Post by Kiwi Frontline on May 19, 2019 7:34:59 GMT 12
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 14/4/19)
Andrew Little In his comments while reviewing Hate Speech, Andrew Little displays an incredible ignorance of History and an apparent wish to classify historical records as Hate speech. This alone shows how inappropriate he is in his Justice Minister.
He dismisses as ‘myths’ the description of pre-European Maori as living ‘a violent Stone age existence.’ Mr Little, they were a Stone age people, any other materials were unknown to them and inter-tribal contact was often violent. Land was acquired by conquest and usually those defeated in the battles were killed or enslaved. These practices continued till the beginning of the Nineteenth Century and were only curtailed at the request of the early missionaries and the Chiefs’ conversions to Christianity. There is much historical evidence of this
According to Professor Rutherford, former professor of History at Auckland University, there were around 42,600 deaths in the inter-tribal battles of the Musket Wars from 1807 till 1845. This is probably the most accurate figure and there is much supporting evidence of this terrible carnage in the records of missionaries, sea captains and others of the time. This, Mr little, is not Hate Speech.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters
Andrew Little In his comments while reviewing Hate Speech, Andrew Little displays an incredible ignorance of History and an apparent wish to classify historical records as Hate speech. This alone shows how inappropriate he is in his Justice Minister.
He dismisses as ‘myths’ the description of pre-European Maori as living ‘a violent Stone age existence.’ Mr Little, they were a Stone age people, any other materials were unknown to them and inter-tribal contact was often violent. Land was acquired by conquest and usually those defeated in the battles were killed or enslaved. These practices continued till the beginning of the Nineteenth Century and were only curtailed at the request of the early missionaries and the Chiefs’ conversions to Christianity. There is much historical evidence of this
According to Professor Rutherford, former professor of History at Auckland University, there were around 42,600 deaths in the inter-tribal battles of the Musket Wars from 1807 till 1845. This is probably the most accurate figure and there is much supporting evidence of this terrible carnage in the records of missionaries, sea captains and others of the time. This, Mr little, is not Hate Speech.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters