THE PLACE OF THE MAORI IN A MODERN COMMUNITY

Te Ao Hou, December 1956, Page 7

THE PLACE OF THE MAORI IN A MODERN COMMUNITY by T. T. ROPIHA I.S.O. Many articles have been written on ‘the place of the Maori in a modern community’, but this is the first time that the head of the Department of Maori Affairs has written a long and detailed statement frankly expressing his own thoughts. Mr Ropiha does so not only as an administrator, but also as a man whose thoughts have been devoted to this subject for many years. Unfortunately we cannot publish the whole of his essay in one issue but we are presenting here the first section tracing the historical background of the problems now facing the Maori. The second instalment, to be published in our next issue, discusses what the government has done to help the Maori and the third and last instalment analyses the position of the younger generation and points a way to further progress. This series of articles should be of special value to those interested in official attitudes to Maori questions, but it is in no sense an ‘official hand-out’; it is a statement in which Mr Ropiha states his personal philosophy. The essay was written as an address delivered in Christchurch earlier this year. A Remarkable feature of the times in New Zealand is the rapid increase in the Maori population. Today New Zealand has a population of 2,140,000 of which 136,000 are classified as Maori. For this classification all persons of full or half Maori blood are Maoris, persons of less than half Maori blood are Europeans. While for population statistics a half Maori is classed as a Maori, he can choose for himself whether he will vote as Maori or European. Behind the present population figures lies a dramatic story. It is estimated that when the British colonists arrived early in the 1800's there were in New Zealand a quarter of a million Maoris. In 1840 there resulted the Treaty of Waitangi between Queen Victoria and the leading Maori chiefs which guaranteed to the Maori possession of their lands, forests and fisheries in return for the acceptance of the Sovereignty of the British Queen. The Treaty of Waitangi is still regarded by Maoris as their Magna Carta. It did not save the Maori from disposing large areas of land which he was willing to sell to land hungry British Colonists in order to buy firearms with which to prosecute more effectively his traditional tribal wars. But the spirit of the Treaty was held. Notwithstanding the Treaty of Waitangi and the generally good Maori-European relations, the population fell to 41,000 by the end of the 19th century. The Maori by then had acquired a taste for imported liquor, and had fallen prey to European diseases. The weapons of the European that the Maori brought with the money obtained for his land rendered inter-tribal wars increasingly deadly. Towards the end of last century the Maori was fast moving towards extinction. The humanitarian effort of well-wishers of the Maori was directed towards smoothing the pillow of a dying race.