A MILITANT MAORI.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10585, 14 October 1910, Page 4

A MILITANT MAORI.

FANTASTIC VIEWS ON DEFENCE

TRAIN THE WOMEN AND

CHILDREN.

By Telegraph.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, October 13. A fighting mood possessed the Hon. AVi Pere, the solitary representative of the native race in the Legislative Council, this afternoon, and after a preliminary brush with the Speaker, he proceeded to speak on the Defence Bill in a manner which gave the other, members of the Council much joy. The remark that "provoked the Speaker to threaten action was made vlien Mr Wi Pere was forestalled by another member, the result of which he averred was that he was forced to miss a train he desired to catch, "and now," he said, "as a revenge out of retaliation, I will speak until the Council rises." "You must not speak in that way, interposed the Speaker, "you must hot; threaten the Council, and I cannot listen to anything of the sort. ( You must sit down."

Mr Wi Pore said he would obey, and waited until his chance to speak came. Then lie rose again and, speaking through aii interpreter, roundly denounced the proposed limitation and the training period under the Defence Bill. In his opinion, he said, the training should not be limited to young men between the ages of 18 and 25 only; it should rather extend so as to embrace women, both European and Maori, as well as youths under 18 years of age arid men over 25. All of them should be trained in military arts. Even ;i. ' youth of 12—lie had a boy that ago himself and ho was practically a ■man — ought to be trained. "You cannot do heller than train the Maori," he declared, with vigor. "I can assure the Council of the capabilities of the.' Maori when it comes to warring. J:l'c knows how to supply liimr self all right; why should not the women be trained ? What is the difference between the while woman and the Maori woman? It is that if the former hears of an enemy being seen, she will scream and fall back in a faint, while the Maori woman springs for the firstcudgel she can. lay her hands on and gets into the fray.—(Laughter.) "Simply to .train the men between IS "and 25 is not sufficient; are you going to allow the sport of war to these few "alone? No! I believe that you should let every one enjoy it; you can have all those between these ages, but let me train those outsidothc Bill and I will back my lot against yours.— (Laughter.) All that I crave for is to enioy some fighting before I die." Mr Wi Perc concluded his oration by saying that the Bill was the most ■.important'one that could bo brought in; it far excelled any other measure that , the Government or any member of Parliament could introduce. As for the Native Land Bill and others like that, well they were no good. • This Defence , Bill was the class (if measure that was really wanted. -