A MAORI IN ENGLAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 98, 26 April 1916, Page 7

A MAORI IN ENGLAND.

GIVES A LESSON TO BRITISHERS. A young Maori named 'thus. PoMo. who belongs to Otaki, volunteered for war service, and being wounded at the front, was sent to England, where he resumed an old friendship with a young Englishman whom he had met in New Zealand. An incident of Pohio’s visit to Burnley is thus related in an English paper: “"While in the busy town on the Brun, two men the worse for liquor (who ig not the worse for liquor) began to abuse him by calling him names, ‘ Darkie, ’ etc. He resented this,,, but still they persisted in the abuse, so to prove that at least he had the courage of a Britisher, he let go his right hand with his fst herd clenched ,and the two boozers were soon sprawling at his feet. A policeman was quickly on the spot, and or. inquiring about the affair he - var promptly told by the loyd Maori that they had been abusing him, and he had thus resented their abuse “You’ve 'served them right,” answered the sympathising policeman. Pohio then declared that he was a loyal Britisher, and he had come to fight for his King and country. The Maoris, he said, owed all to the Britishers. Three generations ago, said ho, our people were cannibals, but now they are civilised and educated, and he felt it was their duty to fight for the country and the empire to which they were so greatly indebted. “Pohio.” adds the paper, “is a decent, well-behaved young man. He is very genial, and talks freely in pure English. He can emote Shakespeare better than many who have been educated in British schools; and ho has ar affection for the country that would shame many who have been bred and [born in Britain.”