THE MAORI IN SYDNEY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4262, 23 January 1901, Page 4

THE MAORI IN SYDNEY.

Tlio account given by the well-known Wairarapa chief, Tamahau -Maluipnku, and published yesterday, of his impressions in Sydney during tin* Commonwealth celebrations is deeply interesting and historically valuable. It is interesting because of its graphic power and keenness of observation, valuable, as an authentic description of the mental condition of the Maori race after sixty years of British rule. While his, fellow; 'countryman, the 'Native Minister, was showing the Australian public what position it is possible for an intelligent member of the, race to attain, the Wairarapa cnief was receiving impressions, which, being those of one who habitually mixes with the “ pakeha ” element, enable ns to gauge -tJic condi. tkm of the great mass of ins people. In this aspect the chief’s 'remarks are especially interesting. The picturesque narrative, with its concise periods, its dramatic power of seizing the important features of all situations, its hints of picturesque imagery, and its punctilious courtesy at all points—these are characteristically fresh, and all in their way admirable. The historic question, however, ■which they open up at once absorbs all the'attention the subject deserves. This unbounded astonishment of so intelligent a Maori, who has observed the progress of the pakeha, is in no way discreditable to the civilisation which, by the promise of bringing them to better things, induced the Maoris of two generations hack to accept the sovereignty! of the Queen. Mahupuku was, of course, impressed by the sights lie saw in Sydney the other day. Impressed lie ought to have been, as, indeed, were all l who were with him there present. The sights of Sydney “opened the eyes” of some of the European visitors quite as much as they did those of Mahupuku and his companions. The Maori of to-day has no reason for child-like wonder, for in his case education has been an. easy process. We found in New Zealand a brave, iself-contained race, organised completely in its own fashion, obeying a complicated, polity, wiMoh, while making no progress, left no one to want; possessing a 'wonderful genius for war; rejoicing in an unwritten literature of imaginative grace, poetic power andi singularly prolific force; distinguished in oratory far beyond the common, and preserving its traditions with scrupulous care,. .These people took, with delirious joy, to the art of writing, at its very first introduction to them; they almost worshipped ifho axe, the plough, the coinmill;, and they quickly built .them- a coasting fleet. Reduced .in numbers to 40.000 from the 70,000 who gave in their adhesion to the treaty of Waitangi, the Maori people have ait lasife ceased to

dwindle, and their best men appreciate the value of the agencies established by the conquering race for their good. It requires but an intelligent and liberal extension of those agencies to give the individual Maori his due place in the arts of civilisation, and to the race a turn in the tide of their numbers strong enough to keep their place on the roll of nations.