MAORIS AND DRINK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3567, 29 September 1916, Page 2

MAORIS AND DRINK.

A SWEEPING INDICTMENT.

"TOO DREADFUL FOR WORDS."

NAPIER, September 28. In a debate to-night on a report of the committee on liquor and the Maoris, presented to the Anghcan Synod, the Rev. Digby Wilson, or Waipiro Bay, said that no language could be too strong to describe the state ot things now existing among the Maoris from Tokomaru to Hicks Bay. bix years ago things wore wonderfully better there, but he thought that m no part of the world except on the West Coast of Africa was the condition or things to-day so bad. It would be hnrd to conceive of a worse state or Bishop Sedgwick said that no words of his could describe the condition of things on the East Coast. There had been a marked deterioration all along the East Coast during the past two years. It was utterly deplorable. He ; had written to Ministers and to the Hon. A. T. Ngata about it. The, matter must constantly be brought before the attention of the authorities. He had heard of little children and women being drunk and incapable of walking about. ■ _ , n \ The Rev. Mr Barnett (Tolaga Bay) corroborated what the other speakers had said. ' The state of things at Hauiti pa during a recent tangi was too dreadful for words. The man reBponsiblo for the tangi had paid out £500, mostly for drink. Ho dare not describe, to the Synod in .detail what he had seen. This drunkenness was nearly all due to the pakehas introducing drink from outside districts. The report stated that the liquor obtained by the North Island Natives was injurious to the physique of the race, and was retarding the. advance o* the Maori and. destroying the foundation of his character.