THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 July 1901, Page 4

THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY.

Wellington, July 15. Speaking on the question of work in the Maori mission field, Mr A. T. Ngata, gave an interesting sketch of the history of what is now called the “Young Maori Party.” When at To Aute College, Mr Ngata read Mr J. H, Pope’s book on Maori life, and it opened his eyes and those of many others at the College. They saw that the race was dying out as though disease were gnawing at its core. Something must be done, or his people would be gone. Mr Ngata then went to the Canterbury University, where as is wellknown he proved himself a scholar. When,” said Mr Ngata, “the young native has reached the binomial theorem and begins to taste of the sweet waters of knowledge, he longs to probe still deeper into the depths of wisdom of the pakeha, and it is hard for him to turn back to the hum-drum existence of Maori life:” When, however, he went back from the University to see his old companions at Te Aute the resolution was made. In 1891 the Te Aute College Students’ Association was formed, and to this day it

has the same great object in view—tho elevation of the Maori race. At first they were very young and immensely ambitions, and they tried to tell the chiefs what to do. But there .was a Maori proverb, which said, “• The young may cry but the elders only blush,” and after three months they gave up this method of procedure. They now followed various plans. The colony was divided into districts over which committees held sway, while the whole was ruled by the main head at TcJAute. Mr Ngata described his party as consisting of pessimistic enthusiasts: They brooded and for years had brooded over the danger threatening their race, but he could say with truth that the more they brooded the harder and more strenuously they strove to at tain the looked for end. Such is tho noble little band known as ‘‘The Young Maori Party.”