NEWS IN BRIEF

Te Ao Hou, June 1960, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF Till the pakeha made a more effective effort to understand the Maori people, there would be no successful solution to the Maori's problem, said the Reverend I. J. Cupwell, headmaster of St Paul's Maori College, Parorangi, Feilding. Addressing the annual conference of the Association of the Heads of Independent Schools of New Zealand, Father Cupwell said that there was an implicit obligation on the Maori to understand the European, but little in the other direction. The pakeha attitude to the native race was largely emotional and sentimental, somewhere between the views that the Maori was the victim of exploiting whites and that the Maori was incapable of being helped. “The truth,” he said, “is that the Maori is human like ourselves and had his problems too—but his big one is adjustment to a way of life far removed from that which shaped his.” The old life of the Maori had a strong cultural core based on the marae, the meeting house, and the dwelling, all of which embodied his ancestral lore. Family life was strong. The Maori did not want to return to the old ways, but a lot of them were necessary and of value. “He recognises that modern life has a lot to offer, but he resents the pakeha feeling that there is nothing in Maoridom to admire and no interest in his language, songs and lore.” When Maoris held huis all over the country, the pakehas smiled; but they did not comment on Scots, Irish or Welshmen meeting together and keeping alive their traditions. The Maori entered school with little or no culture because his old family life had gone. In competition with pakeha children, he was at a disadvantage. That was why he set such store on Maori boarding schools. “Don't judge the Maori race by those you see hanging on street corners. They no more represent their race than the pakehas on the same corners represent theirs. We pity the Maori because he won't fuss or fret. The Maori pities us for doing that. I think he may be right,” concluded the Rev. Cupwell.