MAORI PROBLEMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 279, 24 November 1937, Page 8

MAORI PROBLEMS

FUTURE OF THE NATIVES FULLER UNDERSTANDING SUCCESSFUL NGATA SCHEME [ Per Press Association. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 23. “There is a widespread belief that in New Zealand the native problem has been handled more fairly and more justly than anywhere else in the world. I regret to say that that claim is rather legendary. The problem is just about the same everywhere, and there are many variations of the tragic mess that so often results from the contact of white on natives.” These words were part of the address on the Maori people given to the Christchurch Rotary Club by Professor I. L. G. Sutherland, professor of philosophy at Canterbury University College. Professor Sutherland said that the Maori problem in the Dominion was at a critical stage. The Maori race had undergone a renaissance afeer many dire prophesies that it would die out, and it '•was essential that the new hope given the Maoris by such policies as the Ngata scheme should be fulfilled.

The Maori population in New Zealand was rapidly increasing, until now it was between 85,000 and 90,000, Professor Sutherland said, and in spite of a death rate among Maoris nearly twice as high as the European rate, the native race was increasing at a much faster rate than the white. The need for a fuller understanding between the two races, European and Maori, existed at the present moment. Goodwill towards the Maori had been expressed for years and the present Government, in proclaiming its goodwill, was making many promises of its intentions to assist the Maori people. To Sir Apirana Ngata more than any other man went the credit for what had been done in 25 years. A vast experiment, the Ngata plan had achieved a great success, that of placing the Maoris as farmers on their own lands. Some 10,000 Maoris had thus been placed in settlement schemes in the North Island, and ertaordinary progress had been made and the scheme was now justifying itself economically. Some years ago irregularities had been found in the administration. A Royal Commission had been set up, and as a result of its recommendations Sir Apirana had resigned. Nevertheless, he knew of no other native policy in the world constructed in such difficulties and worked for so untiringly which had achieved the success of Sir Apirana Ngata’s. The Government was at present developing the Ngata schemes. The progress of the Maori people depended on the development of their own individuality, and the Maori leaders realised the need for this. One thing was certain. If the present movement was not fulfilled and the new hope of the Maoris was lost, then the natives would surely revenge themselves, not by active reprisals nor by their extinction but by Becoming a pauper race dependent on the whites who had been responsible for their state.