DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2131, 13 July 1907, Page 2

DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND.

A DREARY DEBATE. MAORI OPINIONS. (Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, last night. Tho debate on the of N.Z.’s designation from “Colony to “Dominion” this, afternoon was a vorv dreary affair. , , The peculiar feature of the debate was a speecli by a Maori member, Mr Hone Ileke, advocating the cliango. He quoted the Maori names of the colony, and pointed out that there had been many changes since the original Maori name was given. Koi his part he said he was not heie to protest. When N.Z. was called a colonv he was not born then. A former relation of his, howover, had protested, hut he was not going to protest. “Why should we change our name P We are not a leopard, he said convincingly, and resumed Ins °Mr Parata, another Maori member, wished to know whether the change of name would affect the native race, and receiving a reassuring reply he sat down with a smile of intense satisfaction. Mr. McLachlan opposed the change, in the interests of his children and grandchildren, “54 of them, Sir, a decent muster,” who, lie said, being born in N.Z., were not entitled to si ia re the designation of “colonist with himself with those who, like himself, had come from another country. . , . , , Sir Joseph Ward closed tho debate with a breif reply and tho reading of some doggerel by a would-be Auckland poet, who wound up with this couplet— Mav the new Dominion flourish with the progress time will bring And a Knot of Heroes nourish for tho Empire and the King.

After this the division was taken and the motion carried without enthusiasm. There was not a single liand-clap. The House then adjourned, and as the people’s representatives filed out one lion, member could be heard making inquiry as to whether the Government was going “to turn it on.” “It” meant Bellamy’s. Nothing of the kind eventuated, but it must be borne in mind that we are not a Dominion yet. A similar motion lias to be submitted to the Legislative Council.