CHIVALRY IN WAR

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6408, 30 October 1923, Page 7

CHIVALRY IN WAR

THE MAORI AS AN EXAMPLE. Dr. Buck, the Maori delegate to the Pan Pacific Congress, found many weak spots in the armour of civilisation at the last public meeting he addressed in Sydney and when he drew comparisons between native and “civilised” warfare, most of his darts reached their goal. There were many outstanding personalities at the congress, and the Sydney Daily Telegraph pays the New Zealander the compliment of saying that he was one of them, and adds: “He generally succeeded in getting his points home without resort to rhetorical flights, and his speech on the chivalry of the Maori and Polynesian races on the battlefield was one of the most forceful delivered by him during his stay in Australia. In the course of his highly intellectual remarks on the subject Dr. Buck is reported by the Telegraph to have said: “When we were civilised we found out very quickly that the old native spears and stone clubs would have to make way for the double barrelled musket, powder and ball. The native fighting was hand to hand, where you saw your enemy face to face, and the wounded were safe after they had fallen in battle. But since that time there has been a degradation of culture among the white races of the world, and it certainly does not seem to me that there is anything advanced or cultured when enemies fire at one another miles apart. I say candidly that there are times when I am glad to represent one of the native races of the Pacific.”