Page:Picturesque New Zealand, 1913.djvu/97

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A MAORI LAMENT
53

sorbed. Hear the lament of Chief Te Huki, uttered in 1911:—

"You Maoris are being superseded, absorbed by the pakehas. We have Maori features, true, but our skins are pakeha. The tide has turned, and is slowly but surely flowing out into oblivion. When the tide turns again, it will be salt, it will be pakeha. While the river Ruamahanga flowed and rippled across the land it was sweet, pure, and fresh; but when it reached the sea of Kiwa, it was lost, lost, lost!"