MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

“HE ORA TE MAHI.” (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) When we first mingled with the Maori, our feeling was one of philanthropy, and eVen more so when distance and the seas lay between us. All through the career of the Maori, we however, desired to treat him as a brother and give him the status of a man when possible, or at least lead him to civilisation by just and generous treatment.

This policy of philanthropy aided and administered by godly men whose sole education was academic theology, based upon the conditions of life 2000 years ago. What the Maori needed most of all wag that we should understand his language, and through it find and respect his attitude towards his Gods of Nature. Those teachers who did study and acquire the Maori tongue, generally hurt his feelings by condemning his simple belief in the manifest works of creation.

Of course there were brilliant exceptions among our religious teachers. We did not then, nor do we now, realise that the Maori reflected and acted in a way that was just as little understood by us as our way was to him. When we heard of Maoris allowing our army food supply to pass their ranks, we were charmed with their chivalry; we did not realise- that they liked fighting just as we might enj.oy eating or sleeping when hungry or tired. They would even supply us with powder and shot, just as we would pay for meat to eat. We offered moral lessons to the Maori which he misunderstood, and we appealed to qualities and ideas of which he had no conception. The only w.ay we can civilise or convert the remnant of the Maori race today is to gain a thorough knowledge of their language, and then by mutual understanding to restore their original belief that “Work is Life” (He orate Mahi), for that was once their motto.