MAORI CONTINGENTS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14847, 26 February 1919, Page 9

MAORI CONTINGENTS.

THE EAST COAST RESPONSE. Home interesting figures m connection with the Maori Contingents .that left New Zealand were given to a reporter by Captain Pitt as compiled from the official 1 rolls of the Expeditionary Forcts. Thirty Reinforcements left New Zealand exclusive of Rarotongans and Samoans of a grand total of all ranks, of 2039 made up as follows -.—--Europeans and 'other persons who are not Maoris 77, Tokerau electorate (the Ngapuhi) 446, West Coast electorate together with S'outli Island electorate 548, East Coast electorate 1018. This shows that the East Coast electorate, of which Gisborne is the centre, has actually sent away more men than the rest ctf theTDominion and Chatham Islands put together. These figures are interesting m view of the original claim made by the East Coast people that the Maori battalions should be landed m Gisborne, to which Auckland has strenuously objected en the ground that Auckland is the moi'o central port for demobilisation. This, states Captain Pitt, is hard to! follow, seeing that more than one-half belong to the East Coast and fully one-third of the remainder are South Islanders. Ho suggests the Government should recog,uise the splendid response made by th» Maoris of tho East Coast m the supplying of men for active service, and, when it is further, considered that the South Island people are closely related to the East Coast people, more bo than any of the people of the other electorates are to one another. These two I electorates, he states, -have supplied morei than two-thirds of the contingents.