THE MAORI CONGRESS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 35, 5 November 1907, Page 4

THE MAORI CONGRESS.

There is a good deal of attractiveness in the proposal to hold a Maori Congress next year, for the project is of the kind ■which is agreeable to the present-day fashion of regarding the Native race as the special ward of the white. The present position of public opinion upon the Maori problem must be a source of depression to the optimist who keeps his heart warm and his hopes high in defiance of the cruelties of human progress. It is the fashion to say that, in all legislation which affects the Natives, the Legislature must.' subordinate everything _to the strictest conservation of the existing rights and privileges of the Maori. Similarly it is the fashion to hope that the Native race will check itself in its process of decay. There is much ignorance, and more hypocrisy, in this universal attitude of patronage. The average New Zealander, unless he is a stu l •dent of ethnology, knows practically nothing of the Native, and cares as little, for all his facile repetition of the well-worn phrases. The projected Congress should dispel a great deal of this ignorance, and with it much of the insincere conventionality of the- European .attitude. The promoters of the Congress set out half a dozen ends which they hope to achieve, bnt our expectations are less modest than- those of the people who anticipate a great racial revival, as a result of the gathering. Much depends upon the scope of the proceedings. It will be advantageous to know what the views', needs and grievances of the Maoris really arc, for there has hitherto been a great deal of vagueness upon this point. Excepting to acknowledged experts like Mr. Herries and Mr. A. L. D. Fraser, the whole Native problem is, in varying degrees, puzzling and obscure to the European members of the House of Bepresentatives. With four Native members in the .House, it is surprising that this should be so, but there.is no escaping the fact. In one direction the Congress may be of service, for it is possible that it may contribute to the Native land problem some considerations that might' otherwise remain unregarded. Upon the whole, however, wo have small hopes of any considerable benefits of a practical character from the gathering. There is some possibility of usefulness, nevertheless, and no chance, however small, should be allowed to pass.