The Maori Agitation.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3784, 18 May 1908, Page 2

The Maori Agitation.

(By C. A: Young)

The spirit of unrest is abroad among our Maori friends. Possibly the causes of this will be found in the proceedings of Sir Eobert Stout's commission, which they are observing with suspicion and distrust; the movements of the Native Minister, which are significant of the approaching general election; and thirdly, • dissatisfaction with their present Parliamentary representation. It would be ungracious at this period to refer to the first cause further than to remark that the Maoris recall former commissions to mind, and remember that they, also, in their reports, recommended many things for the Maoris' betterment. In illustration of this, two native chiefs were heard discussing the recent visit of the commission to their district. One of them traced a square on the sand at his feet. "That," said he, "is the Maoris' papakainga." Tracing another square, "That," said he, is the Maoris' farms"; a third square was land to be leased, and a fourth square, land to be sold to the pakeha for the Maori owners' benefit. Asked his friend: "What end you think the Government begin?" The tracer, remembering former commissions, dubiously shook his head, and pointed to the fourth square. The Native Minister himself, when in the cold shade of opposition, was a member of the Onslow Commission of 1891, and then recommended many generous things for the Maoris' benefit, which he has found it convenient to forget during the seventeen years he has been a member of the present Government. Further, the speeches he has recently fired off at Ngaruawahia, Waharoa, Ruatoke, in the Urewera Country, and at Kaikohe in Hone Heke's country, have their significance and meaning. For instance, the attachment of Te Heu Heu to his coat-tail during his visit to the former places is undersood to signify that Henare Kaihau's behaviour in I Parliament during the two last sesI sions, having been insubordinate, he is to be supplanted by Te Heu Heu. On other counts it is reported that j the member for the Western Maori I District has been weighed in the bali ance and found wanting, so it is advisable he should give place to a better man. A member who has not visited his constiuency for twelve years can hardly complain if they try another candidate. Hone Heke, too, in the north, is an offender in this respect, and has had such faith in the performance of the present Government in office that he has not found it convenient to visit his constituents during the last ten years. Surely this is reducing Maori Parliamentary representation to a farce. And there are signs that the Maoris begin to think so themselves. The young Maori party has been more actively in evidence recently, but as this party has been in existence during the last ten years and through that period have contented themselves in reading learned treatises on ethical, social, and sanitary subjects, not much is expected of them. Their advisers have committed two fatal errors—in limiting their efforts to their own Eastern District, and in not carrying the elder generations of Maoris with them. Ngata is their spokesman, but he is a Government man, and many of the Maoris have ceased to believe that any good can come out of Egypt. However, the Government have certainly given Mr Ngata every encouragement and opportunity to serve his Eastern constituents. If those who inspire the Young Maori Party were to send a few of their disciples around the six Maori districts to educate and shed some of the politil light that they have been charged with on their ignorant and benighted fellows, or issue a newspaper, publishing general information, half in Maori and half in English, and send free copies of this to every kainga north, south, west, and east, they would really be doing something to educate the,whole Maori people.

In. the south we hear of Wi Parata trying to organise a union of the Maori people, with the avowed object of obtaining more satisfactory Parliamentary representation and a greater measure of Maori representation in the disposal of their lands. In the west we find the Maniapoto have formed what they call "The Progressive Maori Party," with the same objects in view. In the north inertia has laid her lotus eating Maori people to rest, and we have not heard whether or not Hone Heke is to be opposed. The recent seizing of two blocks of land near Hokianga by the Government will not make his candidature any the easier though, and the recent efforts of the Native Minister to assist him by throwing dust in the eyes of his Kaikohe constituents will not, it is said, have the desired effect. Such are the Maori forces in the political field, that it remains to be seen if there be a general of sufficient ability and influence to organise and lead them.

Most thinking people will admit that, sooner or later, the present system of dual govenment in New Zealand must cease, and the two races be gathered under the one common law. And surely the time has arrived when this should be done. To extend the franchise to the Maori people would be a great relief to everyone; the dual system of administering land, with its attending enormous expense, would disappear, as the complex system of native land laws could be simplified and gradually merged in the common law of the land; the vexed questions of native rates and taxes would be satisfactorily settled; the expensive and futile system of native school education would be saved; and above and beyond all, that ghost of the past—the Treaty of Waitangi—would be automatically abrogated by the fusing of the cosignatories into one people. Surely these are immense advantages, and should outweigh the puny contentions which may be advanced against them.

Not so long ago, when the franchise was extended to the agricultural and artisan class in England, conservative pessimists agreed that the people of this class could not write their own names, and said it was monstrous to give- such people a Parliamentary vote. Well, the franchise was extended, and a flood of educational light was shed upon the people; board schools sprang up all over the land; the attendance of children was made compulsory; and today there are free and lending libraries everywhere, numberless magazines and newspapers, and there is no class in England who take a keener interest in politics than these same artisans and farm labourers. To believe that extending the franchise to the Maori people would result in the impoverishment of the race and rendering the State liable to support a pauperised population of some 40,000 to 50,000 Maoris, only gives proof of ignorance of the power of the State to protect itself and its people. Theoretically, every adult of mature age in the Dominion is a free born British subject, and can exercise the right of the franchise, but the State controls this right; it limits the Maoris' right in Pari i amentary representation, protects the drunkard against himself by prohibition, protects women from outrage, children under age from fraud, and surely, in the face of the known thriftlessness and improvidence of, the Maori, the State would secure him a sufficiency of his land by inalienable and indefensible title, so that he could not impoverish himself nor his family, just as are the hereditary estates in Europe, where the land is held under inalienable title, and the incumbent cannot himself dispose of it to the impoverishment of his family. It is said the Government has done a great injury to this Dominion in failing to utilise the intelligence and known capacity of the Maori to adapt himself to agriculture and the technical arts; but it is a question whether a greater injury will not be done if the Maori is not immediately placed upon the same electoral roll as his fellow colonist. He is a British subject, under the Treaty of Waitangi, by the Maori Rights Act of 1865, and is a British subject, born in a British Dominion. Is it not

monstrous, therefore, that people of black, brown, yellow, and white foreign races may qualify and be granted nationalisation papers, admitting them to all rights and privileges as British subjects, while these are denied to the people of the Maori race.

Let us now consider the movement that is now taking place in the Waikato. Here a Maori of high rank and lineage in the modern history of his race has instituted, and is piloting successfully, a movement which would indicate that in him the Maori people have found a leader who is above all things an honourable gentleman, independent of both parties in pakeha politics, seeking nothing else than the betterment of his race, and whose mana appears powerful to influence for beneficial progress all the tribes of the Maori race. His desire is to unite the Maori people in an appeal to the Parliament of the Dominion to place his race upon the same political and social platform as are his fellow British subjects of the Dominion; and it is earnestly to be hoped Parliament, having found an honest man without searching for him, will extend every consideration and encouragement to him in his laudable efforts to improve the social and politcal status of his countrymen. Tupu Taingakawa Te Waharoa is a name respected and held in honour by every Maori throughout New Zealand. He is the son of Tarapipipi Te Waharoa, afterwards better known as Wiremu Tamehana (William Thompson), the Waikato king maker, and grandson of Te Waharoa, a famous • warrior, who may be called the Maori Napoleon of his time. Tupu Taingakawa therefore comes of a distinguished and honourable stock, and is evidently a man it would be wise policy to encourage in his honourable aspirations. Of all the efforts to realise the aspirations made by the Maoris in the past none have promised so well to succeed as these efforts now being made, and the measure of success to which they may attain may be taken as a proof of the ability of the Maori people to use the extended franchise wisely. It is a promising proof of his ability to learn that over 20,000 Maoris have signed articles of association under Tupu Taingakawa Te Waharoa.