MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1939, Page 11

MAORI MEMORIES

WHY MAORI CHRISTIANITY FAILED. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The hereditary rights of every Maori chief tvhose standing was recognised by his tribe included that of plurality of wives for the purpose of producing warriors to protect their lands, and women to maintain them by agriculture. an occupation which promoted health, and the capacity to reproduce still more fighting men .and working women Every man and woman in the northern districts was a professing Christian, and sincerely so until faced with several serious problems that eventually caused the majority to abandon their new-found happiness. The first cause of their defection was the discovery that several ardent professors, especially among the laymen, were land speculators at their expense, and not quite straight in other ways. Another matter of surprise and disaffection was that costly display and expenditure entered into worship which was distinctly understood to be without money and without price. Payment under such conditions seemed to be on a par with unfair land purchase —Mea pirau (corrupt practice.) The still greater cause of trouble was that select plural marriage, the keynote of protection for their beloved lands and children, was prohibited. This appeared to them as altogether inconsistent with the lives of the great men in Christian history, Solomon and Abraham.