"IMPUDENT SPECULATIONS."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1806, 19 July 1913, Page 4

"IMPUDENT SPECULATIONS."

» NATIVE LAND TRADING. Somo remarks regarding tho manner la which Native land traniiaclions arc often conducted were made by Mr. Young, member for Waikoto, during his tpeech on the Addrcss-in-lteply. Tho Native lands, he raid, wero being disposed of very rapidly, but tho wrong people wero netting hold of them. lie' complained of tlio practices of tho speculators—half-casto interpreters, and pakeha-Maoris—who, iu league with cerlain lawyers, wero scheming to got land from tho Natives. He had been informed, lie said, that; gicli interested persons had gone to tho Maoris saying: "Tlio Government is going to take your land from you. You had bettor sign transfers and sell your land to us." This was how tho efforts of tlio Government wero blocked. Tho dealings of tho Government in regard to Native lands wero fair and squaro. It went into Court and throw its cards upon the table and everybody knew what it was doing'. At tho same time, however, tho speculators to whom ho had referred hung about, and, after tlio Government had named tho piice that it would give, they would offer a shilling or eighteonpenoe more per acre. < Mr. Wilsop (Taumarunui): Or a penny. Mr. Young: Yes, or even a. penny as Mr. Wilson suggested. Tlioso speculator believed that if it would pay tho Government to givo a certain price for land, it would pay them to givo a littlo more. Sometimes these people, had tho impuJ denco to afterwards go to tho Govern' ment and offer it the land for settlement purposes. Ho considered that all persons who took -up Native lands should be given a certain time—say, twelve months, in which to make definite improvements. If they did not make theso improvements their interests should bo forfeited to the Stole, which could then open the land for ibona _ fido {settlement. • All privati tinkering iu nativo lands should bo mad* impossible,