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Waka Maori, Volume 11, Issue 11, 12 January 1875, Page 2

Whilst welcoming the new year upon which we have entered, we have abundant reason to be thankful for the material prosperity and the many blessings we have enjoyed during the year which is gone for ever. We have not suffered, as some other less favoured nations have, from famine, or pestilence, or war ; the earth has bountifully repaid the labours of our hands by a plentiful increase of her fruits ; no deadly plague has decimated our numbers ; no dread

alarm of war has startled us from our peaceful and industrial avocations, retarding our advance as a people on the road to wealth and prosperity—peace, health, and plenty have prevailed within our bordersIt is true that, individually, the present festive season sadly recalls to many of us the memory of dear friends and relatives who' once were wont to join with us in our social gatherings, and rejoice with us in our seasons of jubilee and merriment. They are gone, but the memory of their love overshadows us with its hallowing influence, softening our joys and our sorrows, and ever reminding us that "in the midst of life we are in death." During the past year many of the good old chiefs, the guides and fathers of the people, have gone from our midst; but we are cheered by the thought that ere they departed this life the light of Christianity and civilization had shed their benign rays over the land, dispelling the gloom of Maoridpm and savage barbarism, and cheering their last hours with the bright hope of a glorious uprising to an eternal life—a life where there will be no distinctions of high and low, rich and poor, Pakeha and Maori, but where all will be one people, children of the light for ever. These old men all died exhorting their people to worship the true G-od and to obey the laws of the Queen; and we trust these their last words will be remembered and acted upon by the rising generation.

In reference to the state of the Maori population in these islands at the present time, perhaps there is nothing to give so much cause for congratulation, nothing which so much betokens their advance in civilization and points to their future welfare, as the eager desire manifested by the people generally for the education of their children. In this respect the position of the Native race is most satisfactory. Last year's reports from officers in Native districts to the Minister for Native Affairs, all show an anxious desire on the part of the Native people that their children should participate in the advantages of a European education, and be placed in a position to enable them to derive profit from their future intercourse with the Pakehas. Sir Donald McLean, at a banquet given to him by the Pakehas at Napier on the 10th of November last, said that "he looked upon the education of the Native youth as a matter of the most urgent importance, and upon their instruction in the English language as the surest means of bridging over the difficulties between the two races." The Hawke's Bay Herald of the 20th of November last, speaking of the Native Schools Act, says, " Some of the schools now in existence are well endowed by the Natives themselves, not-

ably that at Omahu, which is now in receipt of an income of £750 a year from rental of land recently submitted at auction to public competition, and purchased for that amount by Mr. R. D. Maney. There is every reason to believe that the next generation of Maoris will be able to speak and read English with facility, and that in twenty years there will scarcely be an exception to this rule." In the year 1867 the number of Native schools in the colony was 16, and the number of scholars 315. In 1869 the number of schools was only 9, and the scholars 227. But at the end of June last there were 66 Native schools in the colony, the total number of scholars attending them being 1,487 —of these, 1,017 were boys and 470 girls. The Government expenditure thereon during the previous financial year was £9,531 18s. 6d. Since that time other schools have been erected, and others are now in process of erection. A late issue of the Neva Zealand Times says, "Tor the Native Schools Act Sir Donald McLean must be awarded credit, and the manner in which it has been found to operate is at once a testimony to his sagacity and an assurance that in a very few years more there will be no difference between the Maori and the Pakeha, for all, whatever the shade of colour, will be New Zealanders." Thus our Native friends will see that great efforts are beinff made to give them the advantages of education, and to place the rising Maori generation upon a level with their European brethren; and we trust the Maori youth will not neglect the opportunities so afforded them. "We are glad to see that there is a growing desire on the part of the Natives generally to submit to the authority of the Queen's laws, and to live on terms of good-fellowship and love with their Pakeha neighbours. They may depend that such a course, while beneficial to all, will conduce more to their own welfare than to that of the Pakeha. At the present day, instead of the country being embarrassed with " wars and rumours of wars," and race contending against race, we have the gratifying spectacle of a Parliament composed of members of both races striving, by a system of equal legislation and justice, to promote the well-being of all, without respect to race or colour. No measures affecting the Maoris are ever introduced by the Legislature without being closely scrutinized by the Native and they have every opportunity afforded them of opposing any measure which they do not consider conducive to the welfare of their race. It is by such means as these that we shall subdue the " wildernesses and desolate places " of our common country, that we shall give employment to the unemployed, that we shall feed the widow and the orphan, that we shall put an end to war and establish peace, and that we shall finally attain to knowledge, prosperity, and wealth as a people.

We notice with satisfaction that in certain parts of the country there is a movement among the Natives in favour of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, and we would fain believe that the habit of drinking is on the decrease among them. "We have frequently warned the Natives against the inevitably fatal consequences of the habit of drinking ; and we repeat that if they give way to the vice of intemperance, nothing that is being or can be done for them or their children will be of any avail to rescue them from the oblivion into which they must eventually sink. During the year which is gone we have lost a Governor who took no small interest in the welfare of the Native race and the education of the Native youth; but his place has been supplied by another who comes among us with a high reputation, and a character for impartiality, urbanity, and high-minded-ness, which the Native people will fully appreciate when they come to know him. We cannot do better than to close this article by quoting the following words from his reply to the address presented to him by Ngatiawa of Wellington, and published in our last issue of the WaJca, namely:—" The peace and quietness which you assure me now exists, is, I trust, but a commencement of happy and prosperous times, when all parties being united under the rule of Her Majesty, the strife and discord of the past will be forgotten, and both races will unite in friendly competition in their endeavours to develop the resources and promote the interests of these rieh and fertile islands." So may it be.