WILLING BUT WEAK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1848, 6 September 1913, Page 6

WILLING BUT WEAK.

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3 » a THE CASE FOR THE MAORI. All interesting plea on behalf of his t raC o was put forward in the House or ■ Representatives last evening by Mr. U : P.lrata, member for Southern Maori. " He compared some membors of larlia--0 mont to great carnivorous , ' "eager to 'devour the last acre. 11 "The.v came round like scorpions, s.y a Mr. i'arata in another rhetorical flight. Ho went on to contend that under tbe existing law the Maori was tied up, and ) could not work ' his Jand. Ciivo a Maori 2000 acres of land, and no money to work it, and what can ho do? asked J Mr. Pnrata. "It is like a parrot ' scratching." ~ . . ... "I know nearly every Maori in this country," he continued, ' and out of ' iho whole 50,000 I don't think there aro . 100 Maoris capable of dealing to the . best advantage with their lands. It a tlio Natives were allowed to deal with, i. their lands-as they wished, Mr.larata 0 declared, before long there would bo no c Nativo land. He approved tlio arj rangement existing in connection with 1 the administration of tlio \\est Coast ° Settlement Reserves, ontho giomid that the Maori was not. able to \ o ks his land like a European. t should tho Maori be rated in the same -wwa s Tlio Natives in most places wore - called upon to pay full rates and no 0 doubt the county councils recognised H tho disabilities under which ■ thej lar hourcd, and did not press them to a , prosecution. No person was more wi lJ lig tl'an tho Maori to tako his place m » civilised affairs, but ho was not ablo 1 V et. It was only eighty years ago that ; civilisation had entered the country. Previously the' Natives had a civilisa- } lion of their .own, and ho doubted very . much whether it was not better then : than now." ■ , t "In those days," said Mr. larata, 1 "every Maori had the right to work 3 tho land, and get enough to keep hnnf self, his wife, children, and relatives. There was plenty of lnndfor them, and I no grudging a man tho right to till tho - land. Everybody had the rigli; to live . on the land just as well as ®n>bo«y - else. Now half a million- acies aio i going iOvcrv year, and by-and-by theio ■ will be no land left, and the * will starve. AVe have got to teach . ourselves —our own customs areinheient i in our blood, and we have got to got . them out." t Tlio greatest Native experts, Mr. Parata declared, could not find nioro . than one or two hundred out of tho . .whole fifty thousand Natives who ever?' .] capable of looking .after their affairs to the same advantage as Europeans. To pass legislation putting them on the same footing as Europeans would be to " wipo them out of existence. The Na--0 tive was too generous; ho'would never p .seo a man "stwrk" for food. When ] his poor relatives came to his house lie 3 gave them the best he had got- Tho - palceha sometimes did this, and some- - times he did not, but the Native could not get it out of his blood. Finally, Mr. I'arata said that he did not think it fair to charge members of „ his raeo more than quarter rates upon their land.