THE NATIVE RACE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 July 1929, Page 7

THE NATIVE RACE

(The Dominion)

Sir Apirana Ngata’s speech in the Address-in Reply Debate in the House last week deserves the thoughtful attention of Parliament and the public. The Minister observed in his opening remarks that for the first time in New Zealand qplitical history the Maori race was represented in Cabinet by a Minister of Native Affairs elected solely by the Native vote. While that circumstance, so far as he was concerned, would not prevent the affairs of his Department from being administered with strict impartiality from the points of view of both pakelia and Maori, it would enable the claims of the latter to be more effectively represented than perhaps had been the case in the past. This is claiming a good deal, for the dominion has been fortunate in securing the services of men off high capacity and experience in the portfolio of Native Affairs. At the same time Sir Apirana Ngata’s view is not without weight. The Department of Native Affairs is the official custodian of the rights and interests of the Maori people. Its Ministerial head might reasonably claim to he their vocal representative in Parliament, but he has also to consider the interests of the European population. The white population of New Zealand has generally subscribed to the traditional policy of this country that the Maori in the political and civic sense is entitled to parity of status. That this Ims been given practical effect is evidenced by the presence of Sir Apirana Ngata himself in the Cabinet. Yet certain remarks he made, however, would suggest that he regards this equality of status as more apparent than real. Referring to the question of unemployment, the Minister reminded the House that the Maori workers had been as adversely affectfed by present economic conditions as the pakelia. Unlike the pakeha, however, he had suffered in silence. All that lie had to do was to step back a generation and live on shellfish and other products of Nature. From this fact the Minister drew an interesting moral. Was the white man of to-day in New Zealand as prepared and competent to face adversity and self-denial as ills forerunners, the pioneer settlers? He did not think so. There is a good deal of truth in the iWiister’s denial. People in country do not nowadays face the trials of everyday life in the same philosophic spirit, or accept sacrifice ungrudgingly. The unemployed workers, led by the Labour-Socialists,. clamour for full-wage rates, without regard to the country’s ability to pay or the economic effect on the future. On this point the Minister cited the case of Maori workers who were glad to take employment under Chinese market gardeners at a wage which ‘ 1 nobody else would accept, and which nobody else would pay.” As he said this, the Minister looked reproachfully at the Labour-Socialist benches. It is not enough, lie intimated, that we should make a parade of Maoripakeha equality. The Maori no doubt appreciated the compliment and the spirit of the declaration. But he naturally expected, as anyone else would expect, that from this declaration there should ensue a measure of economic justice. When we have the Native Minister from liis place in Parliament declaring that of a mixed company of white and Native unemployed the whites would be given first preference, the fact for the community to grasp is that its sense of justice has been challenged. Sir Apirana Ngata may be right in considering the time ripe for a complete stocktaking of the Maori race and a survey of their economic conditions. It may be doubted however, whether the position of the Native race calls for review on the ground of. any lack of consideration on Hie part of the Legislature of the. country.