RESPONSIBILITY OF MAORIS IN HOUSE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5278, 13 December 1946, Page 4

RESPONSIBILITY OF MAORIS IN HOUSE

fPress Assn.-

MR. W. POLSON'S APPEALj CONCERTED GUIDANCE I OF ELDERS SUGGESTED I

'-By Telegravfb—^Jopy right.) I

NEW PLYMOUTH. Last Night. I "As an old politician with no | further opportunity of debating j this question, I would appeal to I the wise elders of the Maori j people* to olfer eoneerted guid-1 ance to their representatives in | Parliament at this eritical time/' I said Mr. W. J. Polson, former J deputy-Leader of the Opposition, I at a gathering to honour his ser- 1 vices for the old electorate oi I Stratford to-night. I The member vof Parliament had a l greait responsibility, said Mr. Polson. 1 Never had responsibility been greater l than at present, when there were 38 1 European members on either side of I the House, and four not very. experi- ■ enced Maori niembers. I He was anxious to see Maori and l pakeha going hand in hand, and could I see that this was the only sotation I of the prohlem of the two races li .fing ■ amicahly together. ;■ The Maori members, however, 1 would have to judge how far they I could interpose between- the conflict- 1 ing European ideologies and whether B interventxon hy them, would createl harmony or have the reverse effeet, I "An enormous responsiblity restel on the .Maori members at a time like I this, hecause the tatare developments I of both races is invotved in it," eon- 1 tinued Mr, Polson. "The question in l my mind is whether the me'thods B adopted by the Maori members in the B past, hy which they confined their B politieal activities almost entirely toB their own racial problems, rather than B to participating- in pakeha discussions B v/as not the hest and most effectiveB, from the Maori point- of view, B "It would he disastrous to both fl Maori -and pakeha. if any unwise act fl of the representatives. of either raceB had the effect of creating ill-f eeling ■ or of reducing* the very fine f eeling fl which now exists between the two fl x*aces." I