Picture / Eastern District Police
Social media users have heaped praise on police for shutting down a man criticizing the use of te reo Māori in their Facebook posts.
Yesterday the Eastern District Police's Facebook account shone a light on an all-female public safety team on shift in Hastings.
"Recently our public safety team day shift crew in Hastings was made up of entirely wāhine," the post read.
Encouraging more wāhine to join the force they wrote "We would love to see even more women in blue, if you're thinking about it head over to www.newcops.govt.nz."
NZ Police's response to the comment received more than 4,000 reactions in just a few hours. Photo / Facebook
Dozens of users congratulated the women for their mahi.
"Great work ladies, not an easy job, I couldn't do it. Thank you for your service - respect," one wrote.
"Thank you for your service, you brave Wāhine, so much respect for all you do," another said.
One tāne however took exception to the post arguing against the use of te reo Māori in the caption.
"Great to see, but how about sticking to English. The Wahine was a ship," the man wrote.
Police's response to the comment received more than 4,000 likes in just a few hours.
"Ata mārie," they wrote ‘Aotearoa has three official languages, including te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.’
'Wāhine' is a plural noun. The ship you refer to was named TEV Wahine. Mā te wā," they added.
The comment went on to spark discussion with the vast majority praising the multilingual nature of Aotearoa.
"As an Aussie, I love and admire our New Zealand neighbours for embracing this type of linguistic diversity. Wish we were doing the same," one user wrote.
Others shunned the linguistics debate instead highlighting their view that, in an ideal world, the fact that the team was made up of wāhine wouldn’t be noteworthy.
"Won't it be great when this is no longer noteworthy and you no longer have to ask for women to apply, because it is a given that they will be part of the force," they wrote.