Temperance Work among the Maoris.

White Ribbon, Volume 1, Issue 12, 1 June 1896, Page 5

Temperance Work among the Maoris.

On Tuesday evening, June 3rd, Mrs James Dull llewett, Superintendent of work among the Maoris in connection with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, gave a social in the Puke* roa Hall, which was largely attended by natives. The Bishop of \\ aiapu presided, and the Countess of Glasgow, and Ladies Helen, Augusta, and Alice Boyle, attended by Captain Preston, were present. The benefits to be derived L>y the Native race in adopting temperance principles were impressed on those present by the Bishop and Mrs Hewett, and Lady Glasgow, addressing the Natives, said: —“I have come here to night at the invitation of my friend, Mrs Hewett, not to make a speech, hut merely to say how glad 1 am to meet you to show my appreciation of the efforts Mrs Hewett is making in the cause ot Temperance. No one denies that the Maoris have gained much good by the advent of the white men, hut, alas ! in some way they have brought you much harm; the habit of drinking too much being the worst lesson you have learned from them. It is the hope of all of us who are your real friends that, now you know the terrible evil it brings upon you, weakening both souls and bodies, you will join yourselves together and by God’s grace get rid of this evil out of your families and tribes, becoming again in the future what you have been in the past, both physically and mentally, one of the greatest races that flourish in the Empire of Queen Victoria.” The Bishop acted as interpreter, and at the conclusion of Lady Glasgow’s remarks several Natives expressed their appreciation of the work in which Mrs Hewett was engaged, and thanked the Countess for her presence anti for the interest she had shown in the Maori race.