej and on the other side by the friendship, sympathy and interest of the people in the Mother Country. And it was the beginning of a new New Zealand, which is beginning to be made in the present time, and will continue to be made in the future. It will be made by the two races working together for the common cause of the good of their country. " To-day seems to link the past with the present. We are at the same time watching an exhibition of the old customs and seeing the young Maoris taking part in the sports 'of to-day. I wish ■ them, and 1 wish you all, every happi. ness and prosperity in your life." The principal Maoris present 3# formally representing their race in the welcome to Their Excellencies were Sir Apirana Ngata, M. P. for the Eastern Maori district, and Bishop Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa. The chief local spokesman was Mr. Hori Tupaea, who extended to Their Excellencies the ceremonial welcome of the local Maoris. Mr. Whakarua, a chieftain of the.Taranaki district, also joined in the welcome, and Mr. T. Ellison, of Lyttelton, represented the South Island Maoris. Among the visiting natives were groups from Taranaki, Wairarapa, the East Coast, Bay of Plenty, Wanganui, King Country and tlio TTrewera dis- ; trict. _ , The ceremonies were carried out with the dignity that is a part of all Maori eeremoniai, and the welcome to Their Excellencies, who in accordance with Maori custom were kept on the threshold of the pa until the welcoming oration had been delivered, was a splendid 1 piece of ceremonial.