PRIDE OF RACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 16

PRIDE OF RACE

HELPING THE MAORI NEW SOCIETY FORMED PRESERVATION OF ARTS (From Our Own Correspondent.) WANGANUI, To-day. A Maori Ethnological Society has been formed in Wanganui. Work will be confined strictly to compiling the most authentic and conservative records which can be obtained in connection with the history and traditions of the Maoris of the district. The society’s scope of investigation will be confined to the following subjects:— (1) Genealogy; (2) preservation of carvings and tribal relics, including modern portraits and paintings; (3) teaching of carving and mat-making; (4) preservation of Maori songs, incantations, chants and old-time entertainments; (5) teaching of anciefit and modern pois, hakas and other dances; (6) teaching and the preservation of the arts of dyeing and the uses of Maori medicinal herbs; (6) teaching and the preservation of the arts of fishing, eeling, bird-snaring and the preserving of food; (8) restoring of Maori carving instruments, Maori pas and the preservation of cemeteries and memorials; (9) the perpetuation of Maori games on land and aquatic sports. In addition to this new venture the I West Coast Young Maori Congress has commenced functioning. The object of the congress is to re-create the pride of the race, more especially among the Maori youth of New Zealand, as well as to seek to meet pressing needs in the interests of the Maori race as a whole, and to stimulate this at every opportunity through the media of politics, education, and social reform in the individual and the community, hygiene and commerce, and by every other means possible in maintaining the status of the Maori people. The congress co-operates with all and every board of association already or hereafter to be set up, and acting with Parliamentary authority or otherwise, with a view to meeting the needs of the Maori people individually and collectively, as they shall arise from time to time. The congress, or its representatives, are entering into the discussion or consideration of such matters purely in an advisory capacity as between the Maori and the particular authority or authorities concerned, and with a view to pressing the claims of those who should benefit, or who are intending to benefit, from legislation passed. The congress is setting its face against inter-marriage with Chinese, Hindus or other outside coloured races.