Sir Apirana Ngata Gives Reasons For Maori Delinquency In Cities

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 22, 17 February 1948, Page 8

Sir Apirana Ngata Gives Reasons For Maori Delinquency In Cities

A pertinent analysis of the reasons for the high percentage of crime committed by Maoris was made by Sir Apirana Ngata recently “in the hope that it may narrow the field in which the efforts of the churches may prove beneficial.” Maori criminal offences were now a good pulpit subject, he said, and church people had been enjoined to do something about it as though it was unprecedented. It was not new; the percentage always had been high and would remain so for a generation or more.

The drift of Maoris to the cities, which was noticeable before 1940, was greatly accelerated during the war, said Sir Apirana, Puring that period the shortage of manpower for industries was partly met by drafts on Maori communities as a matter of Government policy. At the same time, 3600 of Maori youth, mostly from outlying villages, entered the armed services. The Maori population in boroughs and cities exceeded 10,000 at the last census. A small proportion were in permanent work and enjoyed homes. The great majority were driven to makeshifts and slums and contacts at that level in city society. Further, there was very inadequate preparation by any organisation, whether Church, State, or civic authority, to receive such influx—a few belated hostels, more or less selective as to whom they catered for, some camps, a few -welfare workers and an extra church worker here and there. Charges of vagrancy were evidence of the maladjustments inveitable when ill-prepared Maori youths followed the stream into pakeha centres of population. “The crime figures will probably get worse before they improve,” Sir Apirana continued. “We have not experienced yet the reverse of the drift to the cities. This will come with a return to normal, when many Maoris will find their services not required in industry or other town employment, or when a setback in world prices and the demand for food comes about. The maladjusted, not wanted in the cities, with the fires grown cold in the tribal environment, will surely be a source of some difficulty. “Perhaps it will be necessary to state the' problem statistically from pulpit that crusaders might take note. It should not end there. Once more there is a call to the youth of the Maori race to go into this more difficult struggle fully inspired that it alone can achieve what pakeha organisations have failed to do and what the outstripped organisation of the churches seem powerless to cope with.”