Another Maori Battalion?

Te Ao Hou, September 1962, Page 21

Another Maori Battalion? When we came home we read that the Maori Battalion old boys are agitating for an all-Maori unit in the army. This makes me sad. Of course the tradition of my race tells me I must listen with respect to our elders. Yet age does not always bring wisdom and the elders are not always right. They often think with their hearts and not their heads.

Before I went into the army I do not mind admitting that I had never learned to mix with Pakeha. I thought they were different in more ways than skin colour. Well, now I have lived with them we all know one another. For the first time in my life I have really close Pakeha friends. The other chaps and I have learned a lot off the pakeha and I like to think that they have learned a lot off us. They respect us. Many of the pakeha in the battalion sing our songs and some can do a pretty good haka. Where else in New Zealand do we find a group of Maori and Pakeha in roughly equal proportions living cheek by jowl and yet some people would put a stop to it. Anyway to be logical the army could decide to start all-white units as well as all-brown and who would start talking first about racial discrimination? These old boys should use their energies to encourage Maoris with more education than I to become officers instead of wanting racial segregation in the army. Generally the Asians knew we were New Zealanders the moment we opened our mouths. They told us it was the New Zealand accent, which is a bit of a shock as most New Zealanders think there is no such thing. After a while we began to notice it ourselves and it struck all of us very forcibly when we got home. There is a New Zealand accent and it is not very musical and is fast reaching the Australian standard. Maoris with their more liquid vowel sounds are not so bad as many of the Pakehas and perhaps we can do something to raise the standard of English here. It is a great experience to see how the other side of the world lives. We are pretty well off in New Zealand but most of our people at home tend to accept it uncritically. This is a pity. Many aspects of Asian life and certainly their forging progress and enthusiasm for advancement can teach us a lot. Underneath they are people who are not so very different from us. They are interested in us and there is a fund of goodwill for New Zealand to exploit to her advantage as well as that of Malaya. Mr Hepi Te Heuheu Mr Paterika Hura In the December issue of Te Ao Hou we published an article, ‘The Tribe That Made a Million’, on the Puketapu 3A Incorporation, a major company which has been managed with very great success by its Tuwharetoa owners, and which recently sold its timber assets for over £1 million. Our article caused great interest, and we have been asked by readers if we would publish photographs of the Company's Chairman, Mr Hepi Te Heuheu, and Deputy Chairman, Mr Paterika Hura. In the photograph on the left Mr Te Heuheu is signing the visitors' book at the opening of the Tongariro National Park Board's new headquarters on Mt. Ruapehu. Mr Te Heuheu is a descendant of Te Heuheu Tukino, who gave the park to New Zealand. Mr Paterika Hura is one of the members of the New Zealand Council of Tribal Executives.