“BE MAORIS!”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 392, 28 June 1928, Page 18

“BE MAORIS!”

Te Puea*s Advice to Queen Victoria Girls TRADITIONAL WELCOME “It is good for you girls to learn the ways of the Pakehas. But it is equally important that you should learn the ways of the Maoris. First, you are Maoris. You cannot ignore that fact!” THE traditional Maori greeting which Princess Te Puea Herangi and her party of Waikatos, received yesterday at the Queen Victoria School for Maori Girls at Parnell, was gratifying to the chieftainess. Te Puea was greeted by the girls carrying branches of greenery, and calling: “Heraemai! Heraemai! Heraemai! Thrice welcome to the school of Kuini Wikitoriai” “If I had found that you had forgotten the ways of the Maoris I would have been very disappointed,” Te Puea told her hostesses, who came from as wide an area as Kawakawa in the Far North and Wairarapa in the South. There are also girls from Waikato in the school. “Instead of which you make me weep in my heart when I hear you give the cries of your tupunas . . . Learn obedience to your fathers and mothers, and honour your teachers. Above all, grow up good Maoris!” Miss Brereton, the principal of the school, in a brief speech, which was interpreted by one of her pupils, welcomed the people from Waikato, and •especially “our distinguished rangatira, Te Puea Herangi.” GIRLS ENJOY POIS The Waikato party subsequently gave an exhibition of poi dancing and responded to the welcome with a vigorous haka. Befor© leaving the school, which has close association for Te Puea, as her late sister was educated there, the chieftainess visited a number of sick girls in the school hospital, who were unable to greet their visitor. Miss Brereton and her staff provided a most enjoyable meal in which many dainties, including puha, specially gathered that day by the girls themselves, featured. Cheers were given by the pupils for the visitors, and the Waikatos responded with hearty cheers for the school.