Of course, in pre-European times, before the pressures of our civilization dispersed the Maori people from the communal basis of life to the extent that they have been dispersed, the whole life of the people was centred on the marae, and the marae and its tribal house were the parliament of the people as well as the vessels of community life. For the most part the Maori today can only resort on occasion to the gathering on the marae and find there the satisfaction of his essentially communal being. On the marae still the Maori people take counsel together to grapple with the problems which beset them and to legislate for themselves. There are still many Maoris more ready to contribute liberally to the construction of the tribal house than to spend money on improving their individual living conditions. The oratory of the Maori stems from the fact that he is a man of community, and the man whose setting is communal and who wishes to count in any way in the life of a community must be vocal and develop the powers of impressive speech. The Maori marae, the Maori language and Maori oratory are an inseparable trinity and lie very close to the heart of Maoridom. As long as the true community spirit and life of the Maori is retained, the Maori marae will have its place; and the only language possible to the marae is the Maori speech, because the marae is the central setting of true Maori life and the Maori language is the utterance of that life. The Maori hui on the Maori marae is the saviour of the Maori language because it is unthinkable to run a true Maori meeting otherwise than in the Maori setting and in the Maori tongue. Seeing that the European is so largely an individualist and the Maori so essentially a person of community, it should be axiomatic that the Maori has a different sense of values from the Pakeha. What the Pakeha impatiently calls the Maori's waste of time and money is to the Maori satisfaction and true value because through it he has satisfied himself with the pleasures of community, delighting himself in the abundance of company and the multitude of guests, having gotten therefrom what to him is the best return for the expenditure of his time and money. Perhaps the totally different rhythm of Maori life from that of the Pakeha arises in its essence from the same essential difference of emphasis in the two races. It is not only that the Maori has a different time sense from the Pakeha but the whole rhythm of characteristerically Maori life is different from that of the characteristically Pakeha life. You can arrange a function to be just right from the Pakeha standpoint; but if the arrangements are to be operated in a Maori community they are likely to be quite out of tune and unsuitable. The way of going about things, the order in which they are done, the etiquette that is attendant thereupon, the manner that is fitting all these are part of Maoridom, as much part of the Maori as the hue of his skin, the raven locks of his hair, and the brown of his eyes. To force the Maori into a pattern which utterly disregards these factors of his being is to bind frustration upon him like bands of iron. The fourth and very central feature of Maoritanga is the religious nature of the Maori. The whole of ancient Maori life turned upon the poles of religion. Nothing was undertaken without resort to appropriate karakie and religious observances. The crops were sown and planted with due regard to the dieties; they were gathered again with the same religious expression. Nothing was undertaken without resort to the “tuahu”, the shrine of the tribe. The sense of the divine remains instinctive to the Maori mind. Subjected as they are to the competition of sects and creeds, it is not to be wondered that the Maori people have an infinite number of religious affiliations; but there are certainly few Maoris with no religios affiliations. Just as surely as the Maori needs bright hues for the satisfaction of his sense of colour, so does he need not only the aid of God but the constant realization of the underlying presence of God as a primary fact of life. He is destroyed with loneliness if he has to live in isolation from men, and he is likewise lonely if he is cut off from the fellowship of the Supreme Being. The community life of the Maori is built round the concept of the divine. It can truly be said of the ancient Maori that he lived and moved and had his being in his gods. All his activity was god orientated, and that remains his hereditary psychology. The strongest force in Maori life was the law of tapu. The sanctions and regulations of society were built upon it and tapu, of course, was the effluence of the gods. It is an impoverishing thing for a Pakeha to be without God; it is a devastating thing for a Maori. The retention of vital religion is as necessary to the survival of Maoritanga as is the Maori language, the Maori arts and crafts, and the Maori sense of community. (to be continued next issue)