MAORI MEMBER AGAIN ADMONISHED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3986, 20 August 1929, Page 1

MAORI MEMBER AGAIN ADMONISHED.

A sharp rap over the 'knuckles for his recent comment on Sir Maui Pomare’s title was administered to (Mr. T. Makitanara, Government member for Southern Maori, by Mr. K. S. Williams, 'Reform member for Buy of Plenty, in the House of Representatives last week. “I was astonished that the member for Southern Maori should have referred in any but a commendatory way to our friend Sir Maui Pomare,” said Mr. Williams. “I would remind him of a Maori proverb which says ‘Carry very carefully the name of your native college.’ It has been the custom of the King to confer honour on dis- , that way three members of the naworld and in outside spheres. The King has been pleased to honour in that wa ythree members of the native race. The first was Sir James Carroll, a member of both the pakeha and Maori races, who was the first gentleman with native blood in his veins to be knighted. He w&flj once acting-Premier and we are all .very proud of him. Then there came Sir Maui Pomare, who, I think, has been a member of a Cabinet for longer than anyone else in any of the Dominions. Wje remember his work in attending to the lepers in the island, a work that can pars in the islands, a work that can never be repaid. (Labour: Hear, done everything possible to foster the interests of the native race. Then we have Sir Apirana Ngata, a member of the present Cabinet, and evorydne in this country will admit that he thoroughly deserved his honour. It was very much out of place for the member for Southern Maori to comment on the question. The honours were not taken so much in a personal way. I have heard all three gentleman I have named congratulated by the native people, and the whole tone of the congratulations was that the honours were not so much personal as honours for the native race, and particularly the tribe to which the recipient of the honour belonged.” Making an explanation later, Mr. Makitanara said he had not referred to Sir Apirana Ngata. Voices: You did. Mr. Makitanara : “I did not.” Continuing', he said that Mr. R. A. Wright, member for Wellington Suburbs, had spoken in a flippant way about Sir Joseph Ward as Earl of Awarua, Lord Bluff, and he had replied in the same way. As he had explained before, there was nothing personal in his references.