A MAORI PROTEST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 220, 16 September 1871, Page 4

A MAORI PROTEST.

'';' The following letter has been addressed to the Editor of the Evening Post by Parata, one of the Maori members : — Salutations to you—l desire to express my opinions on certain statements misrepresenting us, which have appeared in your journal. I refer to your statement that some pakeha has put us up to makiqg ' IS.^| you ever [. hear that the Europeans elected us to seats in this Parliament, or did you see, among the list of thosa who voted, ihe name of any pakeha?^' We do not beloDg to the "clan

M-Lean ; " . we belong to the clan Maori. Mr. M'Lean is a member of the Government, and you belong to the clan pakeha. I heard during the past years that the Europeans used to ridicule the former Maori members of the House of Representatives ; ahd now that we have been elected, you have chosen to make groundless assertions respecting us. My European relatives, do not imagine that this Government have put these ideas of ours into our heads. We are men, and the Maoris elected us in order that we might endeavor, in Parliament, to have the laws so administered as not to press too heavily upon the native race. My friends, the evils under which the Maoris are suffering, have been inflicted under this name " Government," which you are jeering at. If you, the writer of the article I allude to, were to assume the reins of Government, would you administer the laws to the satisfaction of the Maoris ? The Government that would receive my hearty support, would be the Government which would give back to the Maoris their lands which have been confiscated. Mr. Editor, which of our measures have been supported by the Government to give you cause for jeering us, seeiug that our measures have not yet been discussed and disposed of. No doubt the Europeans say that the Maoris are still very ignorant, but in reply to that, I would state that Maoris are possessed of quite sufficient ability to bring forward beuificial measures. The ouly reason why tbe Maoris are unable to peruse the laws made by the Europeans is their ignorance of your language. I see do force in the saying made use of by you, the Europeans, tbat the Maoris who were elected to the House were about as useful as blocks of wood, or the carved figures in the Maori House attached (o the Colonial Museum. Perhaps you are going to make use of that saying with reference to the present Maori members. If you should ask who have kept the Maoris in ignorance, I say that you, the Europeans, have. Your friend, Wi Parata, M.G.A. Bth September. — ■ — '