Help Him to Understand

Te Ao Hou, September 1965, Page 15

Help Him to Understand A middle-aged couple were inspecting a a house for sale next to ours a couple of weeks ago. The woman talked quite cheerfully and politely for a while about the house they were looking at, and ended her conversation by saying, ‘Oh well, at least it's nice to know we'll be living next to white people.' (Needless to add, I appear more European than Maori.) A child once wrote in an essay: ‘Maoris are dirty. They never wash and they have sores on their legs. They are always in the pub and they come out drunk. They always eat fish and chips, they eat like pigs, and their houses are like pig-sties. I hate Maoris…’ Well, I don't see that lady or many thousands like her contributing anything worthwhile to a bi-racial society. They live with their prejudices and they will die with them. But what of the child? For his own good, and our country's good, is it wise that he should grow up with these ill-informed and semi-true opinions of the Maori race, because of a few Maoris he has seen or been told about? And what of those Maoris who are increasingly lifting themselves above the boy's criticism, or those equally culpable Pakehas whom he has forgotten about? I say, help him now, to understand and see the truth, before his numbers increase, before it is too late.