"There is no Maori problem until we start making one..."
- Michael Bassett
- Oct 29, 2021
- 1 min read
The clipping below was submitted by a reader who noted the passage of fifty nine years since.
Old Doc Paewai combined a medical degree with skills as a rugby player. He was a man of colourfully-expressed opinions. He suffered from a bit of racism in his early days at university, but went on to hold forth on many subjects. I vividly recall his opposition to the “No Maori, no Tour” movement in 1959-60 when Walter Nash’s government refused to get involved in South Africa’s rejection of Maori in the All Black team to tour South Africa. This was a position Doc Paewai supported, irritating my cohort of students at the time. He practised medicine in Kaikohe where he was also the Mayor, and in later years was an Auckland City Councillor. Old Doc Paewai was quite a guy in his day.
I see 2 Maori advisors hired by Invercargill City Council. 10hrs /month $34,000.That's 283/hr.
AI could do that. "The awa used to be clean. We had tuna in there. etc. Would save a lot of money.
Dr Paewai was a true visionary - the continuing cycle of welfare within some Maori families will ensure no end to their expectation of a lifetime of free money........
No politician has the backbone to stop the endless gravy train - in fact all they do is give away more money supporting mindless idealistic dreams that rarely deliver.....
Break the cycle - no work, no money.......abolish the Maori roll, the Maori political Party (racist) and every other apartheid based hair brain scheme that the collective idiots in Parliament devise at whim......
Responsibility reaps Rewards....
Then we might start to grow this country as ONE PEOPLE, ONE NATION
Thanks for the memories. Happy days!
Doc Paewai was our family doctor "back in the day" in Kaikohe, we went to school with his children, Alma was/is my age. I wonder what they're all up to now, how things have turned out for them.