Bible and Beer

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 32, 8 February 1937, Page 5

Bible and Beer

MAORI MEMBER’S STORY. WHANGAREI, Feb. 4. Referring to recent criticisms of Maoris spending their money on drink, Mr. Tau Henare, M.P. for Northern Maori, at a Native welcome to the Acting Minister of Native Affairs (the Hon. F. Langstone) at Waiomio to-day, said that those who had drawn attention to Maoris drinking at Rawene, Kaikohe, and Kawakawa had neglected to point out that hundreds more pakehas than Maoris did the same thing in Wellington, Auckland and other cities an,d towns. They forgot to state the fact that when the pakeha was introduced to the Maori in the early days he came with a Bible in one hand and a bottle of beer in tho other. (Laughter.) It had only just dawned upon the Maori that tho land they had lost in the early days was due largely to the influence of a bottle of beer when transactions were made. “Now, when all our land is gone, they turn round to us and say drinking beer is no good,” he concluded. In the course of his reply, the Minister said he had heard an even stronger version than that given by Mr. Tau Henare. The pakeha when ho came to New Zealand taught the Maori the Lord’s Prayer. The Maori had to put his hands together and shut his eyes and when they did that .the pakeha grabbed the Natives’ land. That was the story he had heard, but it was before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. That had stopped the work of the land grabbers, and the treaty was still held sacred. Tho avaricious pakeha would not stop at taking land from the Maori. Ho would take it from his own bfother if he had the chance.