MAORIS AND THE WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16820, 27 May 1919, Page 5

MAORIS AND THE WAR

DR POMARE'S TRIBUTE. At the icception m Wellington to General Russel , Dr Romaic *aid We of the Maori iace gteet >ou, because you luno led our boys fioir th« fields of death to victory * We g> cet you because yon have coino back'safe and sound, so far as the eye can see We gieet you because the feet of our f iboys bai <.>' tiod under j our command 'the sacied sands of Egypt and of Palestine, aud hx\e -non hack to Christendom the land ol the Caliphs, because at GaHipoh with the -nai-ciy of our Maon wo shook the Ottoman Empno i"to shiveis of fnght—and because on the historic fields of France our boys have shown the. shades of the ancients what a handful of men from the Southern Cross could do, and how 'with their feats oif arms they outdid oven thote of Homeric times. So we greet you'back to your own country and wish vou for the future health and every happiness. SOLDIER PSYCHOLOGY Sir James Carroll,, referring to the problem of soldiet psychology, said { that,, as tht result of his services to I King and country, a -psychology had grown up in the Maori soldier, "which had ■lifted, up his range of perception to. comprehend the true causes of the war.. The Treaty of Waitangi the Magna Cbarta of the Maori race, and they had keen devoted and loyal to it to the present day. There had' been little insurrections, through misunderstandings, between them and their European brethren which should never have occurred, . but those were now things of the past. When the war which has endangered civilisation came, and the honour and existence of'tlis British Empire was at stake, the Maoris understood and comprehended the issues, and they joined in heartily and shoulder to shoulder with their pakeha brethren fought the common foe on the fields of Europe. In the aftermath of any great war we founcf ourselves m choppy seas face to with graye and difficult problems but we must be bold and courageous in peace as'in' war, because the calls of mankind were ' prominent before us. Wo heard them, we felt them, and that was their psychology. We had had _ evidence that of al] the c6loured races I in the Empir? the Maoris were equal to any m standing shell-fire; and while other coloured troops had to be owing to the climatic confhtions, the Maoris had stood by side with their pakeha brethren risrht I through the trying conditions at GalJi--1 noli and on the Western front. That was not surprising, because any r:K-e bv a d nrd"r the insular climatic conditions of New Zealand must be a stalwart race. SIR JAMES ALLEN'S REMARKS. We are proud of what the pakeha ' has done in this wSry said Sir James Allen, and we are even more ■ proud of what the Native race h-as done To their. credit may it be said that not a single man left from amongst the Maoris except vc-lavnteers. I Will not say that we did not gring into camp some of the Maori race under the Military Service Art, 'but no man of them left New Zealand , except those who volunteered to go. Not another such record, so far as I know, was made during the war. The fine war record of the Native ' rate would go far to increase the sympathy between the Maoris and the pakehas. The spirit v.'hich actuated the men who came forward to go. to the front and serve under most di c tic:ult conditions would do a great deal to wpld the two races tntcifber —-and I am glad to know that th-ii' leaders and their fellows recognise that the hipii who went to the front must he looked, after now —that they had come ba.rk and must be. repatriated in a satisfactory way.