PRAISE FOR DOMINION.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5179, 16 September 1927, Page 3

PRAISE FOR DOMINION.

TREATMENT OF THE MAORIS. SAME FOOTING AS EUROPEANS. Professor A. J. Grant,, of Leeds University, writing in the Yorkshire Evening News on the position of th® Maoris in New Zealand, shows- (says Public Opinion) how in that Dominion the difficult question of the relations between the native and white populations has been successfully solved.

“It may be confidently said that the dNfctory of the contacts between Europeans and-‘primitive’ people contains no chapter that may be read with more satisfaction than the story of th© Maori race in< New Zealand,” writes Professor Grant. “Four Maoris now sit in the New Zealand Parliament, and Maori opinion has a certain weight with New Zealand Governments. The decline in the race was in part due to insanitary conditions intensified by the partial adoption of European ways. A continuous campaign against their insanitary habits 'has been conducted, partly by Mr Ngata, who has been for many years one of their representatives in Parliament, and certainly with excellent results. “I believe the memory of the amazing fight they put up against the Englisth has been of service to them. It has saved them from the paralysing sense of ineriority and self-contempt which seems to be near the centre of the causes of the failure of som® native races. They have no humiliat-

ing defeat to look back on, but a of struggles th© heroism of ▼ which is probably now a goood deal • touched by legend.

“Their prowess at football has; been a really important influence in the same direction. It has raised them ‘ much in their own esteem to find that there is one activity which, the Englishman values very highly where they can. equal and often excell him. “Whatever the reasons, the Maori now enjoys a position of remarkable < equality by the side of th© white manThe contrast with the positiop of things and the trend of public opinion in North America, in South Africa, and even to a certain extent in Australia is most striking. Th© New Zealanders take a pleasure in telling you how no distinction is made between the two races. “Maoris sit along with English on the benches of schools and in university class-rooms; They are received into the same hostels ; I have seen them dancing any sense of strangeness in the dances given by the college hostels. “4 do not want to paint the situation in to bright colours. There are some disappointing features; there are difficulties ahead, especially in connection with the Maori ownership of land ; there ar© many instances of distressing reversion to type even among well-educated Maoris. But on the whole the ooutlook of the Maoris is full of hope and creditable to Maoris and Englishmen alike.”