The Maori Diocese.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVI, Issue 8, 1 February 1926, Page 3

The Maori Diocese.

(Contributed). In your January issue you gave what you consider the qualifications required for whoever is to be chosen Bishop of the Maori diocese of Aotearoa; You look at the question from a pakeha viewpoint so permit me to give a Maori's viewpoint. In the'first place I think the qualifications you require of a bishop, although perhaps all necessary, are more than what is expressed both m the New Testament and the Prayer Book. Granted there is such a white man as you require how are we to know that he will accept the position? We have had the spectacle of a wealthy New Zealand diocese practically begging for a bishop for several months and what assurance have we that the poor Maori diocese -will be more forr tunate? The wish of the Maoris to have for their bishop one of their own kith and kin is laudable and natural and it is quite m keeping with the spirit of the movement; for them to do otherwise is to prove themselves disloyal to their own race and to lose their selfrespect; they are only obeying, the promptings of a national spirit and it is just what might be expected by all true well-wishers of the race. The scheme of giving the Maoris a distinct diocese ,is nothing else but an appeal to the national spirit of the people. To repress that spirit is to defeat the aim and intention of the scheme, to rid it of its motive power and so, of any hope of success.

It must be. admitted the ideal bishop for the. Maoris is a Maori just as the ideal bishop for an English 'Community is an Englishman. His Maori skin, Maori mind, and Maori

heart are. yeryj str6ngr;poifits ! 'in: i "favor of the (Maori tlie. -pakeha ia handicapped with the initial disadvantage of ..being I .' .an (t outsider." A white \ mail' ! may be a. • ge^idUs 'f of >organisation, well versed m- 'ecclesiastical and . doctrinal principles,-Cath-olic ideals" and all other things,- but would he be as acceptable to the Maori people as a Maori, although perhaps less gifted, wbiild ! t ' ■ This to me is the crux, of the whole matter. The Maoris', through their ■delegates, have expressed with 1 no 'uncertain voice" a desire for a Maori bishop and to turn it deaf ear to that voice is to invite trouble— to rim the risk of wounding the sensibilities of the race, particularly of the educated section of it, and thus of rendering the movement abortive. I am siire no one would like to see that, happen. The fact must be kept m: miiid ; we deal to-day with a people well advanced m education, and civilisation, and not with the savages the missionaries found a century ago.

Among the m the article I have referred to are some which really tell against your contention that only a white man is fitted as bishop for the new diocese. You stated the Maori mission "has suffered hitherto ; so sadly from vain attempts to force its work, into a pakeha mould. New methods are imperative- but these methods Musi; lie consistent both with the Maori character and with , Catholic ideals." Among' the qualifications ,. you gave for the man needed as bishop of the Maoris is a ' 'thorough; understanding of the Maori character and ways of thought." Here is just where a pakeha, I fear, would most Ukely fail. If a. Maori had any gumption at all he could, with the aid of : textbooks, make himself acquainted m a comparatively short time with " ecclesiastical and doctrinal principles," u Catholic ideals," etc.^ but where is the text-book to enable a pakeha to understand "the Maori character and ways of thought?" Unless a Maori could be found to lead the destinies of the young diocese I would almost prefer to adopt 'the Asquithiari principle of "wait and see" or taihoa and to continue.' as we have done hitherto under the old regime.