IMPROVED NATIVE LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 14

IMPROVED NATIVE LANDS.

4 PROBLEM OP COLLECTING HATES. A well-known Poverty Bay settler called upon tho representative of The Dominion in Gisborne recently, and requested that prominenoe should bo given in tho columns of this paper to tho difficulty of collecting rates on Maori lanfls. Very large areas in. the Cook and Waiapn counties are occupied and giving large wool returns, but tho local bodies find it almost impossible to 'collect tho rates under the present system. Tho Native occupiers have only to say that they are'not the owners and tho council is helpless. The settler in question stated that at a recent mooting of tho Cook County Council it was reported that out of rates amounting to over ,£3900 due on Native lands only had been collected. The Waiapu county, ho said, was In a worse position still, there being J213,000 outstanding rates on Native lands, practically all uncollectable for tho one reason—that ownership could not be proved. The Waikohu county is also affected, but not to such a large extent. Largo areas of tho Native lands in this county are held under lease, and there is consequently no difficulty in collecting the rates. Also, tho area of "Papakianga" lands (lands in regard to which the ownership has not been definitely settled) is less ■ extensive in this county than in the two neighbouring ones. ■ In the Waiapn county tho problem has become very serious. The local body has done excellent work in roading the district, and although of those who use the .roads Natives are very largely in the majority, the burden falls almost exclusively on the few wliit© settlers. Great blocks of magnificent land, can be seen, wintering as much as. 2i sheep to the acre, on which not ono. penny of rates can be collccted. .. , "I maintain," said our informant, that the Government should'pass an Act making rates a first charge against the wool output, or the stock grazing .on Native improved lands. Tho occupier, would then be responsible, and tho need .for proving .ownership—which, jn the majority of cases is. quite impossible—would be dispensed- with. Of course, it would not bo right tolevy . rates on unocoupied Maori lands. Neither is it just where Native".lAnds "are; improved-and-occupied-to place"; the whole burden of making and maintaining the roads 'oh the shoulders of tho 'comparatively . few- pakehas- -who use them." ■■: