STORY OF THE MAORIS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 787, 24 November 1922, Page 2

STORY OF THE MAORIS.

TOLD BY REV. R. T. HADDON. T!HE DECLINE OF HIS PEOPLE. LOYALTY TO THE EMPIRE. After hearing the Rev. R . T. Haddon speak, one cannot but admire the splendid co-Or.dination of racial qualities in this stalwart Maori'. For Mr Hadclon is proucl of his Maori name. Yet it would not be correct to say that he is typical of the .Maori i>ace ; he is rather an excellent type of a New Zealander. A quarter Scotch, a quarter Irish, and half Maori, the Rev;. .Robert Tahupotiki Haddon \yas born of a Maori chiePtainess and can, he says, 'trace his lineage through twenty ancestors to the great Tdri, who navigated the Aoteat’op, canoe to New Zealand, He is also a grand-nephew of 'the celebrated fighting chief, Titokowaro, of Taranaki fame. From his Irish and Scotch ancestors he inherits those characteristics of a strong wiiH, fortitude and independent judgment which, combined with the eloquence and emotional. qualities of the cut tured Maori chief, make Wan an extremely forcible speaker, with an intense energy of conviction and unusual power o,f swaying an ,audience. Such is the man. “Brothers and Sisters.” “We greet you as brothers and sisters,” he began in his address at Otahuhu last Friday night, "as fellow citizens of the British Empil e.” He said that the British, just as much as the Maoris, were descended from canibals ; both a»ike had wor shipped a God gfar off—-not id«>ls or images close by; both had fought many battles ; both had studied the arts and astronomy! “Descendants of True Owners.” “We are the direct descendants of the true owners of this country,” ho said. “We transferred it in broad daylight to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, who promised to extend to us. in return., full citizenship! and the rights and privileges of Uritish subjects. We have stood by the (Fioaty. Some of us fought against your people, but there were (faults on both, sides. tFour years aftclr the Treaty' was signed an American squadron came to the Bay of Islands and invaded our fishing ground's, which were guaranteed *to us by yoi.fr people. My people went out to send them away,. They fired grape shot and sank many of the canoes, killing many of my people. Yes! And my people met at Koyorareka, under Hne Heke, to protest to the British people. My people chopped down the fiag staff which had guided the? American ships-i Your people put it up aind 1 it was chopped down a second time ; and the w;*r broke out. Yes ! But eighteen hundred' of my people fought against Hone Heke, and Tamiti Waka Nene stood by the treaty which he had signed, and kept faith with Britain because he' had given his word to serve the Queen.” Dealing in Land),

(He said that his people liked the missionaries. Yes, they liked the white people. They sold their ia»d to them. They “sold” thousands ot ocres fair little articles and for clothing and jewels. Then the British started giving them firearms for their land. Yes ! They should not have .done that. Sq 'the Northern Maoris came down past Auckland, past Rotorua and on td Gisborne, killing many of the finest ot their race. None of the tribes could fight against the new weapons which they had' learned to use. Then the British people gave them drink. They did not like it. /They called it Waipiro—“stinking water.” But still the British peoplfe wanted them to take it ; and soon many of the Maori people began to dn.nk 1 much of it. Even the women drank it. They were sorry for that, for the men liked 'the women much. Decline of the Maoris. missionaries tried to help m.v people,” said Mr Haddon, “but the traders were too many. My people wsre incfc’e than 200,000 people' in 1840. But they became less and less, until there were only 40,000 left. Now ithere are 52,000. Won’t you save them from their “Waipiro V” They have no vote. My people, whose fathers owned this country, cannot save themselves. Are we worth saving-?” (Deep and earnest cr.es of “Yds.!'”) “Will you save ou>* our children ; will' you save the Maoris and your own children ?” In the King Country. Instancing the seriousness of his appeal, Mr Haddon said that nine tangis had been held in one month within a radius of seven miles m the Hawera district, ait which 50 barrels of beer and 12 cases of whisky had been consumed. So a law was passed stopping the sale o-f liquor to Maoris. But the sale.was not stopped*. The law should be bet tar enforced. Three-quarters of the Maoris wanted to abolish the drink, but they could not. -He (the speaker) had to pass a test in English and pay £lO to have a vote. Why were his people treated like that ? They were’na all like him—aide to pay for their vote. He hoped the British people would help his people. The Rev r Neho Heni Papahakura sang “'The Lord is My Light,' 1 ‘Joyful, Joyful* will the meeting be,” and other songs,, in which his rich tenor voice was heard to splendid advantage, and his rendering of a recent Maori war song and the well-known chant containing the words “Ka Mate, Ka Mate, etc’ 1 ’ were especially well received.