WHERE MAORIS DIFFER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 444, 28 August 1928, Page 16

WHERE MAORIS DIFFER

OWN IDEAS OF CHURCH SIR A. NGATA PREFERS TO SLEEP ON FLOOR “Inside the house there should be, of course, raised beds,” said Sir Apiraria Ngata, last evening, in his address to t.he Auckland Institute, “but most Maoris prerer to sleep on the floor on mats, as they have been doing for thousands of years. I prefer to sleep on the floor myself, and I am a fair example of the educated Maori.” Again the lady of the house was expected to preside at the head of the table at meals, but in Maori households the ladies preferred to hold their meal after the men had finished, and preferably in the kitchen. Women, by their education of the young Maori, would do a great deal to bring about a change in the social conditions, and the younger women were demanding this and that feature of modern civilisation, Including the latest of wireless.

The Maori had abandoned his own culture entirely and been expected to assimilate the stock-in-trade of the European. Social conditions of the race varied from the paling hut in the Urewera to the first-class mansion in Hawke’s Bay. Something of the European idea of a home had been caught by the native, but it would not be assimilated in this generation. MAORI IN CHURCH The Maori, in church, objected to being treated as an audience rather than a congregation. He did not appreciate choirs, and so on. Even sitting on a form was an ordeal to a race which for thousands of years had sat cross-legged on the floor. There seemed no reason why the Maori should not see Christ in "Maori dress, if that would bring Him closer. Hymns, words and tunes might be sung by the Maoris in their own way. “I hope some day that we will alter our prayer-book and we will not go to the House of Representatives about it,” said Sir Apirana. “We will do it ourselves and not tell anyone.”