MAORI PATRIOTISM.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13706, 24 April 1913, Page 3

MAORI PATRIOTISM.

A picturesque and altogether admirable demonstration of loyalty was made on; board the gift-ship; New Zealand (says tho "New Zealand Times") by a number of representative Maori (chiefs. The presents they made to Captain Halsey, and still more their patriotic addresses, must have been vory welcome to that distinguished officer. It seems to us a very fitting and appropriate event for leading men of our aboriginal race—sons and descendants, as Mr. C. Parata, M.P., observed, of those who signed the Treaty of Waitangi—to have conceived the little ceremony. • They emphasised the point—and it has considerable valuethat the Maoris are at one with the Europeans in approving and appreciating Sir Joseph Ward's action in offering this battle-cruiser to the Mother Country on thoir behalf. We know that our late Prime Minister always enjoyed the confidence of the Natives, whose best interests he and his party always guarded very carefully. To Captain Halsey and his officers, and to those to whom the captain will give an account of the present memorable voyage, the Maoris' visit will, we have no doubt, be cherished as an added proof of the affection felt towards Great Britain by the Maoris, who are certainly one of the most magnificent aboriginal peoples among the numerous races subject to the King. None will, however, we feel sure, appreciate the sentiments which the chief expressed concerning the Dominion's offer and gift more than its author, Sir Joseph Ward. ,