Many Tributes

Te Ao Hou, June 1963, Page 5

Many Tributes Many other eloquent tributes were paid to Mr Bennett. Speakers referred to his distinguished career during wartime—when he commanded the Maori Battalion—and in peace—when he was one of the first Maoris to gain a university degree; the first to study at Oxford University; and the first to represent his country as head of an overseas mission. ‘All throughout your life you have been a path-finder’, said the president of the Ngati Poneke Association, Mr F. Katene. ‘You have served your country well … The Maori people are mightily proud of you.’ Mr C. M. Bennett, with a most distinguished career behind him as a soldier and diplomat, has come back to New Zealand to become Assistant Secretary in the Maori Affairs Department. Mr Walter Nash, the former Leader of the Opposition, said that Mr Bennett did much to give New Zealand an increased status in South-east Asia. ‘No white man could have done anything comparable to what he did in Malaya—and that is no reflection on white men,’ he said. In reply, Mr Bennett said that Maoris should pursue integration without any fear that their culture would suffer. ‘Our objective is integration. That is an ideal most of us would subscribe to’, Mr Bennett said. ‘That ideal doesn't necessarily mean physical or cultural integration. But it does mean educational, occupational and social integration’. The Maori people should not be afraid that their culture—their Maoritanga—would become a casualty of integration. ‘These things survive regardless of how we pursue the Western civilization and way of life’, Mr Bennett said. ‘Perhaps we have been placing too much emphasis on a danger that does not exist. I Continued on page 35