THE HOLY LAND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 55, 12 March 1943, Page 5

THE HOLY LAND

MAORI SOLDIER'S LETTER

JEWISH COMMUNITY FARMS Writing home to his .wife at Kut— arere, Cpl Bill Oakes of the Maori Battalion lias some interesting details to recount of his trip to Palestine which lie describes as verj) like New Zealand. There is a pi en-* titnl and regular rainfall and manyr of the trees are. also indigenous to New Zealand, a fact! which makes many of the men homesick, lie says. Of the Palestinians, he remarks that the}* are a hardworking lot different altogether from the Arabs °f Egypt, who were continually begging for 'buckshcesh.' They haveevolved a community system which enabled all to work for the common good, pooling all their produce and shareing equally the market returns. The system was governed by a committee elected, hy the people themselves. It was based on something resembling the Maori hapu sj'stem in the various tribes. A certain piece of land was allocated to» a certain district or community ami it .was the duty "of the people, living there to cultivate it. Might Benefit the Maoris "It is very successful as far as I can see.,'" he adds. "The homes ar£ fairly good and the people contented and happy. I have wondered if such a scheme could; be adopted for the benefit of the Maoris. One has actually to see how the people live to realise, what a success can be made out of living on so little land. Some have goats to supply their milk and these are kept tethered by a short rope to a peg in a patch of lucerne, or are even penned up and fed with hay, ,or cut grass. The cows arc kept in a yard day ani night, and hand fed. They don't run their cows in paddocks because there are none —just yards, sheds and feeding troughs. The bulls are kept in the same way. Mainly Orange Growing I don't know the exact number of cows in this particular village but it is a fair number. The chief means of their living is however from the export of oranges. . The orange orchards acres and present a beautiful sight when they ate laden with golden fruit.The whole community is Jewish and their success is an illustration of just what can bo done by all pulling together. The farms ara financed in the first placc by Government loans which arc repaid from the profits of the produce sales. Speaking of Jerusalem, Cpl Oakes says lie was as excited as a school boy to see the famous historical ! sites and to view the sacred spots connected** with the life of Jesus Christ. With a large, crowd of Maori soldiers he visited the places where Christ, lived,, prayed and suffered. Jerusalem, he says, is not an attractive town, having been very modernised so that many of its landmarks are now scarcclv discernable. The beauty of the church interiors made a deep Impression on the men as did also the celebrated garden of Gcthsemanc and the Mount of Olives.