The Decline of the Maori.

Maori Record : a journal devoted to the advancement of the Maori people, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 July 1905, Page 6

The Decline of the Maori.

Though the work of educating the Maori has been, and still is, in very able and conscientious hands, and the Education Department have saved themselves no trouble to give them the very best, the knowledge of the Maori that I have gained by dwelling near him for many years convinces me that he is going and, first and foremost, requires saving. In many parts the proportion of deaths and their suddenness is appalling. You enquire of a man and find that he has been married twice, perhaps three times, has had ten children, but only one or two, maybe none, are now living. Had a portion of the money devoted to education been spent on bringing them out of their pas, in getting them to house themselves in wellventilated dwellings, to attend to the laws of cleanliness, and to be constant and intelligent toilers, more real good would have been done. Education could have overtaken them at this stage, as it did the English workmen, who were, until quite lately, industrious toilers with little in the way of education. A sprinkling of small working ' villages, samples so to speak, well devised and directed, would have made the Maori a healthier and more useful individual than he is to-day. Ten years of industrial, domestic and social education in healthy houses of their own would probably, by --the results attained, have awakened the whole race in such a manner as to have have made it possible for them to have been left entirely alone to develop and foster a better and, nwl-e attractive mode of life. Give a Maori plain and convincing evidence of the practical use of a thing and he grabs at it, but he will at the most only amuse himself

with the theoretical if not backed up by the practical. He knows that there is good in education of the kind he gets, and believes it indispensable to the Pakeha, but does not quite see where its power comes in with him. His mode of living is so unwholesome, that he must be made to abandon it for ever until he does no medical skill can save him. If we love the Maori we should have moral courage enough to put him in the right way of living, even if compulsion has to be resorted to. He is a child, and should be treated by us as a child we desire to cherish and keep. If a scheme calculated to save him means that we must put our hands into our pockets, we should be ready to do so. We can save the Maori if we are unselfish enough. ■ It may be said that he is well advised. So he is, but, being a child, it is useless to say to him, “There, you must go and do that,” and leave the rest to chance. You show him where he errs, point out his mistakes. “You are quite right, quite right,” he answers, but on he goes exactly as before, believes bis tohunga, gluts himself on his rotten corn, lives in his deadly wharepuni, and allows early and consanguineous marriages. Like a child, he must be watched and made to do the thing that is needful. Whore there is a law that can be enforced he minds it, but unfortunately where he most needs a law he has none. The Maori Council makes laws by the bushel to remove existing evils. They last but a short time; so again and again the Councils meet to talk over some new-found idea that is to replace the old and to cause astonishment for another few weeks. To the mercy of these strange lawgivers nearly every vital matter is subject. Until they are ripe for such duties, wherever possible, laws should be made and enforced by Europeans. As we have wronged the Maori, likewise we have spoilt him. He is in a hole and cannot get out unless we stretch forth a strong hand that is willing to struggle with the unfortunate until he is landed on top. In the old days, as we all know, he lived on the mountain, threw his filth over the cliff, and, by eternally climbing and fashioning weapons and Schemes of offence and defence, was a busy man, possessed of good lungs and robust general health. The reign of the Pakeha having brought him peace, he now chooses the flat. Our presence in his land has prompted him to make a change which, though he was ignorant of the fact, was greatly to his detriment. Then we hedged the weakling in with divers temptations, good and bad. In his blindness he has chosen the thing which is harmful nine times out of ten. While the Maoris live in wharepunis void of ventilation and reeking with tobacco smoke, and newly-born infants are allowed to breathe little else than the air In these death-traps; whilst consumptives are allowed, like the rest, to spit day and night under the mats and eat out of the common dish ; whilst large numbers of infants are every year taken away from their parents and adopted by women who, being ignorant of the need of cleanliness, feed them with milk got from the cows with dirty hands, put into dirty buckets, and given to the babies in sour and dirty bottles that are washed in cold water about once a week, and with other foods even more

unsuitable; whilst nearly every child over seven years, and sometimes younger, smokes in spite of the Council and its laws, the qualified English doctor’s skill and remedies must fail, and the Maori in his panic be persuaded to fly to the nearest tohunga, who, under the conditions prevailing, is as likely to serve him effectually as the up-to-date M.D. Those that work amongst the Maoris well know that they want starting on a new course. After all it is only a good start that they want, the rest they would do for themselves. A group of homesteads where young couples could be kept in a state of remunerative activity under able European management until self-supporting would be an eye-opener for both Maori and Pakeha, and appeal at once to the practical instincts of the former, and do infinitely more for him than the present mode of education we are offering. After leaving school there is little inducement for a young Maori to strive onward. His education has shown him that ho ought to walk out of the darkness, but, knowing little of up-to-date farming and less about trade, he concludes that fate is against him, and the road of progress open only to the Pakeha. The land is the place for the Maori, and intelligent activity, wholesome surroundings, and the ever-present knowledge that he is subject to a law that can reach and strike him, are the factors that alone will save him from rusting out. Book knowledge will not keep him with us, but the knowledge of how to live and to do remunerative work will, and should therefore take the first place in the education of the Maori. If we can save him we shall not regret the cost of the scheme that works out his salvation. Our children will know both regret and reproach if he dies out in their midst when the means for saving him were undoubtedly at hand. If we are determined not to take some new line of action, the sooner the Maoris fall into a state of necessity that compels them to work the better. (Signed) C. W. GRACE.