TE AO HOU THE NEW WORLD

Te Ao Hou, April 1956, Page 1

TE AO HOU THE NEW WORLD published quarterly for the maori purposes fund board by the maori affairs department No. 14 (Vol. 4 No. 2) The publication in this issue of the winners of our first successful literary competition is a landmark for Te Ao Hou. We have now begun to receive a steady flow of stories and articles from Maori writers from all over the country. Many are being published and some have now been judged worthy of a literary prize. There have been Maori writers since the alphabet was introduced. Many of the beautiful stories published in Sir George Grey's Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna were originally written by Maori historians and it was to a great extent their powerful story telling that was responsible for the great popularity of that book. Fine examples of Maori writing are found in magazines like Te Waka Maori, Te Hokioi, Te Wananga, Te Pipiwharauroa, Toa Takitini, The Polynesian Journal, and so forth. Much of the best writing by Maoris today is in English. All the same, Te Ao Hou has received some fine contributions in Maori and it has been our policy to stimulate it. The preservation of the Maori tongue depends on its continued use for literary purposes, as in song and oratory. As there are only a limited number of people who reach a high standard in literary Maori, they do a great service by publishing their work so that their example can be more widely followed. The truth about Maori life would be better understood, if more stories were published describing the life and efforts of the people from a Maori point of view. They would be useful to the pakeha, but that is not the main value of these stories. A story like that by Mr Wikiriwhi in this issue (originally written in Maori, but translated by the author) would never have been written by Europeans as they experienced the Royal tour in a very different way and to get a description of the full depth of the Maori experience one must go to a Maori author. In our view, writing is a very important activity and Maori writers do a great service to their race. Most Maoris think a good deal about their people and the things that affect them. To a great extent, the future of the people depends on how good that thinking is. To think well, one needs to know what other people, placed in similar circumstances, have done and thought. This is what the writer tells us. He may describe how a meeting house was built, or how the old people used to live, or what it feels like to live in a town, or to own a taxi business. The subjects need not be practical. Family life, love and death, have been subjects for writers and poets from time immemorial. People like to tell stories and people like to listen to them. There should be more good stories about Maori subjects. Maori writers will have to write by far the larger number of them. The people are hungry for news and those who write for us do an important job in spreading knowledge and understanding.