MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

DESIGN OR ACCIDENT. (Recorded by J.H.S., of Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”) The patriotic acts of Wiremu Tamihana in his splendid effort to save his people from ruin by rum were frustrated by the carelessness of a junior official in the Native Department. The effect of drink on the Red Indians was demonstrated by the missionaries as, a warning. The Maori Chiefs devised a Ture (law) that every white settler within their territory must sign a bond to pay £1 for every Maori found drinking on their premises, or be evicted. Colonial law provided a penalty of £lO for serving drink to a Maori, but the law was defeated by conspiracy. An “order” from a white man easily evaded the law. A magistrate ruled that even a forged order exonerated the seller. On Sir George Grey’s return to New Zealand he urged the chiefs to take immediate steps by a united appeal to the House of Representatives asking them to save the Maoris by prohibiting the manufacture, import, or sale of grog. Wiremu Tamihana at once replied: “Drunken Maoris in Government employ enter the Public Service office unrebuked and .undischarged. Look up the records of the Native Office three years and one month ago and you will find there the very thing you ask.” A search of the official records revealed the fact that every Waikato Chief had made a heartfelt appeal for the Government to help to put clown this traffic which was a greater danger than any European disease. There the matter ended. After its approval by the Ministry and the then Governor the signed document had been “pigeonholed” for three years and a month as stated.

The question at this late stage remains to be solved: “Is that law not still in existence, and should it not be enforced?”