THE MAORI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1054, 23 January 1913, Page 2

THE MAORI.

Tuk Maori is a great sport. He loves a race meeting with all Ihe ardour ancestral of a a tribal war. He lives for to-day and to-day’s pleasure. He is prepared to make almost any sacrifice to attend a race meeting. Work on race day i The pakeha can if he likes, but Hone doesn’t like and what’s more wont. The sun will shine for Hone to-morrow even if to-day he loses all the spare cash he has accumulated or borrowed. He loves to plunge, and gambling has a wonderful faciuation for him. He doesn’t commit suicide or pull a wry lace it his favourite gee gee doesn’t come home a winner. Hone is a good loser but when he wins, no matter how small the dividend, his delight knows no bounds. Pleasure and excitement are his uppermost thoughts He listens to the parson and the moralist, but he is a child of pleasure. Numbers of the Maori race were represented at the local races and the cars they owned and drove must have cost thousands of pounds. They barracked each other and their faces beamed with pleasure. We wonder whether these people realise that they are a dying race ! A few years hence and our children will not look upon the stalwart and beautifully proportioned dusky forms once familiar to their parents. The blood fusion of the pakeha and Maori is detrimental and a violation of nature’s law. The Native question is not the least important that requires immediate attention by the present Government. The adjusting of Native land is only part of the Native policy which requires careful thought by our politicians.