TO SAVE A LANGUAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 8

TO SAVE A LANGUAGE

THE undoubted tragedy of the Maori race is that within a century its language will be, to all intents and purposes, a dead tongue. There are Maoris to-day of mature years who can partly understand, but cannot speak, the poetical language of their fathers. There are many Maori children who have no other tongue but English. What the French have done in Tahiti we have accomplished in New Zealand. The Maori is no longer a Maori. Neither is he European. He is something between the two! Therefore, the request of that live little organisation, Te Akarana Maori Association, that a lectureship in Maori should be instituted at the Auckland University College, is a reasonable one; especially when Maori is now recognised as a pass subject for the B.A. degree.

As the Auckland Province still carries the bulk of the remnant of the Maori people, it is not inappropriate that “Akarana” should be the city selected to begin this national work. Apart from the average New Zealander’s regard for his Maori brother, the bonds of which have been cemented on the foreign battle-field, we must recognise that the Maori has a definite interest for the world of science—particularly to the anthropologist and to the ethnologist. Anything that New Zealand can do to preserve his ancient language is a distinct scientific contribution. It is an obligation New Zealanders owe to the world at large. There is no necessity to wait for “a wealthy Maori” to step forward. The pity is rather that a wealthy New Zealander has not come forward long ago with a similar proposal. There is a debt we certainly owe the Maori. To endeavour to retain for future generations the spoken music of his language is surely not asking too much.