PAKEHA AND MAORI

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 365, 29 October 1932, Page 5

PAKEHA AND MAORI

("Post" Special Commissioner).

FAIR TREATMENT MINISTER PAYS TRIBUTfe TO TREATMENT OF HIS PEOPLE "NOTHING BUT FAIRNESS'

, ^ Wellington, Friday. . As a matter of cold historical fact, there had been nothing but fairness in the treatment of the Maori people by the Pakeha aceording to the Native Minister, Sir Apirana Ngata, who, in the House of Representatives tonight, said that he never hesitated in comparing the treatment accorded to other native races, to say that the greatest blessing that had ever fallen upon the Maoris was the fact that they had come under the mana of thb Crown .of England. ' . '•> The Minister observed that the ' member for the Southern Maoris (Mr. E. T. Tirikitene) had stated that he had come to Parliament to stand up for the rights and privileges of the Maori people. Taking them by and large, he would find that the Pakeha members of Parliament had been sympathetic in their treatment of native problems. He. made thdt statement with the authority of .oiie who had been in the House for nearly 30 years. Inevitably mistakes had heen made, but European members had always v tried to be fair in their dealings with the Maori race. Gift of Waitangi The Minister said that the Ngapuhi tribe in the North Auckland district • had expressed the desire to show their. appreciatiori of the gift by the Gov-ernor-General of the site of the signing of the Treaty" of Waitangi. As the centenary of the signing.of that historie document would arrive in eight years time, it had been arranged to build up a fund of £2000 for the purpose of erecting a memdrial in the shape of a carved meeting house. There were 1000 natives engaged in millcing in the district and each was to contribute 5s a year for eight years. ...... The Minister sugested to the member f or the Southern Maori that if his people were animated by the same sentiments towards the treaty, they too had the opportunity of contributing towards the proposed memorial. When the meeting house had been constructed, it would be handed over to the nation. Charge of Victimisation » Replying to charges of the victimisation of the Maori electors, the Minister insisted that during the whole of his political career, he had dealt with the Maori people as a people irrespective of their politics. Only that morning, the chairman of the Relief Committee in the Wairoa district had indicatedto him that no complaint «of the lcind alleged had heen made to him. If the member who made the allegations, Mr. W. Nash, would |apply further informa- *- tion, the Minister promised that the whole question would be investigated.