PAKEHA AND MAORI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3685, 1 September 1927, Page 4

PAKEHA AND MAORI.

“It may be confidently said that the history of the contacts between Europeans and ‘primitive’ people contains no chapter that may be read with more satisfaction than the story of the Maori race in New Zealand,” writes Professor A. J. .Grant, of Leeds University, in the Yorkshire Evening News. “I believe the memory of the amazing fight they put up against the English has been o j f service to them It has saved them from the paralysing sense of inferiority and selfcontempt which seems to be near the centre of the causes of the failure of some native races. They have no humiliating defeat to look back on, but a series of struggles the heroism which is probably now a good 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 onei activity which the Englishman values very highly where they can equal and often excel him. Whatever j;he reasons, the Maori now enjoys a position of remarkable equality by the side of the white man. The contrast with the position of things and the trend of public opinion. North America, in South Africa, and even to a certain extent in Australia is most striking. The New Zealanders take a pleasure in telling you how no distinction is made between the two races.

I do not want to paint the situation in too bright colours. There are some disappointing features; there are difficulties ahead, especially in connection with the Maori ownership of land; there are many instances of distressing reversion to type even among well-educated Maoris. But on the whole the outlook of the Maoris is full of hope and creditable to Maoris and Englishmen alike.”