An Obligation To Maoris

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 1

An Obligation To Maoris

(N.Z. Press Association) WAITANGI, Feb. 6.

There is an obligation to the Maoris to remedy deficiencies in education, the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Hanan) said tonight.

Mr Hanan—in an address at celebrations to mark the

126th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi signingrecalled that the Maori Education Foundation was established to help the Maori people to attain equality of achievement:

They had always had equality of opportunity, the Minister said. “It seemed to me that unless the Maori Education

Foundation was established, equality would not be reached for many generations.”

For the same reason, trade training schemes were started to enable young Maoris to become skilled tradesmen “instead of flowing into the unskilled casual worker field.” The importance of this

move to assist young Maoris to develop skills cannot be overestimated, said Mr Hanan. “We owe it to the Maori

people to remedy deficiencies jn education over the last 100 years. “We owe it to our grandchildren to enable them to live in a society which is free of the type of racial tension that is all too common in the world,” Mr Hanan said. The trade training schemes also are important in order to avoid the “enormous economic waste that occurs when young Maoris capable of performing the type of skilled work which is so important today are prevented from doing so because of a poor educational background.” Mr Hanan said the same reasons underlay the emphasis placed on provision of good modern homes for Maoris. Later in his address the

Minister explained that whenever he emphasised the words “one people” and “integration” he did not have in mind absorption of the Maori people by the Pakeha.

“What I want to see is Maoris and Europeans as copartners in a progressive modern society,” said Mr Hanan.

“A Maori must not cease to be a Maori and give up the many desirable and charming qualities and customs in which all New Zealanders take pride. “All our people are appreciating more and more what the Maori people have contributed not only in the economic field, but in our very way of life,” he said.