The Maori Record.

Maori Record : a journal devoted to the advancement of the Maori people, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 July 1905, Page 1

The Maori Record.

In selecting the above title for our paper it is hoped that it will appeal in a broad sense to the people constituting the predominant partner. For the one end and aim of the Maori Record is the advancement of the Maori people. In the past it has been thought that the salvation, of the race lay in the conservation of their lands, the individualisation of the titles to them, and the allocation to each of a sufficient area for his support, combined with a benevolent guidance along one of the variously chosen trails which lead to the presence of the one Master in

the Beyond. But whilst these are the great factors in the making of the Maori of the future they are not the only one which should be taken into consideration in pointing out the way, the goal of which is that useful citizenship which makes the individual, Briton and Maori alike, a valuable asset of the State. For at present the Maori people who own, through representatives of their race, the five millions of unalienated lands left in New Zealand, are practically as waste as their derelict lands, though the potential value of both lands and people is of the highest. Neither at present sufficiently contribute to that improvement of man and his environment which should be the guiding star of all, in what may be made a happy progress, but has been called a pilgrimage and a martyrdom, towards the curtain which all must pass, but none can know its other side. Efforts have been made, from time to time, to secure the immigration of people of alien race, in the interests of settlement, who are not of a higher order of natural intelligence than the 40,000 native people we have in our midst, and to whom we owe so much. And yet our efforts to make these thousands useful citizens of the colony are entirely inadequate to that end. By advocates of justice to the Maori much is said of the obligation we are under by the Treaty of Waitangi to conserve the lands of the native to him, but all efforts seem to presuppose that the destiny of the Maori is for him to be a more or less extensive gardener, whilst his race marches towards a near disappearance, with representation only in the blood of those allied to certain of the European people. But late counts of the native people testify that in certain districts the dangerous line separating barbarous from civilised habits has been passed, and the people of those native districts are increasing. What has been done in one district may be done in all. And where increase in population has taken place, communal habits have to a certain extent disappeared, and it may be that their entire disappearance would be a misfortune, for hospitality and the truest charity are at the base of them. Given opportunity the Maori becomes a professional man, a tradesman, a day labourer, or a farmer. To extend these opportunities L the duty of all, and the Record will advocate every means to that end. For we have not shuffled off the “White Man’s Burden. When a people of a higher race seeks to impose unon a barbarous or semi-barbarous nation the civilisation itself enjoys, it is hound to supply a state of happiness at least equally great with the normal happiness it supplants. And the natives have not yet begun to enjoy the new happiness,

whilst their old happiness has become impossible in the social conditions brought by the people of the Sovereign to whom they have given the mana of their islands. The wort “ambition” has been used. Is there any position, in colony or empire to which in the future the Maoris may not aspire, if their tottering footsteps are properly strengthened through the corridors of time towards the perfection of civilisation their white fellow-subjects enjoy Let us answer the question by an approximate example. After centuries of rule and misrule of the Mexican people by Spaniards and halfcastes, a state of anarchy was reached subsequent to the barbarous murder of the quasi-Emperor Maximilian. The revolution which had resulted in the establishment of a Republic, not the least successful of those of the world, and of a state of prosperity never before equalled in Mexico, was initiated and consummated by two pure American Indians. Of course, no one wishes a repetition of such an apotheosis of the native in New Zealand, because the operation could be only possible by the decay of the European. But if such a high standard of intelligence can be reached by an Indian who is of Mongoloid stock, surely it may lie in the womb of the future for the Maori, who is a long-separated brother of our own Caucasian race. Man is the result of his environment; for countless ages the Maori had but savage neighbours in savage lands. It remains for the improved conditions to make the improved man, if his course is guided through the shoals of temptation to err, which are tne obstacles attending those conditions and have to be surmounted. But in all guidance we must give him that self-reliance and self-respect which were always his till we intervened. In acquiring technical skill in artisanship and trades the European has an admirable system of apprenticeship, which has not proved, nor is likely to prove, a field of education for the Maori. Some other system of technical education must be supplied. As a people the Maoris are intensely imitative. One half-caste went from the Wellington Province to the Chatham Islands to assume possession of a farm he had inherited. He found his farm, in common with those of his neighbours, in a most disreputable state. Fences absent or decayed, stock deteriorated, buildings and yards tumbling down. He renovated all, stock, fences, and ap°puitenances on his own farm, reaped increased profit, and his Maori neighbours quickly imitated him to their own advantage. They are very receptive to education in manual skill in artisanship. One Wairarapa native learned to compose typo and undertake the various manipulations

which result in the production of printed matter, in the Government Printing Office. He returned home and taught his companions, and a plant being procured, the Puke-ki-Hikurangi is produced entirely by Maori labour, edited by a Maori editor, and the whole operations are free from European superintendence. A well-known Maori doctor gave lectures on the Maori Race during the vacations in Chicago, in order that he might supplement his income with money to pay his fees to the University. Nikorina Taiaroa. a Patea native, went to Waikouaiti, in the South Island, and for years held his own in competition with European ■watchmakers. Two natives of the tribe considered by Europeans the most ruthless and bloodthirstyviz., the Ngatiruanui —went as missionaries of the Christian religion to Taupo, and suffered martyrdom at the hands of infidel natives. To speak of their skill and bravery as soldiers is to utter but a truism. Maoris have passed all examinations and are eligible for the Bar. Is this material such as a thrifty nation, hungering for settlers, can afford to let lie derelict? It may be said that these are happy exceptions. It remains for us to establish such conditions as will make them the rule. When a little over a century ago Captain Cook landed, he found a neolithic people with neolithic minds. No material advance can be effected whilst the mind lags in obscurity. Much has been done in the way of education, but more remains to be done in the way of providing technical education and schools of actual manual work, where skill in artisanship is practically taught. All such things will be advocated in the Maori Record. This will not be a party paper, but .all legislation as to land and social affairs will receive earnest attention in the interests of the Maori race, striving at the same time to make these interests identical with the Europeans’. But because our paper is of no party, it must not be supposed that it has no political sense of right in regard to the administration of native lands, and the only way to escape its censure is to do right, as that also is the only method of earning its approval, which will at no time be wanting in warmth when the object deserves such. We ask for the support of the public. There are some working with us without money and without price, and we hope to make two ends meet whilst striving for the education and advancement of the Maori race. And we also hope to provide a medium in which the Maori can impart to his European friends his causes for sorrow and joy.