NATIVE AFFAIRS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22421, 16 November 1934, Page 6

NATIVE AFFAIRS

PAKEHA AS MINISTER BURNING TOPIC AMONG, MAORIS. (Peb United’ Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, November 15. Serious, misgivings, it is stated, exist among the Maoris just now as to the outcome of the report of the Native Commission. The Right Rev. F. A. Bennett, Bishop, of who arrived from the north this movnrlng, found this a burning topic in Maori communities all over the North Island. “The future of the Ministry is causing the gravest concern,” he said. The appointment of a pakeha as Native Minister was unsatisfactory from many points of view. Bishop Bennett said there could be .no objection to financial and administrative control by a pakeha, but it was quite impossible for anyone but a Maori to make a success of the post from a psychological point of view. There could not be that understanding and sympathy so necessary in handling Native questions. Lack of a suitable man to carry on the work of Sir Apirana Ngata showed the necessity of doing something to train future leaders of the race. Bishop Bennett added: “There are young men at the universities showing, promise, but there is a gap of a generation between such men as the late Sir Maui Pomare, Sir James Carroll and Sir Apirana Ngata aiffi these young Mmoris; and who is to fill it?”