OUR AWAKENING CONSCIENCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 34, 27 March 1942, Page 4

OUR AWAKENING CONSCIENCE

SOMETHING touching vitally our social and our civic structure was introduced and firmly handled when the Whakatane County Council registered its protest last Tuesday against the insidious traffic in alcohol to the Maori which is going on in this district. On this matter Councillors were definitely of one mind, and from the remarks passed had had ample proof of the volume of and the manner in which it was carried out.* "We owe it to the Maoris, to put a stop to it," said one emphatic speaker, and in this we are with him one hundred per cent. If we had fewer unprincipled pakehas in our midst who deliberately make a miserable and ill-gotten living out of this sort of thing we would have less to reproach ourselves for. But the fact remains that such persons do manage to breathe,, and their retilian instincts have led to a highly dangerous state of affairs among the less responsible Maori types. Majiy young Maoris to-day are growing into young manhood devoid o.f any ambition other than to stagger through a haphazard forty hours and spend the residue during the week-end upon liquor. There is no incentive to encourage the finer traits, which the early settlers knew so well and admired. Easy money, State grants, pensions and allowances, are slowly but surely undermining the young Maori manhood of this town and district, and it is up to all decent men to help root it out and assist restore the Maori his traditional self-respect. We feel certain that nothing but the warmest endorsement will be given the County Council in the action it has taken.