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Te Ao Hou, March 1969, Page 5

(any readers interested in writing to these girls or their friends please contact them directly—ed.) The Editor, Te Ao Hou Dear Madam, For Mr Rowley Habib to view with contempt any Pakeha who tries to come to some understanding of the Maori is not merely an expression of ‘bias’ but bigotry. That he also believes only the Maori is in a position to criticise, for example, the Maori, is no less narrow-minded. In respect to his opinion that only the ‘true Maori’ can be ‘caught and written about’ by the Maori himself, all that can be really said is that he is obviously unfamiliar with the writing of Baucke and Middleton: Pakeha who not only knew the Maori but thoroughly understood the people—‘as human beings’. The Maori, I'm inclined to believe, is no different from any other people—taken individually or as a group; they are neither more not less complex than the Pakeha, or any other race—and no more, nor less, difficult to understand, given interest in them. To create, as Mr Habib attempts to do, some form of psychological ‘mystique’ in respect to the Maori is simply a crude expression of, again, bigotry, the underlying suggestion being that the Maori is different in some basic human essentials—he has, for example, ‘subtle emotions’ outside the understanding of anyone other than the Maori. Which is nonsense; all races share a common humanity, open to all men who wish to share it. Finally, dare I suggest, in the light of Mr Habib's preoccupation with glass enclosures, that those who live in them should never throw stones—at Pakeha, or anyone else? Yours sincerely, Alan Taylor