THE LANDED MAORI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 108, 27 October 1911, Page 4

THE LANDED MAORI.

Sir John Findlay, a candidate for the Parnell seat, is often most interesting. In a recent speech he referred to our brown brother, saying that when we were satisfied the Maori had enough land reserved for him and had sufficient protection he must be treated as if lie were a pakeha. Tho trouble is that the Maori has too much land, is treated like a petted child, and is not punished for his naughtiness by being forced to undertake tasks. At present the Maori is not ready for treatment as a pakeha, and although so many of them loaf their lives away, the vagrancy law does not operate amongst them. The Maori, in fact, owing to our cruel kindness, is allowed to gracefully rot. Dr. Findlay is probably not a student of the Maori people, and he talks about the "heightened standard of education," which will in time make it unnecessary for them to have special representation in Parliament. Better education will not save the Maori, but hard work, discipline and the necessity of assimilating pakeha ideals well. There are only two ways of saving the Maoris—allowing them to revert to their own methods absolutely, without contact with the pakeha. or forcing them to struggle for their existence on pakeha lines. Maori land- must ultimately become pakeha land, because in the future there will, under the present method of helping Maoris into the grave, be no Maoris to hold it. That a large area of it should be compulsorily acquired before that day dawns is certain, for it is at present merely a license to laziness, a menace to progress, a handicap to settlement, and an enemy to its owners. Our treatment of the Maori is farcical and cruel, and for unexplained reasons we hesitate to bring him into line. We pretend to admit his equality with us. but we don't admit him into a partnership with our cares, work and responsibilities. Where bv virtual desire he has range himself alongside us he is eminently capable and commendable. Otherwise he is what the misguided pakeha has made him—a failure. He was far more picturesque and much healthier as a marauding savage than as a loafer who hasn't got to work because we are so kind to him. . ,