MISSION TO MAORI RACE

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1930, Page 15

MISSION TO MAORI RACE

TARANAKI AND WAIKATO

MANY DIFFICULTIES CROP UP.

ARCHDEACON SEEKS SYMPATHY.

(By Wire— Special to News.) Hamilton, Last Night.

Relations between Maori and pakeha Christians and problems confronting the Maori Mission were discussed by the Waikato Synod yesterday following on a motion moved by Archdeacon Hori Raiti that the work of the Maori Mission be commended to the sympathy and consideration of Synod. Archdeacon Raiti said that before the Waikato diocese was constituted it was well said that the Taranaki and Waikato districts were the hardest which the Maori Mission had to work. Many of the difficulties were the outcome of the terrible war between Maori and pakeha. The districts were so scattered and awkward to minister to. There were no churches in which the Maori people could congregate, and often services had to be held in the open. When the Waikato diocese was formed only four Maori priests were allocated for the whole of the diocese. He would remind them of the tremendous uphill work undertaken by the present priests. He appreciated the efforts of the bishop and the diocese to raise the stipends of the Maori priests to a living wage and to increase the total number of clergy and lay ministers to eight. When the appointment of the Maori bishop Was under consideration it was felt that tribal jealousies would be aroused, but he was pleased to be able to tell the Synod that the appointment of the native bishop was one of the greatest things the pakeha had done for the Maori race. (Applause). The archdeacon referred to the Ratana movement, which had caused thousands of people to break away from the Church. This movement had been counteracted to a great extent by the selection of the bishop for the Maoris from their own race. In the Wellington diocese a big gathering of natives had forsaken the Ratana cult and sought reunion with their own church. (Applause).

WHY THE LACK OF FINANCE?

The Rev. K. T. Harawira (Waitara) supported the motion. He said there was need for an investigation as to why the Afaori Mission was not being financially supported to the extent it should be. He knew that most of the parishes were doing then - utmost, and more, to assist the mission, but after the work of the Maori bishop in the diocese it seemed very desirable that they should do all possible to further it. As had been stressed by ihe archdeacon, more workers were urgently required, and they could not be obtained without more funds.

Canon E. H. Strong (New Plymouth) said he had never heard an appeal for interest in the mission put more convincingly than by Archdeacon Raiti. (Applause). He supported the contention that Afaori ministers should themselves tell pakeha congregations of their difficulties. He reminded them that the tendency to overdo such an appeal should be avoided. People often tired of continual requests for financial assistance.

Canon J. L. A. Kayll described the work of Bishop Bennett as being of momentous importance, but reminded them that the Maori clergy had paved the way. He referred to the limited authority of Bishop Bennett, who was not vested with the full powers of a diocesan bishop. It was possible the Maori people might greatly resent his status in the future, and it was a question whether the Synod should not urge that the time was ripe to elevate the bishop to full episcopal status so that all the dealings of the past -would be wiped out. THE MAORIS’ HANDICAP.

Archdeacon G. H. Gavin (Waitara) said in his parish a Maori church had been established, but he could not speak too highly of the co-operation of the Rev. K. T. Harawira and the Maori churchgoers. Europeans had a thousand years of Christianity behind them, but the Maoris had not 100 years behind them yet, and therefore it was incumbent on the pakehas to exercise the utmost forbearance and tolerance. He sincerely hoped that when the Maoris built churches of their own in the diocese they would bo Maori churches filled with examples of Maori art. (Applause). Kindly spirit and sympathy were needed above all. A warning against the evils of drink in connection with Maori life was given by Mr. Q. Gibson (Okato). A good deal of harm was done, he said, among the Maori brethren through the liquor trade at tangis. Liquor was freely supplied and produced an enormously detrimental effect. The Synod should turn the cold shoulder and discountenance that traffic instead of winking at it. In his own parish if the Maoris spent half the money they spent on liquor on the Maori Mission there would be a different talc to tell.

• The Rev. J. N. Thompson (Inglewood) urged oreater educational cognisance of Maori work and’ life. The Anglican Church in the Dominion had copied the style of the Church in England instead of incorporating examples of Maori art, which would identify it more intimately with Now Zealand. The motion was carried.