"Kanaka"
p. 28 · Read in the full issue
Letter to the Editor MAY I refer to Mr. L. G. Blackman’s letter (February “PIM”), concern ing the term “Kanaka”?
If Mr. Blackman desires to convey that the term “Kanaka” is permitted, and ac cepted with good grace in Hawaii, then that, to me, is sufficient to give the term an “invidious application” when used in connection with a real Polynesian. Surely, if Mr. Blackman has lived forty years in that melting-pot of the Pacific, he will realise that there are not thirty pure blooded Hawaiians left. The Right Rev.
John D. La Mothe, Bishop of Hawaii, at a meeting of the Rotary Club in Hono lulu in the year 1930, not only gave these figures, but satisfied the meeting as to their authenticity.
The printing office of the LMS at Malua in Western Samoa, issues a book on the Polynesian language, and deprecates the slovenly methods which have been allowed to creep into the most beautiful language known.
If we allow “downtown New York” sloppy pronunciations to creep into the Samoan and other Polynesian languages, and accept and agree with them, then I suppose I must bow to Mr. Blackman. I still refuse to call a Samoan or any other Polynesian anything but Tanata, and leave the slip-shod manner to the slip shod methods of Hawaii residents.
I am, etc.,
J. Nixonwestwood.
Wellington, NZ, April 11, 1944.