A WARM WELCOME

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 23, 19 April 1927, Page 1

A WARM WELCOME

ANCIENT MAORI CUSTOM MINISTER’S WITTY SPEECH THE NATIVE OUTLOOK (From Our Own Correspondent.) WANGANUI, To-day, “The order of welcomes in this country has been revised. Now the Pakeha welcomes the Maori. In the olden days the Maori welcomed the Pakeha. Our homes were always open and so were our ovens, but the Pakehas had caught them in their pots.” Thus spoke Sir Maui Pornare at the big Maori gathering- in Wanganui. He then went on to say that the Maoris had paid dearly for the progress they had experienced since the pakeha came. They had not known the value of land and other saleable articles which had been sold for Jews’ harps, blankets and such like things. Some likeness had been found between the Scots and the Maoris, but while the Scots believed that money was made flat to pile* up, the Irish believed it was made round to go round. As things had gone it seemed the Maoris were more akin to the Irish in regard to this matter of holding on to money, or rather not holding on to it. Some pakehas had offered a lot of advice. “It was very good to advise,” said Sir Maui, ‘‘but circumstances had to be taken into account. It did not necessarily follow that where one had achieved success another, by adopting the same methods, would achieve equal success. Maoris had their own ways of looking at matters. Thus it was incumbent upon them in the main to solve their own problems along their own line of thought and action. Advice offered was appreciated in the spirit in which it was given, but it had to be taken to some extent ‘cum grano salis.’ ”