The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1928. JUSTICE FOR THE MAORI.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1928. JUSTICE FOR THE MAORI.

•For the cause that lack* atsittance, thewrong that need* resistance, y' '*• future in the distance. iß< **« *oo<f ftot «* cam do.

. 1926 a Royal Commission has been inquiring into certain Maori grievances, more i° connection with the confiscation . native lands after the wars. The Commission s report*' was submitted to Parliament yesterday, and it contains conclusions and recommendations of a far-reaching and impressive Character. Briefly and in general terms, it throws upon the whites the responsibility- for the native wars, it declares that in some important cases the amount of native land confiscated was excessive, and it suggests that compensation should be paid to the tribes con* cerned to them for their losses and to secure - some measure of justice, however tardy and belated, for the Maori. Whg is familiar with the early 1 history of the -.North Island, or has ever attempted te read it in an impartial spirit, must admit thai the Commission has stated the main fap|s of the* case accurately. The first Taranaki war—the beginning of all the evilarose out of the attempt to purchase the. TVaitara block in defiance Of the traditions of the Maoris and thd aathority of their chiefs; it was, as Dr. Feathers ton termed it, "an unjust qnd unholy war." The second Taranaki war sprang from the seizure of the Tataraimaka lands—a stupid blunder on the part of Government officials, if nothing worse. And in the light of the historical evidence it is fair to say that neither would the Waikato war have broken out, nor would the subsequent Hauhau trouble have spread widely, if it had not been for the natural resentment of the Maoris at the injustice meted out to their people itf Taranaki. As to the confiscations, the Commission finds that these were, as was contended at the time, excessive in the Taranaki and Waikato districts, and it; recommends payment of substantial yearly compensation to the tribes concerned. The report is> in one' sense a severe indictment of our dealings with the Maoris in the past. But in its evident desire to do justice to; the native race, and to repair past wrongs, it accords admirably with the best traditions of British rule; and we congratulate the Prime Minister on ,the sympathetic and generous tone of his reception of the report.