MAORI DEPARTMENT.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 243, 18 September 1915, Page 11

MAORI DEPARTMENT.

Dear Friends,- I wish to thank the \\ inchmore, Gisborne, Christchurch} I’ahiatua, Onehunga, and Nelson Unions for keeping our Maori department in mind on White Ribbon Day, and taking up a collection for it, and also Mrs Fairlie, of this (Gisborne) district, who has already got her collecting card tilled and returned to me. I am very sorry to have to report that our capable and faithful Organiser* Miss Woodhead, has had another serious breakdown in health since Convention, which has resulted in her being obliged to relinquish her work. In spite of this, however, the department has not been idle. Literature is being distributed, and we have had some useful leaflets in the Maori language* drawn up and printed ready for distribution in the native camps. Devonport Union must be given the credit for this suggestion, and the good work that they are doing in this direction. All Unions having such camps in their neighbourhood can give great assistance by distributing those, and can have them forwarded on application to me. One of these leaflets contains Lord Kitchener’s Appeal to Soldiers. Another, “The Testimony of Leading Doctors as to the Effect of Alcohol,” more especially in regard to the life of the soldier, recovery from wounds, greater power ♦<? resist sickness, undergo hardships* etc., and also gives the* splendid results of total abstinence in the Duke of Wellington’s Own Regiment in India, 700 out of 1000 of whom were total abstainers. A third contains a general appeal to the natives on the drink ques f ion for the benefit of the race from every point of view. 1 would remind Unions of the desirability of appointing local supeHntcndents who would arrange for the collection and forwarding of some financial assistance from every Union to this department eve ry year. We have had the names of one or two suitable persons submitted to us, who may be able to take over the organising work, and we expect to make a forward move with this work when the winter is over. Do not let this important branch of our work be hampered for want of funds. —Yours in Union service, N. F. WALKER. Upper Fox Street, Gisborne.