The economic life of the present-day Māori.

Abstract

Summary: In order to gather material and to fit himself generally for the writing of this thesis, the writer, in company with a companion, devoted a portion of the Summer Vacation to an extended tour of the Māori field. Time did not permit of a visit to the North Auckland Peninsula, but with this exception, a complete circuit of the North Island was made. Visits to different parts of the South Island field had been made at an earlier date and had brought forth valuable experience in methods of approach and in the kind of enquiries that should be pursued. Letters of introduction were secured from Officials of the Native Department in Wellington, and from other Māori leaders, to prominent local personalities at different points in the journey. Under the sponsoring of such local leaders, avenues of enquiry were opened up that would otherwise have been closed. Care was taken, however, not to see only those things to which the leaders directed our attention. We travelled by car and carried camping equipment, so that it was possible to pause where inclination prompted. Many nooks and corners were thereby investigated. Living conditions, attempts at farming, the lately-instituted Land-development Schemes, and the Māori at work and at play, were all seen at first hand. Such observations were supplemented by interviews and casual conversations with scores of people, both Māori and European, in all walks of life:- Officials of Māori Land Boards, County Clerks, School Teachers, Medical men, Clergymen, Lawyers, Policemen, Storekeepers, Hotel Proprietors, Picture Theatre Managers of Dairy Factories, Farmers of all grades, labourers, tramps and many other such. From the wealth of material gathered, selection and elimination, for the purpose of keeping the thesis within reasonable bounds, have been difficult processes. The principle adopted has been to include such material as was calculated to give the most representative presentation of the whole Māori field.

The tour has been valuable more in the way it has brought an appreciation of general trends than in the provision of exact information. Exact quantitative material has been gleaned largely from other sources - mostly from official publications and from direct correspondence with Government Departments. The contribution of the tour lies in the way it has illuminated all subsequent reading on the subject and in the way it has provided both general conclusions for enunciation and concrete examples with which to back them up.