THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 30

THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

PAPEE BY Dft WI REPA. A paper by Dr Wi Repa, dealing with the formation and development of the Te Aute Association, was read at a meeting held in Morninyton recently. In the course of the paper Dr Wi Repa wrote : — To begin with, I will open my remarks ■with the history of the genesis of. this " party," upon which we pin our hopes for the- future welfare of the Maori race. The ■tory of the development of progrossive and advanced ideas for the benefit of the race for the last ten years points emphatically to the fact that the Te Aute Association has been quietly, silently, but certainly influencing Maori public- opinion in n direction that compels hope. The story of the development of the Te Aute Association is highly interesting. At first it was intended to be nothing more than a "club," ''with select admissions td its membership, but it has; by a slow process of evolution, become an organisation whose avowed object is the ultimate and highest good of the race; and its one condition of membership is the desire to secure the .highest good of the race. Like all human organisations, it has taken some time to earn the confidence an-d socure the parentage of the Maori race, but by dint of jmicb effort and quiet speaking, and the Holding of conferences in Maori centres of population, the views of the party have gained acceptance ; and it is hoped that, by the change of '* title," the association will secure more rapid extension of its borders. There are many measures of importance in operation amongst the- Maoris at the present time, due directly to the Te Aute Association. Though the association has not so far received national recognition, we hope, at the coming congress, to secure for it not only Maori adoption but Dominion respect. . Signs of Life. The Te Aute Association did not come suddenly into being like a Martinique earthquake or a Kingston catastrophe A3 I have already indicated, its birth dates from the year 1897. It was the outcome of certain isolated efforts in previous times to reform the Maori race ; or, to bring the matter to the bedrock, it was the fruit of the constant preaching on social reform by Mr Thornton, headmaster of the aohool. I can remember two such addresses were given annually, at the end of each school term. The seed sown during those year? pre\ious to 1897 must have lain quietly, then germinated somewhere about 1891* and in 1897 reached ho full corn. The first orga-nispd fffort made by Te Aute College boys on b&half of their race was in Deoember, 1891. During that summer an epidemic of influenza, had broken out on the East Coast of the North Island, and, with the aid of the tohunga, had swept off many victims. This outbreak of disease called for immediate action ; and the college lads, barely in their toens, proposed to supply the remedy. Under the leadership of Apirana Xpata, who was then an undergraduate at Canterbury College, an association was formed bearing the 1 sonorous title of "A Society for the

I Amelioration of the Condition of the j Maoris." The society had an ambjtioua . title, and consisted of young, ambitious I members, with absolutely no experience of I the relations of roan with man. The doleful view taken of the whole Maori question ' by this society is thus tersely put by Mr Ngata: "The whole of Maori society is ; rotten. Christianity is lukewarm, if not dead; the Maoris are drunken, idle cots; they love not oleanliness; they do not encourage their children to go to school, j but on the other hand throw obstacles in . the way; they run after tohungas and superstitions, and are utterly ignorant o^ the rudiments of hygiene and medicine. Therefore, we said, we must reconstruct Maori society; w^ must stir up the religious life; we must stop the drink, and make our people thrifty, frugal, provident, , and industrious; they must send their j children to schcol ; leave all the Maori I tohungas and lean on European doctors ; , and they must learn some of the elements of hygiene out of Mr Pope's 'Health for I the Maori.' The conflict during the first campaign was supposed to have sounded the death-knell of the young association, although in my recollection the report read by Mr Ngata of his tour of the NgatiPorou district with his brother and Mr Reweti Kohere disclosed a most hopeful state of affaire. That report claimed that the seed of the word had been sown, and the preaching had been listened to with as much attention and toleration as ever youthful eettere-forth of new doctrines could expect. Although the year of the reading of that report is now some distance behind, yet I remember distinctly that no mention of active or passive opposition on the part of the leading thinkers of the Coast was made; neither wa« it definitely stated that the apostles of the new gospel received any rebuff for any offensive matter they had said. The fact was our party of that day did not conceive any other course than that of scattering broadcast, by means of lectures, the truths it was bound to support ; and lam not quite sure that we did not maintain this course from that day forth, even unto the great movement of 1897. It is my modest belief that the effort &f 1891 had been underrated and spoken of slightingly beyond its deserts. I even think that our elders had been unjustly accused of eubjeoting ue to indignities, for they never did anything of the kind. On the contrary, they welcomed vm, and saw in ua the fulfilment of whatever vague hopes they might have had for the future of their children. I do not reoolleot any one of our party having 1 committed violence, either in speech or action, against our elders. True, Friday Tomoana pulled down tlie old wbare-ptrai at 'Waipa.tu ; but what right had people to take exception to hie action? The house was his own property, and surely he could do what he liked with his own. No; an evil report had got abroad that the young party had failed, and had been rejected of their people. That rumour had .=pread unchallenged, and was eecenied by thoee in authority over us. Our young minds soon believed that we were at fault. We pot stage-fright, as it were, and were willing to surrender— at least, for the time being. But if wo consider the position fairly, and remember that the association of that doy

vas urged into existence by a, certain definite stimulus — namely, the fatal influenza epidemic then raging along the East Coast — and if we recognise that a definite plan of action had been arranged for a certain definite period; and, further, if we acknowledge that that scheme of service had been followed to the letter during the period intended without regard for the bare results, then the enterprise of 1891 was quite successful. Still as an association we oeased to be ; but, as our first conference ( report gracefully acknowledges, " the move1 rnenfc wa-% not to prove fruitless-. It hae given birth to an idee, and that idea has , now at length developed into the initiation I of a scheme, the first step of which it is I the purpose of the following report to i record." Mr Ngata, like the rest of us, was misled by the prevalent opinion that the association had failed. Writing in 1897 as a barrister, in a chastened spirit , and in the light of wider experience, he says: "What we said in 1891 of the condition of the Maori people i« still true in the main. But we can in 1897 better understand the causes of things, and can ! look with toleration on some; of the shortcomings of our people. The light of experience will show us indeed the same faults, 1 but it will further enable us to sec further and around. Then what seemed so glaring a few years ago will bo shaded here and there, each fault finding ite place in its proper surroundings, lyins side by side with a virtue it may be, certainly not ' obscuring all the good that lurks in the ' Maori nature." The death of that noble, though youthful, society of 1891 but fertilised the soil for future sowing, and I have always main- ' tamed that the brilliant movement of 1897 is merely a resurrection of the much underrated earlier enterprise. On interesting link in the chain of events , which culminated in our supreme effort of 1897 was a preaching tour of Hawke's Bay undertaken by Reweti Kohere, Timutimu Tawhai, and Maui Pomare during their midwinter holidays in the year 1892. These gentlemen were senior boys of Te Auto College, and their journey was made on foot. Mr Kohere furnished the local pres3 of that time with meet interesting -accounts ' of their itinerary. You would like to know the ultimate fate of these boys. Mr Kohere, after a three years' course at Canter- ; bury College, and at College House under Canon (now Dean) Harper, has been appointed tutor at Te Baukahikatca Theologioal College, Gisborne; Timutimu Tawhai is Curate at Rotorua: and Maui Pomare is Dr Pomare, Native Health Officer. A powerful external force of far-reaching consequences invaded the college gates in the spring o f 1893. This was the visit of Fred Bennett — then student readings for Holy orders— to Archdeacon Wilhams's house, and thence to the college. One Friday evening he appeared with the Rev. A. F. Williame, 8.A., the officiating clergyman, at Maori prayers. The winning personality of this young man soon captivated the hearts of his audience, and the next rlay he was amongst his fellow countrymen, entering into their fun with due zest. Bennett soon established himself in the affection of the college boys, and the friendship then formpd has become lifelong 1 . The message thin yountr preacher delivered , appealed to the intelligence and to the sou!.

The note of absolute conviction whir I characterised his addresses, the rare spe I tacle of a young Maori of such fine natun ' parts taking up a position relegated h public opinion to later life, and the en phasis on the concurrence of preaching tl: Word of God and the living its principh that he urged commanded the earnei attention of the older boys. From tht day forth the spiritual life of the colleg was deepened, and no one can dispute th claim of this subtle force to a. plac amongst the predisposing factors to th happy consummation of 1697. Certain! the " boys " who had received real an , lasting spiritual benefits afc this time wei among the founders of the Te Aut Students' Association. A modest effort to express afresh th principles of the 1891 movement was th formation of a " Corresponding Commii tee," for the purpose of sending monthl circulars to "Old Boys" of the college in order to preserve the filial bond betwee the Alma Mater and her wandering son; This laudable endeavour, which develop© in 1896, proved abortive in so far as it immediate object was concerned- But th idea was destined to take a definite shape and its seal is 6et on the first object of th constitution of the Te Aute College Stii dents' Association : "To keep up oommunj cation between pest and present students o Te Aute College." The work of John Mott was the next e!e , ment that helped to force us into being During the first visit of that gentleman to our shores a branch of the Christiai Union was formed at Canterbury College ! and Hector Hawkins, an old Te Aute boy : became its first president. Mr Hawkim attended the first Pan-Australian Confer once of the World's Student Christiar Federation, held in Melbourne in 1896 There Mr Hawkins was so 6truck with th« absolute usefulness of such a gathering thai he determined to introduce the system ai Te Aute. On his return to his old eoliod in the winter of 1896 he suggested the idea of a conference of old Te Aute boys for th« summer of 1897. A preliminary meeting was called, at which were present Messrs Hawkins, Kohore, Thornton (head mastei of To Aute Colleee), H. N. Baker (senior assistant of the college), and the boys of the college. Mr Thornton opened the meetina with a powerful and eloquent address, in which he called upon all present to rally round the tattered flag of reform ones more. He brought this memorable discourse to a close by emphasising the universal principles that reform must be endemio and not epidemic. A committee was appointed to make ihe necessary arrangements for the proposed conference, of which Mr Thornton was appointed chairman and myself as eeoretarv. Circulars were cent to a.ll Old Boys, to "representative men of the Maori race, and to our European friends. In January. 1897, our first conference met, ano* the Te Aute College Students' Association was formed, for the purpose of " ameliocating the condition of the Maori race, socially, physically, morally, and spiritually."

In the British Museum there is a queer and ancient love-letter, engraved on a brick. It is a proposal for the hand of an Egvpfiau princess, and is about 3500 \eai6 old.