TE AO HOU THE NEW WORLD

Te Ao Hou, December 1957, Page 1

TE AO HOU THE NEW WORLD published quarterly for the maori purposes fund board by the maori affairs department No. 21 (Vol. 6 No. 1) This has been a year of farewells in Maori Affairs. The Hon. E. B. Corbett resigned as Minister after eight eventful years of rapid change. The Secretary for Maori Affairs, Mr T. T. Ropiha, I.S.O., the only Maori ever to have held this post, has retired from the Public Service. The enthusiastic guide of the Waiariki Maori Land Court District, Mr A. C. McIntyre, passed away after a long and painful illness. Mr L. J. Brooker, the sincere and energetic district officer in Wanganui, also has retired. Many were left with a sense of loss. While our administrators are with us we criticise, but as soon as they are going we see their virtues; we remember the many things they have set right for us. Over the last eight or nine years, many new houses were built, blocks of land developed, farmers settled, communities helped to build meeting houses and dining-halls; many new avenues were opened to Maori youth. The Maori Women's Welfare League was established and grew to a phenomenal size. In the moral field, the warden system has become an influential force. With some courageous legislation a counter was found to the endless breaking up of Maori land titles into small often useless fragments. Outstanding land grievances were settled, including the contentious West Coast leases. Maori owners received back under their care large areas of good fully-developed land previously run by the government as their trustee. The emphasis of administration was shifted from the land to the people: whereas previously departmental attention tended to focus on the remaining Maori land heritage, it now concentrates on making culture change easier for the people. The Maori people have expressed sorrow at the loss of those responsible for these achievements. On many maraes the famous proverb was quoted: ‘Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi’ (The old net is worn out the new net goes to sea) and people naturally wonder what the new net will be like. One thing may well be regarded as certain: no Minister or Secretary for Maori Affairs would break with principles which were first stated by Sir James Carroll and Sir Apirana Ngata and which gradually became the core of Maori policy. These principles are social and economic advancement on the one hand and the maintaining of the best Maori traditions on the other. While we are casting our eyes to the past, it is appropriate to remember that Te Ao Hou was started when Mr Corbett was Minister and Mr Ropiha Secretary. We are now in our twenty-first issue. Mr Corbett and Mr Ropiha guided the magazine through its infancy and it has reached adulthood. We owe much gratitude to these two men who showed us the way past many cliffs on which our small boat might otherwise have foundered.