THE CONFISCATION LINE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 4, 16 January 1942, Page 4

THE CONFISCATION LINE

Sir, —Congraulations: to the' BEACON for its able article o*l the subject of "the Confiscation Line," and the unhappy story of how the Pakeha Government of our grandfather's day 'confiscated" 150,000 acres of Bay of Plenty land from the Maori inhabitants. I trust that our local Chamber of Commerce and our local bodies will keep copies of that article for future reference. If they do then they will perhaps do something in the years of peace to restore to the Maori people of to-day what was stolen by Act of Parliament seventy shears ago. It is sad to have the Beacon tell us: that successive Governments have had the claims of these landless Maoris placed before them, and the result? — nothing except that the matter of justice to the Bay of Plenty Maoris is kept "steadily in view." In another column of the same issue I read that 60 per cent of local men killed in Libya were Maoris — the grandsons of the Natives from whom that 150,000 acres: was stolen 70 years ago. It really does seem that the Pakelia population, lias a lot to repay to the Maotri people, both for what happened long ago, and for sacrifices in these days of war. Let us hope that when the Maori Battalion is welcomed home there will be opportunities for local Maori soldiers to settle on some of the land that was "confiscated"' (I prefer the plainer word "stolen") from their ancestors in the early days of settlement. Yours etc., FAIR PLAY.