NATIVE LAND POLICY

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 839, 10 June 1910, Page 8

NATIVE LAND POLICY

BEMARKS BY THE HON. DK. FINDLAY. Speaking at the recent Chamber of Commerce dinner at Auckland, the Hon. Dr. Findlay said the Nafcivo Land Act now on the Slatuto Book was the most serviceable advance ever made in connection with reform of the Native land question. Under the old system there was room for delays and obstacles, but under the law as it wa.< at present, if the presidents of tho Maori Land Boards would do their duty, there was in the Act a quick solution"of the difficulty, it was no longer a question of whether tho Native Minister was doing his duty or not. If the pretidenU uf the boards would recognise that they were not merely servants of the Native race, and hold the balance between the Native owners and the European claimants for land on which to settle, they would find that the Act supplied one of the most effective method* of settling the Native land difficulty. It had (continued T)r. Findlay) become a fashion to speak somewhat slightingly of a Minister who was not present who really deserved better treatment at the hands of the people of his country than he ever got. He (Dr. Fhidlay) had seen the north, and he was free to confess that if the laud settlement policy of the Government wero to be judged by what was to be seen in the north, it would be impossible to claim for it any very great success. But it would be unfair to judge ±he Native land policy by what one saw there. The difficulty of finding surveyors had been a serious one in the past. There were now on active service for tlic Government some 100 surveyors, and there were about 30 or 40 surveyors workiitg under contract. If a Maori Land Board asked for the services of a surveyor, a surveyor was pent. Generally, he thought that under tho new regime, the Native land question would no longer remain the burning question it now was. (Applause.)