WHOLE MEMBERSHIP MUST KNOW AND FOLLOW LEAGUE IDEALS

Te Ao Hou, June 1961, Page 44

WHOLE MEMBERSHIP MUST KNOW AND FOLLOW LEAGUE IDEALS The League was designed to be and has become an educational movement for the uplifting of the Maori people. Each League should be a living example of the vision of those who laid its foundations and initiated its formation. Every League should have among its members a cross-section of the community, the leaders, the followers and those who are gathered by the wayside. Within the movement there is scope for all kinds of people and rewards tangible and intangible. On those who are leaders must fall the dual responsibility of running their branch with inspiration and efficiency, and of representing their people by working alongside the Pakeha in community projects. Both jobs are important but leaders must always bear in mind that they are nothing without their iwi and their first loyalty must always be to their own people. There is no doubt that the League has its quota of leaders, the truth of this is clearly recognisable at the Annual Conference, but it is open to question whether those able people give sufficient thought to the needs of their followers, the main body of the branch. It is important for Maori women to take their rightful place in modern democratic society, but it is also necessary for those who have received the light to pass it on to those still in the shadow. Can we be so sure that within the League itself there is not the cancer of self advancement rather than the healing hand of kindly teaching?