A UNIQUE GATHERING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 186, 5 February 1912, Page 7

A UNIQUE GATHERING.

THE FUTURE OP THE MAORI. ADDRESS BY DR. POMARE. A gathering unique in its kind as being the first Maori athletic sports meeting yet held in the Dominion took place at Waitara on Thursday. There was a record attendance. The meeting was run solely by Maoris, some of whom journeyed a considerable distance to participate. Mr. Waata Hapiango, of Wanganui, stood sponsor to the whole show, and practical! financed it. Seen by a "Daily News" reporter, Mr. Hapiango was enthusiastic in his intention to see that the meeting was made an annual affair. As regards the events themselves, all were very keenly contested, and drew good fields from among both Maoris and Europeans. The standard of several performances was also well in keeping with meetings of a similar character run by Europeans. Apart from the athletic contests a special feature of the gathering was the interesting and pertinent references made by Dr. Pomare, M.P., to the Maoris' successes in the athletic field, and more important still was Dr. Pomare's spirited advocacy of the necessity of a greater fusion of the two races. The doctor is patron of the newly-founded institution (the Ngatiawa Sports Club) and his remarks were made at the unfurling of its flag. After pointing out that it stood out as the only athletic club of its kind in New Zealand, he pointed to Maoris being fairly good athletes. Ample evidence of this was, he added, provided by the records of the athletic worjd. Maoris had been champions in wrestling, running, jumping, boxing, shooting, in the football field (as footballers Maoris cou'<l compare with any of the other races) r i in golf. In a lesser degree they'll,! participated in rowing. Citing a few in stances he mentioned Dr. Buck, of Taranaki, a quondam long-jump champion of New Zealand; Robinson, a half-caste, champion wrestler of Taranaki; Pouwhareumu, champion for many years of Taranaki in wrestling; and Tareha, who at one time was New Zealand golf champion. Clearly, continued the speaker, this went to prove that the Maori was the equal of his pakeha neighbor in the athletic world.

Most interesting was the latter half lof Dr. Pomare's speech. "The flag," he said, "that I am unfurling is emblematical of the mana of the club, and it pleases me greatly to see in the audience and amongst the competitors that thorough co-mingling of the two races, also emblematic of the future dwellers of our fair Dominion. It pleases me, because of past misunderstandings, to see now this happy state of affaire. A chapter in the history of our country, which should never have been written, has been written because of this present state of the co-mingling of the races not having taken place earlier." Dr. Pomare continued that a terrible war," with all its consequent horrors, heart-burnings and. bitterness, could have been easily averted if the matter which he wanted the new club to adopt had been adhered to. The motto was: "Play the game; be square' and fair, and take a beating m the same spirit as'you would a victory." (Applause). However, he advised all to let the dead past bury its dead. \\ hat they had before them was the pre-, sent and the future. THE FUTURE.

The future was still pregnant fifth great possibilities when he hoped to set a closer unity of the pakeha and t'lw, Maori; when there shall be one law for the pakeha and one law for the Maoriwhen all misunderstandings will have been swept away and a new race is born in whoso vrtns will co-mingle the enterprising and progressive lead of the pakeha, and the hospitable one of the Maori.- "And so," he concluded, "in unfurling, this flag I want you to remember that above .this, flag floats the one*nd greatest of all flags: the Union ' Jack of old England, upon which no sun sets; , under which all subjects are equal and no man s peace is disturbed. That glori- ?? 8 ~a g£ a n em P ire which B P e "6 Hberty t a l k J hat fla S which if to-morrow it should be threatened by any foreign foes', you will find the Maori and the pakeha standing side by side to uphold its maut"