![Thumbnail: [No. 43 (June 1963) page 5]](/journals/teaohou/images/Mao43TeA/Mao43TeA005(t150).jpg)
Mr C. M. Bennett
Returns to N.Z.
Mr Charles Moihi Bennett, until recently High Commissioner to Malaya, has returned to the Maori Affairs Department as Assistant Secretary, with special responsibilities on problems of Maori education, crime, housing, employment and health.
Speaking at a reception by the Ngati Poneke Association to Mr and Mrs Bennett, the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Hanan, said that Mr Bennett had done a ‘tremendous job in Malaya’.
‘But an even bigger task awaits you — the biggest of your life’, said Mr Hanan.
Mr Bennett would be responsible for advising and assisting in implementing all Government Maori Welfare Policy.
‘It is a task that you are uniquely fitted to tackle. Truly the Maori people need you, for you can lead by inspiration and example,’ said Mr Hanan.
‘I am conscious of the great advantage of having a Maori in the top ranks of the Maori Affairs Department. You are only the second Maori to have progressed so far in the department. Throughout your career you have shown that Maoris can fill high office with distinction if they have the necessary education and training,’ Mr Hanan told Mr Bennett.
Many Tributes
Many other eloquent tributes were paid to Mr Bennett. Speakers referred to his distinguished career during wartime—when he commanded the Maori Battalion—and in peace—when he was one of the first Maoris to gain a university degree; the first to study at Oxford University; and the first to represent his country as head of an overseas mission. ‘All throughout your life you have been a path-finder’, said the president of the Ngati Poneke Association, Mr F. Katene. ‘You have served your country well … The Maori people are mightily proud of you.’
Mr C. M. Bennett, with a most distinguished career behind him as a soldier and diplomat, has come back to New Zealand to become Assistant Secretary in the Maori Affairs Department.
Mr Walter Nash, the former Leader of the Opposition, said that Mr Bennett did much to give New Zealand an increased status in South-east Asia.
‘No white man could have done anything comparable to what he did in Malaya—and that is no reflection on white men,’ he said.
In reply, Mr Bennett said that Maoris should pursue integration without any fear that their culture would suffer.
‘Our objective is integration. That is an ideal most of us would subscribe to’, Mr Bennett said. ‘That ideal doesn't necessarily mean physical or cultural integration. But it does mean educational, occupational and social integration’.
The Maori people should not be afraid that their culture—their Maoritanga—would become a casualty of integration.
‘These things survive regardless of how we pursue the Western civilization and way of life’, Mr Bennett said.
‘Perhaps we have been placing too much emphasis on a danger that does not exist. I
feel myself that Maoritanga will be embellished by the pursuit of Western civilization.’
Mr Bennett said that the concept of appointing a Maori as head of one of New Zealand's overseas missions four years ago was a new development in our international politics and was viewed with interest by a number of countries—particularly in Africa and Asia, where it was assessed as being symbolic of New Zealand's racial policy.
As a result, the image of New Zealand as a tolerant, enlightened country had been enhanced.
During his appointment in Malaya, Mr Bennett said he had been struck by the number of words in the Malayan language which were identical or similar to Maori words. This had afforded personal proof of the accepted theory that native races from as far north as the Philippines and Malaya, and right down to the South Pacific, were all part of the same language group and shared a common origin.
This was probably one of the reasons why he and his wife had not felt strangers in Malaya; nor had they been treated as strangers.
By undertaking schemes under the Colombo Plan to help raise the living standard of Malaya (now second to Japan among South-east Asian countries), New Zealand was strengthening one of Asia's last strategic outposts resisting the spread of Communism, said Mr Bennett.
For a democracy to exist, he added, a country must have a reasonable standard of living and literacy; an efficient civil service; and secure and able political leadership. At least one of these attributes was missing in any country which had been taken over by a dictatorship or Communism.
‘Every penny we have put into Malaya has been money well spent’, he said. ‘By helping Malaya we are really helping ourselves.’
