YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 797, 21 April 1910, Page 3

YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

WHAT IT HAS ACCOMPLISHED. "PROGRESS SLOW BUT SUBSTANTIAL." There was a large and fairly representative gathering at the meeting of the young Maori Party, held at "Waipaw* recently. Mr. Thornton, principal of the Te into College (iho president), said that good progress had been made in every department. Inferring to the. congress held at Wellington in 1908, he remarked that the results had been far-reaching, and ita influence was still felt. One of the efie'ctH of the congress had been the organi-W" tion of the party into two divisions—, northern and southern. The northern, division was founded on the material of the Maori secondary schools in the Auckland province; and the southerndivision on the Maori secondary schools in Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay, and the West Coast. He was glad to note a healthier state of public opinion generally amongst the Maoris. Progress might be slow, but looking over fourteen years he was glad to see" that it was substantial, more particularly in sanitation, education, public health work, industrial efforts, and religious effort. . The Hon. A. Ngata gave an outline of the birth, growth, and development of the movomont since 1897. The first platform of the To Aute Students' Association, as the. party was then called, was sanitation, and the ventilation of the meeting-houses, and the second the suppression of drunkenness in Maori settlements. In 1900 sanitation was introduced by the Government through the Maori Councils and the Public Health Department, and in the same year, and later, in 1904, the State also, undertook to control and check the supply of liquor at Nativo meetings, and the introduction of liqnor into Maori kaingas. With very fow exceptions. Native settlements

throughout the North ilsland might be. said to be clear of thy evil.. The Education Department had come to the assistance of this movement, more, particu.larly in the direction of training Maori girls as nurses, in the public hospitals of the Dominion. Two of theso trained nurses wore now in. charge of' Native [.districts* under the "Native-. Department. The industrial progress (continued Mr. Ngata) had been substantial. A largo body of opinion among the Maoris had been educated partly through the influence of the Young Maori Party. The view of the Native Land question it had sought to impress upon the Native mind was that tho main factor was not ownership, but the utilisation of the land. With the exception^, possibly, of portion of the Waikato, Thames, and the North of Auckland, this view: had been adopted by the Maori people, and was rapidly influencing their . attitude. - towards proposals that emanated from the pakeha for tho settlement of the' Native Land difficulty. Last, but not least, the party: had directed its attention to the,organisa : tion of religious work among tho Maoris. Certain of the denominations that were carrying on this. work. were -still" using. the methods of a century "ago';" methods," added Mr. Ngata, . "are . re- : quired, more ,in accord, with the cir...cumstances of the day,' in church: work 'as; in other, departments.'- 'The Maori' must be influenced to depend more on his own resources." -.'..'.