I Stuart

D Dawson’s letter Special Treatment for Māori (Beacon, May 7) is full of misrepresentation, misinformation, and falsehoods.

As a member of the Pakeha culture, he goes to a school which runs on the educational approaches of his culture (but complains about Māori having schools based in their culture).  At school, he receives promotion and propaganda for his culture in the educational curriculum (and objects to Māori having the same).

If he is sick, he can avail himself of health institutions run along his cultural lines and can expect the best care from them.  Hard data shows Māori cannot expect the same level of treatment.

Māori institutions are funded by the Government, like other mainstream health institutes, but like education, funding follows patients and students.

Removal of Māori health initiatives and education institutes puts patients and students back in the mainstream (Pakeha) institutions, with no savings at all.

Māori-only educational scholarships are funded by Māori organisations; there are no Māori-only scholarships funded by the Government.  Māori-only housing is mostly funded by Māori organisations, and sometimes partly funded by the Government. Māori-only prisoner programmes deal with offenders within their own culture, much as other programmes deal with offenders within their own culture.

The letter writer, like all New Zealanders, has as much right to make submissions under the Resource Management Act.  There is no such thing as a Māori-only right.  Or does he think that any hearing must act according to what Māori submitters say? There are plenty of examples to show that is simply not true.

The repeated complaint of Māori Authority tax rates of 17.5 percent is misleading. This tax rate applies as Residents Withholding Taxes and is deducted from the return to investors before the money is handed over.    The investor then is responsible for the remaining taxes owed, if any.  There are many ways to set up trust and estates, with different tax rates for each option.

The letter writer is privileged in that he goes to a school where he learns his native language, which is compulsory from Year 6 onwards.  His subjects are all taught in his native language, unless he chooses to learn another language.  He is privileged that everywhere he goes in this country, his native language is understood.

He belongs to an ethnic group which, on average, earns more than Māori.  He participates in New Zealand’s politics, in structures and institutions transplanted from Europe (particularly the Westminster system), deeply grounded in his culture.  This applies to local councils, as well.

It sounds like the cries of a spoilt privileged child – “they are getting something I am not.  That is not fair!”

Mr Dawson claims we are all one people, but he writes of Māori as “them”. He does not write of “we” or “us”, the citizens of this country.  Māori will never be the part of this country he wants, because Māori, to some people, will always be other – a “them”.

Editor note: There will be no more letters published on this subject.