MAORI RELIGION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22065, 22 September 1933, Page 11

MAORI RELIGION

SOME OF ITS ASPECTS ADDRESS BY REV. J. M. BATES. Members of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Historical Association were addressed last evening by the Rev. J. M. Bates, who took as his subject “ Some Aspects of Maori Religion.” The speaker was briefly introduced by the chairman (Dr J. R. Elder), who stressed the importance of the subject in view of the questions which were frequently being asked as to the extent to which Christianity had influenced the Maoris of to-day. The speaker said he did-not claim to be an authority on Maori religion, but he was interested in the philosophy of religion, and it was from that angle that he approached his subject. The religion of the Maoris must concern all those who were interested in the country and its history. . It had been difficult to gain satisfactory ideas regarding the Maori religion, especially in the earlier days. The speaker read extracts from a work of Eldon Best, who quoted the views held by a fiumber of those who visited New Zealand in the early days in respect to the religion of the Natives. It was impossible, said the speaker, for those who were not Maoris to understand what was comprehended in the term Maori religion without living with them and comprehending their outlook. In order to understand such a phenomenon as religion two things were necessary, first, a scientific training, and, secondly, the inquirer must be religious himself. In spite of the interesting and valuable accounts of religion included in Best’s works, the speaker thought his writings would have been still more valuable had he possessed this requisite training and attitude of mind. Dealing with the Maori religion, the speaker said the Maori had a very serviceable account of how things came to be. He related something of the Maori belief with regard to the creation of the universe and dealt with the Native scheme of gods. There were four classes of these, the first occupied by one god only, lo by name. The second class were the departmental gods, the third the tribal gods, and the fourth the spirits of the dead forebears. Only very important matters were dealt with by the departmental gods, who were the most exalted gods known to the Maori. The third class of gods personified activities, and theirs was the realm of images, while sacred objects were connected with them. They could also be used as agents by human beings, who could commission a god to perform a certain function. The god who was of the greatest interest, however, was 10. Knowledge of lo was confined to a very small number. The Maoris had a type of a school of theology, where the priests were trained in the lore and religion of the race, and this was not made available to the ordinary rank and file of the people. The speaker went on to deal with the concept of tapu, which he described as an extremely important one. In the Old Testament the reader found the same conceptions as those bound up in tapu involved in the attitude of the Hebrews to Jehovah and to the sacred ark, but among the Maoris instead of this phenomena being confined to a special department of life it ruled the whole of it. The Maoris attributed the decay of tapu to the introduction of the Christian religion. In conclusion the speaker said the Maori did not regard life_ as something which was divided, as in modern life, into separate compartments and divisions, and he commented that an interesting field of study was opened up in exploring the complex problem cf Maori life in its many ramifications. At the conclusion of his address the speaker, on the motion of Dr E. N. Mcrrington, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.