A MAORI ADDRESS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8910, 2 September 1907, Page 3

A MAORI ADDRESS.

An exchange supplies tho following address presented to Miss Murcott by tho Maoris at Rotorua:— ‘ ‘ Haero mai o to mauuhiri. ’ ’ Welcome, O distinguished stranger from beyond the skies. We, the Maori people, welcome you to Rotorua, to the home where our ancestors lived aud flourished. Tho sheltering totara trees of the great forest of the Tauo have fallen, tho lofty mountains have boon levelled, aud the authority aud power have departed. Our fathers, who wculd have stirred you with their oratory, have beeu laid to rest in tho bosom of their mother, Papa-tu-a-nuku, tho Earth. Wo arc but tho remnant of "a race ! whom fate directed through tho Isles ’ of tho Pacific afar from tho activities and intellectual evolution of other races, and decreed to remain within tho age of polished stone

until tho quickening hand of tho white man opened the doors of our stone prison with a key of inetal. The gap of three thousand years that lies between us cannot be . bridged over in two generations. Yon, the White People, the product of centuries of education and progress, rendered possible by tho happy chance that gave yon metals, often wax impatient at our tardy progress; whilst wo, your Neolithic brethren, oast into one of the back eddies of the world, and loft behind by the stream of evolution, oft grow weary of tho arrogance and inconsistency of civilised man. You brought us your civilisation and you decimated our ranks with strange diseases and modern armaments. Yon supplied us with firearms, and when in tho lust of war wo had slain almost half of tho flower of our race (and a few of yours) yon punished us as rebels and confiscated onr lands. Yon gave ns tho Bible and broke its precepts, Ton taught ns ethics, and you had no scruples in your transactions with us. You gave us alcohol, and then punished us and gave us an evil name for using it. Onr fathers desired to be civilised, but because of your inconsistencies they abandoned your teachings and opposed it with their hearts’ blood. We retrograded, and the gap between ns widened. Yon have to make up the ground lost by the bad example of your fathers; we have had jto overcome tho distrust and suspicion engendered in the hearts of ours and transmitted to us, ore we could once more take up the broken thread to progress. Of tho evils introduced by the white race that of alcohol lias wrought us incalculable harm. Though by wise enactments its evils have been considerably lessoned, wo arc not allowed a public expression of opinion upon the subject. The race which introduced the liquor traffic speak for theuiselvos and for us, hut,that Voice is the voice of,the white man alone. Wo think ‘ the time is now ripa ‘when our own voice, however feeble, should be given an opportunity of being heard. Wo consider that the local option should be extended to us as a matter of common justice. Wo therefore pray you to assist us with your sympathy, with your voice, and with your influence in moving the Government of this country to grant this humble petition of the Maori people. Help us, lest the suu set ou the Maori race for ever; lest the proverb of tho old men come true j “Kua ugaro a-moa to iwi noi,” —

this race has become as extinct as tho moa.

Wo welcome you as a distinguished traveller, wiio has seen many lands and many people*;. Oome and see us, the people, a Neolithic race, striving to assimilate civilisation. Oomo and see the “maramara toenga, ” this remaining fragment of a race in their struggle for existence. ’Many fall by the kiwaysido, but the survivors struggle ion, for wo are “in tho ‘-‘Matikuku : paugo, ’ ’ tho black finger nail of j death, and we would draw the ; remnant of our race out of tho clut-ehes of “Hine-nui-te po, ” the great Goddess of - Night, to some “taumata oklokinga, ” some summit of rest, where we may emerge above the threatening clouds of extinction, whore tho sun may smile upon ns as of old, and whore wo may behold once more “tc-ao-marama, ” tho World of Light. Haero Mai! Haere Mai! Haero Mai! Welcome, thrice welcome!