MAORI AND PAKEHA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 21, 3 November 1944, Page 4

MAORI AND PAKEHA

FEW districts in New Zealand can illustrate the remarkable understanding which marks the attitude of the. two races inhabiting this country of ours, as Whakatane. Lst the distant press of the cities feature scare correspondence relative to the obnoxious subject of 'colour bar/ we who have seen the free mingling of our children with tjie native children at our schools, who have witnessed the friendly rivalry between of Maori and Pakeha youth at football and basketball, know that there is no such thing existent in these parts, where there is a greater pro rata Maori population than, anywhere else: in the Dominion. We have in mind the happy combination of alternate Maori and Pakeha items at two recent children's concerts, when the enthusiastic audience was as mixed as the young performers, and where the spirit of harmony was never more in evidence. We recall the plays and the choruses in which Maori boys and girls took the part& with all the freedom of our own children. We are proud to be able to record these events as lessons in toleration for the world at large. Knowing these things as every day occurrances in our town we scorn the absurdity of the claim that the 'colour bar' with all its insinuations and all its encumbrances to world brotherhood could ever gain adherents in our midst.