The Southern Maori

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 7, 28 August 1931, Page 12

The Southern Maori

PATHETIC minor key was struck by Te Arima Pitama in another of his welcome talks from 3YA. He referred to the sadly depleted Maori population in the South Island-some two thousand only are left there. Why is this? At one time the Southern Maori was virile and plentiful, In fact, a famous Northern chief had on one occasion to make a special expedition just to prove that they were not altogether impregnable. Have the Maoris, with the rest of humanity, gone soft? Do they seek the warmer easier life of the northern tribes? Somehow, although Te Ari Pitama’s diction was as good as ever, and although his English was equally as polished as heretofore, yet this talk lacked something which is usually to be found when Te Ari appears before the microphone. It is very difficult to say just what was missing. Had I been

alone in my feeling I should have put it down to something i in. me which made me less responsive. However, I was not alone, so I think, perhaps, s ae i spark of vitality was missing from /t speaker. Not that the lecture was un-interesting-far from it! I am afraid, however, that one regards Te Ari Pitama as one of the comparatively few islands of interest in a sea of dullness, and it. is disturbing to a nightly traveller to see any encroachment on such well-known harbours. *