Te Koparapara by Lyn Carter

Author:Lyn Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Māori, History
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was with much reluctance that the government and the Department of Māori Affairs accepted that Māori would no longer remain a rural-based population. As a result, their provision of adequate state services to this burgeoning population was ad hoc in its approach. The primary function of the department was to implement government policy regarding Māori, policies that had not always been in the best interests of Māori. It was tasked with ‘solving the Maori problem’ in a way that would achieve the government’s aim of the full assimilation of Māori,17 which would mean the absorption of Māori into mainstream Pākehā culture, ending in a complete loss of Māori culture. The Department of Māori Affairs was thus responsible for administering Māori land and Māori housing, developing welfare policies, and legislating on issues to do with Māori land.

One of the problems of moving to the city was finding suitable housing. Single-sex hostels were made available to help young Māori adjust more easily to urban living, before, during and after the war. The majority of these hostels were run by various religious denominations, with subsidies supplied by the Department of Māori Affairs. They provided a morally safe environment to prevent Māori youth from getting involved in ‘undesirable’ activities.18 An alternative to hostel accommodation was also found in houses located within inner city areas. In Auckland, although these houses were close to employment at the wharves and factories, they were significantly more expensive, a situation that led to a lot of people living together, resulting in overcrowding. To relieve the inner-city pressure, state-owned houses were built in South Auckland, and later in the outer suburbs of Porirua, Hutt Valley and Wainuiomata in Wellington.

With limited financial means and banks unwilling to lend money to Māori, many found it difficult to buy their own home. In the 1960s the Department of Māori Affairs again assisted by offering Māori families who moved to urban areas low-interest-rate mortgages. This scheme has been widely referred to as ‘pepper potting’, as it placed Māori families within predominantly European suburbs.19 This was a deliberate assimilation strategy intended to promote better race relations between Māori and Pākehā. Pepper potting would isolate Māori whānau into nuclear family units who would ‘eventually prefer to live, work and play in integrated communities rather than concentrated Māori communities’.20 Not all Pākehā liked having Māori families living in their neighbourhoods, and the department received a number of complaints.

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