MAORI ERECTED OWN COLOUR BAR SAYS MAGISTRATE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 13, 22 March 1950, Page 4

MAORI ERECTED OWN COLOUR BAR SAYS MAGISTRATE

“If there is a colour bar in New Zealand today* it is one erected by the Maoris against the' pakehas,” and Mr W. Carrol Harley, S.M., addressing a forum arranged by the Whangarei Rotory Club recently. The colour bar, he said, was erected by an inferior or weaker race-which was'in danger of extinction through its contacts wflth a superior race. That was the position in New Zealand today. Mr Harley made these observations about the Maori: 1

He is not suited to Western civilisation in its present form. Because of the operation of a colour bar he is difficult to approach. The whole Polynesian race has different mental characteristics from the European. No Pre-Vision I The Polynesian has no pre-vision. He lives in the present and cannot plan for the future. He cannot think from .the abstract and his language has no abstvuct words. He has different relative values from the European. He breeds much more quickly and today probably has a four-one advantage in this respect. He is highly intelligent and is an extremely good judge of other men, European or Polynesian—better in fact than the European. He is very sensitive. These these observations Mr Harley drew the following conclusions about the future of the Maori:

He will never be completely civilised by Western civilisation as we know it owing to the; colour bar. The only way the European can get near to him is by * service. Education of the Maori in the sense of civilising him would take a very long time, perhaps hundreds of years and infinite patience would be required.

The European must carefully educate the Maori, intellectually and by his own example, along the road he wished the Maori' to follow. “But we have to keep them busy, while we are educating them,” said Mr Harley. Done Nothing Much

“We owe the Maori a fair bit. We chuck him 10s a (week but that is not service. We have done nothing much for him. We give him a few bob and hope he will shut up. “The is just a nuisance, or a source of tourist revenue, or else the bulk of the people are completely ignorant of him.”. The suggestion was put to Mr Harley that the increase in the Maori birthl-rate wasi the result of Social Security and family benefit. Mr Harley rejected the suggestion as incorrect.

The result of his inquiries, he said, had shown that the greatest factor behind the big increase in the birthrate was the Maori allowing district nurses to enter their homes.