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Forest and Bird, Issue 22, 1 October 1930, Page 1

/I FTER all! Are white people really ahead of the Maori / I or merely trying to get where he Was? He had virility, which is the foundation of a race. We are losing it. He had hair

lo protect the top of his head and sound teeth to masticate his food and ’as, moreover sound in limb and keen of eye. He tolerated no weaklings and worked not for the individual interest but in the interests of the community. He had good laws and enforced them, and understood the art of conservation which is preservation for the purpose of utilisation. The Maori lived on the interest Nature produced. We live on the capital. We may boast of our wireless, flying machines, motor cars, etc., but conveniently overlook the fact that Nature takes away that which we do not use as she did the use of the wings of the Kakapo, Weka, and Kiwi. In 100 years we have destroyed 90 per cent, of the forests which formed the soil upon which we grow our food, and a greater percentage of the bird-life which dwelt therein. The Maori lived in the same country for at least 800 years and fcepf the forests and birds intact. Shall we eventually succumb in an insect infested and eroded land or be wise in time and utilise the remnant of those gifts, which our Creator so bounteously bestowed, not in an endeavour to benefit the immediate individual interest, but in the interests of the community as a whole in perpetuity?