Te Toa Takitini 28 (sic)
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Te Toa Takitini
Number 28
Hastings
Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper.
(Maori Version at PapersPast.)
December 1, 1923.
THE OLD CLOAK WOVEN OF KIEKIE.
You folk who are in debt to Te Toa Takitini, please send a token of affection to your child. He is very diligent about wandering to all your marae. Whether it is raining or stormy, the child doesn’t care, because he loves his superiors so much. This child has whispered to me. These are his words: ‘Sir, the clothes my superiors gave me are too old. I’m not warm. The rain is soaking me to the skin because my cloak of kiekie is in tatters.’
You superiors, do respond with compassion to this child’s lament. Send something to keep him warm and so that he is not embarrassed by the very old cloak draped over him.
Christmas and New Year is a good time to clothe you child with some beautiful clothes. Greetings to you all. - The Editor.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
To all or you who support
Te Toa Takitini.
Published by Rev F A Bennett, and printed by Cliff Press, Queen Street, Hastings, HB.
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Te Toa Takitini
Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper.
The price of the Paper is 6/6 a year.
Send letters to ‘Te Toa Takitini,’ Box 300, Hastings.
December 1, 1923
THE HEALING MISSION.
The blessing of God continues upon the Healing Mission being led by Mr Hickson. The seeds of God’s healing are being sown and are growing in the bodies and souls of those who come to the Missions. Mr Hickson pointed out that some are healed suddenly but for most healing is a gentle process. Some must wait for three of four months before they experience God’s blessing. The sick person knows his illness which reflects the state of his soul. If he immediately gives his soul to God then God’s blessings will come quickly upon his body.
If the seed is watered it will grow well. The seed of God which has been sown must be watered with Repentance, Faith and Prayer.
The sick must remember also that they have received physical or spiritual blessings so that they might work for God. Do not leave God’s blessing lazing about. Work to bring honour and glory to God.
Give a good answer to the question: Why did you want to be healed? It was not so that you might wander off on wrong paths, but ‘so that you might do God’s work.’
Mission at Rotorua.
The Rotorua Mission has been arranged for 18th and 19th December. This is Mr Hickson’s last Mission here in New Zealand. But the Healing Mission will continue in New Zealand. The coming of Mr Hickson has revived this power that has lain asleep in the Church. The power has not come from Mr Hickson. The power comes from God. The custodian of that power is the Church of Christ. Therefore the people who have not been able to get to Mr Hickson’s Mission should not be sad. When the meeting between the Bishop and the ministers concludes on 11th December, people will hear how the Parishes will hold healing services. The Rotorua Mission is being held at the Maori Church at Ohinemutu. Six hundred sick people have got
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their tickets of whom two hundred are Maori. Although no more tickets are being issued, requests for tickets are still being received from Maori.
Mr Hickson has been asked to three days. You will be able to see in the Pakeha papers whether or not he agrees.
May great blessings be upon Mr Hickson’s final Mission. We who have been observing know that it is a wonderful work, a work of God.
Some Healings.
Many sick Maori have been healed from their illnesses. Besides, we have heard of blessings among the Pakeha.
There were miracles in Hastings.
(1) A woman there had suffered from an issue of blood. She had been confined to bed for four months, being treated by the doctor. The serious nature of her affliction meant that she could not be taken to the Cathedral. Mr Hickson visited her in her home. After Mr Hickson prayed, her illness disappeared. She is now up and about and is very well.
(2) There was an elderly lady paralysed along the whole of her left side from her hands to her feet. She was brought in a wheelchair to the Cathedral. At the end of the service she stood up. Now she is walking on her own two feet for a mile or two miles a day.
(3) A man had been operated on by the doctor last February. The operation had not brought about a repair. At the Mission he was healed.
(4) A man from Taupo came to the Mission. He was suffering from deafness. After the Mission he came to me to show me that he was now hearing. At last he could hear the noise of the car and my voice too.
(5) There was a girl from Ngati Porou who had been ill for a long time – almost two years. She was lying in the hospital in Gisborne. She perhaps had tuberculosis of the bone in her leg, and, by and by that leg became shorter than the other. She went to the Mission in Gisborne on crutches. When she came out she was walking without crutches. She is well and attending services.
(6) There was a boy who had a problem with one of his legs – the bone was being eaten away. The leg was very stiff and he could not walk like other people; his leg stayed stiff as he walked. At the Mission in Gisborne he said that when Mr Hickson and the Archdeacon laid their hands on him he felt something cold descending from his head into his body. When he came out to go home, people saw that he was walking properly,
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his leg was the same as the other. He is still well.
(7) A Ringatu woman from Ngati Porou has been ill for twenty years. When she returned from the Mission her sickness had gone and she remains well.
(8) There was a Tai-rawhiti man who was to travel to the Mission by land, but because of the heavy rain and storms he could not come by land. So he travelled by boat and was very sea-sick. He prayed. He arrived in Gisborne well and returned well. He was able to eat on board the boat. His physical illness had been healed as well as his sea-sickness.
It is not possible to tell of all the sick who have been healed.
If anyone want to tell how they are, please get in touch with our paper.
The Missions the Month.
Dunedin, December 4, 5 and 6.
Timaru, December 11 and 12.
Rotorua, December 18 and 19.
‘Pray for one another.’
MAORI LANDS MISTAKENLY INCLUDED IN GOVERNMENT PURCHASES AND OTHER BUSINESS.
H Poananga LLB
Much land was mistakenly included in Government purchases in the past – in the time when the elders were alive and the land undisturbed. Much Maori land was taken wrongly in other business in which the local people had no part.
In these days our thoughts go back and we look for ways in which we may save and set right those places that need attention. In mind and in actuality we have walked a long way – the paths are difficult to see and are gloomy from the growth of the matagouri scrub. Some reached the peak they aspired to, some lie down and lament, while others are still scrambling through the undergrowth of the matagouri.
The Government has addressed the problems of Maori lands that have been identified as such. So they have addressed Ngai Tahu’s claim in Te Waipounamu, and also those of the owners of Aorangi, Patutahi, Puketitiri and other lands. These have reached the peak they hoped for. Although these lands have been hypothetically restored, [e ngaringari – he kore te kore rawa]. There are other lands that have suffered in similar ways that are being dealt with now.
These difficulties are the result of the mistakes of the Government and its executive officers, and the medicine is in the hands of the Government (if it wishes to do anything). There are other problems relating to Maori lands which were dealt with
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without the Government approaching the local people. Where is the medicine for this kind of sickness? Where is the peak that in our minds we wish to reach and so be raised out of our sorrows?
Some of us recall the time when they fought their case in the Supreme Court which declared that they had no right to their lands because the Pakeha had been living there mistakenly for more than twenty years. And during those twenty years the Pakeha had not paid rent or been asked to pay rent. Nor had they been troubled because they were wrongly living there. This law was made in England and is known as ‘The Statute of Limitations.’ This law applies to New Zealand lands – Maori and Pakeha. The provisions of this law have not been done away with by the Maori Land Laws from 1894 to the present day, nor have they been over-ruled by any other New Zealand Laws from the New Zealand Land Settlement Act, 1861, up until the present. On the basis of the law passed in England called ‘Nullum Tempus’, it is thought that that twenty years of wrongful possession does not apply to the Crown. This is why it was laid down in the case of Hohepa Wi Neera and the Bishop of Wellington that that twenty year Law does not apply to papatipu land [Maori land not having a European title], because the Crown had authority over such lands before the advent of Crown Grants. In cases fought in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal up until 1920 much land was granted or was bestowed by the Maori Land Court on the people who they found to have lived irregularly on it for twenty years.
In these days there is much land that have been awarded in crown grants and that is occupied by Pakeha. Some of that land has been purchased, some not. Some of the people who owned that land have sold it, some have not. The people who did not sell have died, while their descendants and close family are still alive. Some of the descendants and close family knew that their parents had not sold, but perhaps the majority did not know. It is right that the descendants should seek to set this right quickly. Some clearly see that ‘the night is far spent,’ the Pakeha have lived on the land for a long time and they assert, ‘Sir, you have no right to the land. We have lived on this land for twenty years without any objections being made.’ Under the Law the local people have no power and the land is instead taken by people who have no right to it.
This is a widespread issue that affects the Maori People and the Dominion – an issue that it is right to take in hand now, an issue that needs addressing so that the roots of this Law are not left to spread out over the remaining lands. It requires us to look forward to days to come. There are two Maori, an elder and a younger brother. One was sent by his parents to Pakeha occupations, the other stayed on the land. The parents died and the land was bequeathed to the two of them.
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For more than twenty years one had lived with the Pakeha while the other lived on the land. According to Maori thinking the one on the land was not asked to pay rent and was not troubled in any way. I shall not say that the one on the land thought differently. But the question is this, does the Law apply to such a case as this? If not, why not? And if it applies to the Pakeha in irregular occupation, why doesn’t it apply in situations like this? The second question is, what do the people want to do about this law, support it or abolish it? If it is to be abolished, how is this to be achieved?
It is possible for Pakeha lands and Maori lands which they have registered as Pakeha to be confiscated or sold when there is a bankruptcy or under provisions to discharge the debts of people who own the land or those of the deceased who owned the land. These laws have been gathered together in the Pakeha laws of New Zealand, laws formulated in England. The provisions of these laws have been replaced by the Maori Lands Act 1909 and its amendments and cannot be applied to Maori lands. If those laws have been over-ruled is it not possible to over-rule the twenty year Law regarding irregular occupation by adding a clause to the Maori Land Act for this purpose?
In 1920 a case was fought in the Court of Appeal about this Law relating to land at Te Wairoa, Hawkes Bay. The decision of the four judges said that the people whose land is was had no rights over it under the provisions of that Law. These were the concluding words of Mr Stout – words which give support to the ideas being put forward here. ‘I am very sad that I was not able to declare that the provisions of the Law (Statute of Limitations) do not apply to this land. I am sad because I realise that this matter affects everyone and is an issue also for the Maori People and for the Dominion, and an issue that needs dealing with so that the provisions of this Statute do not apply to lands in this situation.’
Had there been a law preventing the application of the law relating to irregular occupation, then the decision would have been different.
The time of year has come when people exchange greetings for Christmas and the New Year, when hearts are happy and joy is plentiful. We reach a peak when we eagerly look forward to all that lies before us, and we also look back over the paths we have trodden, at the digressions we have made, and recall the pain of losing family who have taken the broad path. People, greetings. Although there is much joy now, relish the above words lest they are left lying there to be lost in the dust of forgetfulness or in the house of the spider.
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1. THE LAW, ITS MAKING AND IMPLEMENTATION.
A T Ngata, MA, MP.
(Parts A, B and C appeared in the November Edition.)
D. What Gives the Law Authority?
D. The authority of the Law.
I have said above that it is the Supreme Court that explains the law. There aree other lower courts, the Magistrates Court, the Police Court, the Maori Land Court, each of which deals with the part of the law appropriate to it.
Now these courts apply the penalties of the law regarding people, property and land. It is their strong hand that makes law effective. It is the fear of punishment that restrains the mischievous, the thief, the murderer. It is right that the law provides a guide and lays down the limits of what a person may do in this world. But at those boundaries stand the guardians of the law, the police, the inspectors, the people as a whole, you and I. Law without punishments is like a bee without a sting.
The law says, you shall not kill anyone. If you kill a person you will be hanged, The law says, you must pay your debts. If you do not your possessions will be seized in payment, or you will be put in prison, to make you think hard about ways in which you can pay your debts. Again the law says, mortgage money has the land as its security – it is the land that will meet the debt. If the owner of the land does not repay the mortgage then the land will be taken.
This is a day when momentous things are facing the world, a time of new beginnings, and there is fear and judgement. The Lord, the God of Israel says, ‘I the Lord, your God am jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. [Exodus 20.5-6].’ The law of people is patterned on the law of God.
3. Petitions to Parliament.
Although it is small branch of the work of Parliament, in Maori thinking the work of Parliament ends with listening to, dealing with, and implementing their petitions. It is characteristic of the person grieving over his problem that he thinks that the only part of the work of the expert is to deal with problems like his.
This thing, a petition, is a prayer, a request to the Members of Parliament to look into his problem – a prayer to treat and heal his sickness. Now the purpose
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of this thing, the petition, is, if there is no solution given in a law, or by way of an appeal, or by an enquiry, or by a second trial, then Parliament will set about finding a way of dealing with it. If a department produces a report which shows that the petitioner has not used all the available alternative ways of dealing with the issue, then it will be rejected.
What I want to explain here are the many steps this thing, a Maori petition, has to take as it advances the cause that is distressing it. This is my third effort to inform the tribes of my area; there have been two explanations in notices during the elections. Now I write again here in our paper to explain to everyone who reads our paper.
First, it must lay out clearly the contents of the petition, giving an account of the beginning of the matter, its progress in the Courts, the part that causes distress, and where the Courts’ decisions were wrong. The request should be laid out clearly, the Parliamentary Committee to which it is being addressed should be stated, along with the objective of the petitioner. Some petitions are like this letter, they have a beginning but in the middle they wander about so that it is up to the Committee to look backwards and forwards. Because it has so much work pressing on it, the Committee has no spare time and this kind of petition is put to one side for another time.
The proper thing is for the petitioners to spend some money on employing a competent person to present the matter. He will not want this job lest he be identified by those who oppose the petition and be seen as the one promoting the petition. Leave the ending to him when it comes before Parliament. He will not be able to beat about the bush there in what he does in their presence.
Secondly, when the petition has been signed send it by mail to the Member representing your electorate. Now the cost of a stamp to send it to Wellington has been reduced to one penny. There is no reason why a person should take in the petition personally; it would use up a lot of the people’s money for the promoters to take in the petition. We have seen many people in Wellington bringing in petitions. There may be nothing for him or the Member to do for many weeks after the arrival of the petition. Rather, those promoters are quick to ‘pull on those wire ropes [the telephone],’ asking for shillings so that his people can stay in Wellington.
Also the procedure is that when the Member receives the petition he brings it to the House. This is not when the petition is dealt with. He stands up when the House is assembled and says to the Speaker: ‘This is the petition of so-and-so and others. I ask permission to present it to the House, and that it be sent to the Maori Affairs Committee.’ Such is its entry to the House. It goes from there to the Clerk of the House, from him to the Clerk of the Maori Affairs Committee, from him to the Head of the Department of Maori Affairs, from him to his Clerk,
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and from there to the Registrar of the Court in the area the petition came from. That is, it comes home.
Now the Registrar sets about examining the petition and writing his report to the Head of the Maori Affairs Department explaining how that matter has been dealt with in the Courts. He may also express his opinion as to whether the petitioners’ request is justified. With luck the petition may not be rejected on the basis of that report. Now it may not be necessary for anyone to appear before the Committee. It will fall to the Member, if he is someone who is careful about what goes on in his constituency, to speak to the petitioners and to ask them to come to the hearing of their petition. Then there will be a purpose for their coming and for spending money.
Thirdly, send your petition to the Member for your electorate even though he may be opposed to you and you did not vote for him. The Members have a rule that they are not to trespass on another’s territory. Should the petition arrive on the desk of a Member who is not the Member for the electorate of the petitioner he will pass it on to that Member to deal with. But the Member is only human and may be curious enough to look into why that petition was sent to him. You as petitioner should not disadvantage yourself; wait until the Member becomes listless, and then you may benefit from having by-passed him.
Fourthly, give some thought to your adversary in this dispute. As you petition is being processed, he will be adorning himself for your fight. The practice of the Committee in disputed matters is to ask both sides to appear before them and to argue face to face, so that they can make a good decision. What is to be done when one party is absent is not clear, but if the Committee is sure that notice has been sent to that side and he has not made an effort to come. Then the Committee will proceed.
Fifthly, at the time your matter comes before the Committee, make every effort to put forward the strong reasons in support of your petition. Don’t preach to the Committee using ancestral sayings or the kinds of learning appropriate for the Courts. You must be aware that the one thing the Committee has to decide is, on the basis of this statement, is there a case to answer or not? The thing the Committee will be particularly looking into is this: Will the Court be able to make a decision on the matters raised in the petition or not? Have the petitioners been deceived by people intent on trouble, or not? Have some people properly been excluded from holding titles to the land, or not? Is there a good reason why there are few shares allocated to one member of family, or not? Have some successors of a deceased person been rightfully excluded or not? Or have those allocating the shares meddled with this?
But in the case of petitions like those concerning Patutahi, Aorangi, and confiscated lands, the member has the most say and authority in the business. He must find the appropriate time
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for arranging a march, for urging on a hundred people to act as an escort when the matter is presented to the Government, and for launching the matter on a propitious wave. I am not able in this article to indicate how such matters are to be proceeded with. This work is like sailing a canoe in that it is in the mind of the man who takes up the paddle, the one who knows in his heart what is appropriate at different times.
Sixthly, Don’t waste a lot of money on this thing, the petition. People should not mistakenly think that the petitioners have to pay the Members for dealing with their petitions. The Member is paid his annual salary. Be careful also of those who are advancing your petition and who try to plant in you the seeds of hope that by means of the petition ancient wrongs will be righted. They are always in the business of feathering their own nests. [Ko te wahi tonu ma ratau ta ratau e whakrawe ai.] It is good that the people set down the nature of their grievance and send it to the Member for his consideration, and he will say if it warrants a petition and will clarify the procedures.
It is right that you give serious consideration to these words of guidance. They are what I have discovered during eighteen years in Parliament and which I have passed on severally to parties arriving in Wellington.
4. Local Bodies.
It is not the case that it is only the Government that sees to the laws and the work of the Dominion. No, there are many others. Under the main Government there are many small governments. Their authority, their status, the strength of their rules, their means of raising money to undertake various works are all based on the laws made by Parliament. That is the source of the powers of those local bodies.
The cities have their councils, known as City Councils. They act as the separate authority in those towns. It is for them to run everything within the boundaries laid down by law. The Government has no power to make recommendations or to criticize what they do. Sometimes the Government is fearful of the cities like Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. They are apprehensive because of the large number of people in those towns and their ability to elect Members of Parliament. However the Government can intervene if a Council is oppressing the people. Parliament may change the law and put limits on some branch of the powers of the Council so that it conforms to the wishes of those who live in that city.
The rivers, the wharves, and the mouths of the large rivers in these islands come under some Boards called
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Harbour Boards. Therefore a person is mistaken if he believes that the wharves at Auckland or Wellington, for example, are administered by the Government. No, they are administered by those Boards. Parliament gave them power to build wharves, to dredge the sea, to reclaim seashores, to erect large buildings, to house outgoing goods and to receive goods coming from abroad. The money required for these works, many millions of pounds, is borrowed by the Board. The security for this money is the property of the Board and the money it raises in rates each year. But I think it would be better if the Government retained the power to undertake these major works. However the Pakeha have observed in the lands from which they came that it is better to have a body separate from the Government to manage this part of its works programme.
It is the County Councils that manage the roads as we know, a thing that closely affects us Maori. These bodies also have much power as do the Town Councils.
The foundation of all these bodies is the same – it is the people as a whole who vote for the members of these bodies. It can be said that it is the people who manage their affairs through their spokesmen elected to those bodies. This foundation is one that occasions some debates in Parliament. The qualification for voting for the Town Councils is the same as that for voting for Members of Parliament, that is, everyone over the age of twenty-one may vote, whether they own land or not. The reason this is so is that most of the work of the Town Councils relates to all the people living in the town whether it be working on the streets, or doing the rubbish collections, or providing clean water for everyone, or providing lights, trams, hospitals and other things which affect everyone.
Now in County Council areas it is only rate-payers who have the right to vote for the members of the Council, and the number of votes a single person has is based on the amount of rates he pays. Many members of Parliament are pressing for the right to vote in County Council elections to be extended to include everyone living in the area over the age of twenty-one. It is true that it is only the land rates that provide money for the Council. But the roads made, the bridges, are used by everyone. Most of the people living in the area give value to the land and improve the character of the farms. These are the arguments of one side in Parliament. And, I believe that soon they will get what they want, and it will be shown that it is people who are important and a person’s wealth is insignificant.
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5. The Ways in which the Government raises Money.
For the major works of the Dominion such as building roads and bridges, providing electricity, erecting buildings and other things the Government looks abroad for money in the form of mortgages, secured against the goods and the taxes of these islands. It is also said that this is money which makes for improvements, just like money spent on fencing, clearing bush, cutting hay, or ploughing land. If it is carefully managed then this money is not lost; there remains the original land and its improvements. Likewise the money borrowed by the Government and used to enhance the produce of these islands, to erect buildings and other things, is not wasted. Rather it is incorporated in those things which increase the ability of the people to settle more of the land and to grow the Dominion’s produce.
But the money that disappears is the annual wages of the workers in the many Government Departments. This is like the money used by shearers, by the men repairing fences, or used to pay rates of for food. But one cannot say that such money is wasted. It is also productive and it contributes to the annual production of the farm. If fences are well kept then the animals inside are protected; of the sheep are shorn the wool raises money; when the fruits of the land are gathered in we have a harvest.
Therefore you have to pay for your requests to have lands divided and for decisions about a deceased person’s shares; you have to pay for the stamp to carry your letter or for your telegram. When you smoke your tobacco you don’t recall that the Government has added a tax to the price. When a pound of tea, or a bottle of whisky, or a car, or perhaps woollen clothes arrive in the islands, the people who ordered them from overseas have to pay a tax to the Government. That tax is called Customs Duty. One cannot just bring these things ashore. There will be a river where it has been arranged that these things will be unloaded and there will be the Government officers on the lookout. They will inspect the papers from abroad which will state the value of the items. Then they will add the tax on those items to their value. When you have paid the duty then the items may be removed from the warehouses on the wharf. This is one of the main sources of Government money reaching £3,000,000 (three million) a year.
In the search for taxes, it is the case that the foods most popular with people come from abroad, and while the tax on them is small it covers an extensive list of things and raises a large amount. Take the case of alcohol, one cannot imagine the high cost that the thirsty thousands are willing to pay for that drink. It is the same with tobacco and also with tea.
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Now. as I said above, more than six million pounds is spent each year on the railways, but that amount is covered by what the railways earn, and there is some profit remaining to pay part of the interest on the money borrowed to build the railways. Similarly, the post office and the telegraph cost more than two million pounds a year. However the amount earned by that department covers all its outgoings with some left over.
The Stamp Department is one that makes most money for the Government, notwithstanding the stamps and the post offices. If you are paid some money and the amount exceeds two pounds, the law says that you must stick to the receipt a twopenny stamp. Think how many such receipts are written every day of the year. Contracts, mortgage agreements, sales documents, leases or land conveyances – documents that are completed in fulfilment of many legal requirements, the haw says are not valid until registered at the Registry Office and when they are registered the Government takes some tax. This thing, tax, also applies to the things that are important for a person’s well-being, to the foods by which they live, while they are alive to consent. And it is right that the Government should take a proportion of the wealth of the living and also of the deceased. [Engari kainga ana e ia, i runga hoki i ana rawa.] But why should a person be pursued to his grave? It is obvious that it only the deceased who has gone, leaving his wealth in this world. Now, thoughtful people perceive that it is other people who are fortunate enough to inherit the wealth of the one who has died. He worked for it and accumulated it and now it is in the possession of people who did not work for it, whereas he it was who gathered that wealth. It was thought that the people as a whole have an interest in the wealth of the deceased, and the embodiment of the people is the Government. Now, the law says that that wealth cannot pass down to the children or the family before they pay the Government’s share of the wealth of the deceased.
Further to these ways in which the Government raises money there is this thing we call taxation – land tax, and the tax on money earned each year which we call income tax. The main object of the land tax is to encourage the owner to improve the land so that the produce of the land will pay his obligations. One of the objects of the land tax is to deter the land owner from greedily acquiring more land, or to encourage the person with a lot of land to give up part of it for those without land. Now the tax on profits and income-tax applies to wealthy people. If their annual income exceeds £300 then the tax is higher. The law also provides that part of the money is not taxable, the amount required
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to feed the man and his children who have not yet reached the age when they can go and earn money for themselves.
There are other ways in which the Government raises money. There is rent money from leased Crown lands. There is money paid to the Courts. There are fines for disobeying the law. There are surveying fees. There is the sale of publications. But only small amounts are realised in these ways. The largest sources of income are those explained above.
Now, are the ways in which we Maori are disadvantaged by these Government provisions, or do we enjoy the same benefits as our Pakeha friends? There is nothing we can criticize. There is only one way in which these are a burden to the Maori, which puts Maori in a position of weakness, and that is that their lands are tied up with many customs, they are the object of many Maori customs, and it takes a long time to bring land titles under Pakeha law.
I end here my explanations of the management of the Dominion’s money. It is not possible to summarize in this article all the elucidations, there are so many branches of this matter.
THE BOARD OF MAORI ETHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
We have received the report of the business of the first meeting held at Parliament Buildings in Wellington on 30th October.
These are the motions passed:
(1) H R H Balneavis (Te Raumoa) was appointed Secretary of the Board.
(2) That the Minister of Maori Affairs approve the seal of the Board.
(3) That Te Toa Takitini be paid £50 a year for printing the Board’s business in that paper each month.
(4) That the Board helps the Polynesian Society with a donation of £100 this year and £300 next year to enable them to complete the printing of their publications.
(5) That it be left to the Board to print the book written by Te Peehi [Elsdon Best] entitled ‘The Maori.’
(6) That this Board expresses its gratitude to Ngati Porou for their contribution of £250 to support the Board’s work, particularly to cover part of the expense of printing ‘The Maori’ by Te Peehi.
(7) That a Committee be set up to deliberate upon all the expense involved in sending a party to Raiatea and other islands of the Moana-nui-a-Kiwa to collect ancient stories.
(8) That this Board sends condolences to Roa Manunui and all his family in their grief at the death of Te Whatahoro, writer of the stories of the past.
The old stories that have been collected by the Board that has been set up for this purpose will appear in the January edition. The Board will send us the matter to be printed. There is no body like this Board, made up as it is of members who are eminently fitted to assemble such material. These will be the finest expositions of Maori subjects. Below are some of the names of members of the Board:
The Minister of Maori Affairs, Sir Maui Pomare, Apirana Ngata, Doctor Rangihiroa, Archdeacon Herbert Williams, Te Peehi, Te Kina, Judge Jones (Chairman), Te Raumoa (Secretary). Get a copy of the January Te Toa Takitini and you will be able to see articles chosen by the Board which deal with Maori in all the islands in bygone days. The ministers have authority to take your names and subscriptions and send them to us
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