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Themes from the Dictionary of NZ Biography Volume 5, 1941–1960
The Maori War Effort Organisation 1942–1945
The Maori War Effort Organisation was formed during the Second World War to assist with recruitment for the forces and war-related service. Many Maori had volunteered for the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the outbreak of war, but in October 1939 the government agreed to form an all-Maori infantry battalion. Organised on a tribal basis in four companies, the 28th (Maori) Battalion departed overseas on 2 May 1940.
Reinforcements for the Maori Battalion depart from Rotorua in January 1944
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The Maori Battalion was soon to gain a reputation for its fighting spirit, and several of its commanders including Charles Bennett, Arapeta Awatere and James Henare further developed leadership roles in peacetime. Conscription, however, was not enforced on Maori and low enlistment from some districts, especially those affected by confiscations following the New Zealand wars, caused official concern. In addition, identifying Maori eligible for war-related service was difficult because there were no Maori electoral rolls, and registration for social security purposes covered only a quarter of the estimated Maori workforce.
Unable to help, the Native Department referred these issues to the MP for Western Maori, Paraire Paikea, who chaired the Maori parliamentary committee.
Members of the War Administration which was formed in 1942. Paraire Paikea is seated in the centre of the back row
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Assisted by two other Ratana–Labour MPs, Eruera Tirikatene and H.T. Ratana, Paikea drafted a scheme for an organisation to handle Maori recruitment and war-related activities. He won Maori support by stressing the organisation's political potential. On 3 June 1942 the government approved the establishment of the Maori War Effort Organisation.
With all tribes involved, the MWEO provided a unique opportunity to demonstrate Maori capacity for leadership and planning. The country was divided into 21 zones and 315 tribal committees were formed; one or two members from each committee joined one of 41 executive committees. Committee work was voluntary and received no government funding. The Maori parliamentary committee insisted that the MWEO follow Maori custom in the selection of 20 Maori recruiting officers to help coordinate the activities of its committees. In July 1942 Cabinet agreed that this principle of tribal leadership should be extended to territorial units in New Zealand and to the Home Guard.
As recruitment proceeded, the MWEO's work expanded in other directions. The tribal committees had a good knowledge of local conditions and were often required to advise on education, vocational training and better land use. A crucial part of their role was encouraging local food production.
These Maori were employed at a Services vegetable production project near Levin in 1943.
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Committees were given responsibility for registration of Maori— between 18 and 59 years of age and females between 20 and 30—for war-related service. They could enforce registration and recommend the type and locality of employment. The committees handled a range of issues: employer–employee relationships, absenteeism, tracing workers who used aliases to change jobs and other irregularities.
By 1943 in Auckland and Wellington several hundred young Maori women were living in the poorest city areas while working in hotels and restaurants. This problem came to the MWEO's attention and it recommended to government that Maori women welfare officers be appointed to the Native Department.
When the Maori War Effort Organisation was established, the government had estimated that it would have a six-month life at a cost of £7,000. In 1943 Paikea asked that the timeframe be extended. He reasoned that as well as being essential to meet the country's wartime needs, the MWEO had a key role in post-war Maori development. It had given Maori a new confidence: government had allowed the Maori people to organise in their own way, to move into the mainstream of economic and social life, and to assume positions of leadership in the wider community. This last had probably been decisive in overcoming Maori suspicion of government at the start of the war. Other significant factors were government's promises that confiscation claims would be settled at the end of the war (particularly important in securing help from Waikato leader, Te Puea) and that there would be adequate rehabilitation for Maori servicemen.
Although government agreed to extend the MWEO's existence to the end of April 1944, it seemed that official acceptance of the principle of Maori leadership might not continue in peacetime. The Organisation's position was weakened by Paikea's death in April 1943.
Eruera Tirikatene
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Although Prime Minister Peter Fraser accepted responsibility as minister in charge of the Maori war effort, Eruera Tirikatene took on effective leadership of the MWEO. He was committed to fight for its survival but did not have Paikea's political influence. Maori recruits were sufficient for army purposes; the army could not justify keeping its MWEO recruitment officers; and Treasury recommended that official support for the organisation cease from 31 January 1944.
The Native Department agreed. Its initial support had waned as the MWEO's activities steadily encroached on the department's functions. The jurisdiction of each authority was not always clear. Now the issue of post-war rehabilitation threw into relief the differing approaches to Maori welfare and advancement.
Eruera Tirikatene (wearing a traditional feather cloak) walks in front of the Maori Battalion on its return from the Second World War
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The Rehabilitation Department insisted on equality of opportunity and treatment for Maori in housing, land settlement and training. But Maori returned servicemen, able to apply for rehab under the Native Department's auspices or under those of the Rehabilitation Department, found the Native Department wanting. Their aspirations for a new deal in the post-war Maori world joined with those of the Maori War Effort Organisation and the Maori MPs in a political battle over the future of Maori policy and the role of the Native Department.
Minister of Native Affairs Rex Mason, wanting to curb the Maori War Effort Organisation's expansion or entrenchment, in 1944 initiated moves to introduce to the Native Department a system of welfare officers. He also drafted a bill to revive Maori councils, most of which had lapsed or been incorporated into the MWEO. The bill was rejected by the MWEO's representatives and the Maori MPs. They recommended the establishment of a new Department of Maori Welfare (or Administration) that would incorporate Maori from the senior administrative level to grass-roots tribal committees. The aim was to retain a degree of Maori autonomy, and to use government resources more effectively for accelerated Maori development.
The Native Department opposed the plan. The Prime Minister, though sympathetic to Maori aspirations for controlling their affairs, wanted to avoid a rise of Maori nationalism, and preferred a reformed Native Department. Mason was left to finalise the necessary legislation and was influenced by Apirana Ngata (still influential after losing his eastern Maori seat in 1943) who also feared the political potential of the MWEO.
Peter Fraser
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The Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act 1945 left the structure of the Board and Department of Native Affairs intact. The tribal and executive committees were incorporated into the department's structure, but there was no specific provision for Maori leadership.
The act was a compromise that satisfied no one. Maori were generally doubtful about its prospects of successful implementation and Native Department staff viewed it merely as a means of absorbing the MWEO's personnel into their ranks.
Charles Bennett with Rumatiki Wright
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As Minister of Maori Affairs for the last three years of the first Labour government, Fraser pushed for the act's speedy implementation, but progress was slow. Rangi Royal was appointed Chief Welfare Officer and a number of welfare officers took up posts. Kuini Te Tau and Rumatiki Wright were two early appointees. By March 1948, eighty-five per cent of the Maori population was organised in the areas gazetted under the act.
Fraser had high hopes for the new structure. He believed that Maori spirit and energies, demonstrated in the war effort, could be harnessed for peacetime development. He wanted the tribal committees to take the initiative in generating plans and proposals for Maori advancement and to approach government agencies for assistance.
But, given the terms of the act, Fraser's expectation that Maori might consider the tribal committee structure to be a measure of self-government was unrealistic. Firmly under departmental control, the committees were to work only at local level on useful projects that were subsidised. Tribal power was divorced from responsibility for development of any sound economic base for Maori advancement. And there was no provision for the committees to play a role at the national level, as the MWEO had hoped.
Established and accorded special powers because of war needs, the Maori War Effort Organisation had fulfilled its role. Paternalistic patterns of government policy-making and decision-taking were reasserted.
Claudia Orange
These biographies can be found at the online DNZB site: www.dnzb.govt.nz
These biographies can be found at the online DNZB site: www.dnzb.govt.nz
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