Maori Knight

A century ago, race relations in New Zealand were no better than in many other parts of the world. The white man had arrived, made war on the native Maoris, a people of Polynesian race, killed many and driven the survivors off the good pasture lands. In 1856 Dr. Isaac E. Featherston, a member of Parliament, wrote: "The Maoris are dying out. Our plain duty, as good, compassionate colonists, is to smooth down their dying pillow. Then history will have nothing to reproach us with."

The smoothed-down pillow was tuberculosis, typhoid, and other diseases brought to New Zealand by the white man. In the next 25 years, disease reduced the Maoris almost to extinction. In 1881 Dr. Alfred K. Newman, another member of Parliament, wrote: "Taking all things into consideration, the disappearance of the race is scarcely a subject for regret. They are dying out in a quick, easy way, and are being supplanted by a superior race."

"The Price of Citizenship." But the Maoris did not die out. Today they are a healthy, thriving people. They are among the leaders of many professions. Racial discrimination in New Zealand is un known, and intermarriage of whites and Maoris is common. Through World War II the Maori Battalion fought in Montgomery's Eighth Army, paying heavily in casualties for what they called proudly "the price of citizenship." Recently, when color-conscious South Africa refused to accept Maoris in a team of touring New Zealand footballers, white New Zealanders were bitterly affronted.

This profound change of white attitude toward the Maoris and their own reinvigoration are due in a large measure to one man--a Maori. Apirana Turupa Ngata was born in a native village, went to a native school, later took degrees at the University of New Zealand. One of the first Maori lawyers, at the turn of the century he was demanding improved housing, sanitation and medicine for the Maoris.' He carried his fight into the New Zealand House of Representatives, to which he was elected in 1905.

He touched the white man's conscience, and became Minister of Native Affairs in one government after another. He taught Maoris how to farm their lands economically. It was an uphill fight. Even in 1938 Maori child mortality was four times that of the whites. But the white man had begun to understand and respect the Maoris.

His Contribution. Honors were showered on Ngata. He was knighted in 1927. He became a member of the New Zealand University Senate, and many other learned bodies. He was Acting Attorney General, and for a brief time, Acting Prime Minister of a 95% white Parliament.

Last week, at 76, much-loved Apirana Ngata died. In his last days he had had the satisfaction of knowing that the Maori birth rate had risen to a level above that of New Zealand whites. Sir Apirana had contributed, fathering ten children.

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