UTTERLY DEPLORABLE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2889, 29 September 1916, Page 6

UTTERLY DEPLORABLE

NATIVES AND DRINK. By Telegraph—Pn.+.s Associitioa. Napier, September 28. In a debate to-night on a report of tho committee oil liquor and Maoris, presented to the Anglican Synod, tho iter. Digby Wilson, Waipiro Bay,, said that no languago could bo too strong to describe the state of tilings now existing among tho Maoris froni ToKomaru to Hick's Bay. Six years ago tilings were wonderfully better. Ho thought that in no part of the world, oxcept the West Coast of Africa, was the condition, of things so bad. • It would bo hard to conceive of a worse stat© of affairs. Bishop Sedgewick said no words of his could describe the condition of tilings on the East Coast. There had been a marked deterioration all along the East Coast during the past two years that was utterly deplorable. He had written to Ministers had to Mr. Ngata about it. The matter must constantly be brought before the attention of the authorities. He had heard of little children and women' being drunk and-incapable of walking about. The Rev. Mr. Barnett (Tologa.Bay) corroborated what others had said. Tho state of things at Hauiti Pa during a recent tangi was too dreadful for words.' Tlio man responsible for tho tangi had paid out £500, mostly for drink. Ho clare not describo to the Synod in detail what he had seen. This drunkenness was nearly all due to pakehas introducing drink from outside districts. ; ' Tie Tcport stated that the liquor obtained by North Island Natives was injurious to the physique of the race, was retarding tneir advance, and destroying tho foundation of their character.