NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2408, 13 March 1915, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

These are days for the cheerful giver. The war has oome with its claims, and royally has the public responded. But wo still have with us the sick and the halt, and to-day the annual appeal will be made in the streets for the St. John Ambulance Association. Tho Association, year in and year out, is unostentatiously at work, and its ambulances, busy on their errands of mercy, are a common sight in and iabout the city. There is much work for them to do tending those who through sickness or accident have fallen by the \vay 7 side. "It is the annual collection in the streets which has made this work possible, and it is for the citizens to seo that the response this year is not less generous than usual. TEo public are getting so used to giving now that the ha.bit should be growing on them. A shilling or two more or less makes very little difference to the average man and woman. In this year it may be that more than a few of those left at home by the New Zealand boys oversea, through illness or mishap, may need the caro of the Ambulance Association. It would not be a pleasant thought that at such a time the work was stinted through lack of funds.

The Natives of the Urewera appear to be lacking in dutiful gratitude for the care bestowed upon them during the pa-st twenty years by the Native Department. Mr. Herdman tells us that he has found them loud in complaint that although their land has been reserved for them they can neither lease, sell, nor develop it. It is ours, and yet it is not ours, they suy. Wo have'no doubt that these details are under careful consideration by the Department, and have indeed been under careful consideration ever since the days when ;Sir James Cakroll was yet young. On the arrival of a proper and seasonable to-morrow they will receive attention. Mr. He'rries has no doubt attempted to overcome the inertia of the Native Department, but so fa.r as the Urcwfsrtt I a i;onw,t ! .nofl. the f*t«s do nob seem to have been' propitious,

\Yc havo endeavoured by a search through the Parliamentary records to discover the position of the Urewera lands at the present moment. We cauuot claim to havo had much success. The beginnings of many things arc set down, but endings of few. In 1910, it is true, matters got so far as the introduction of a Bill in Parliament. Mn. _ Carroll explained that he wanted it because previous legislation was ineffective. Nobody controverted this statement, and tho Bill was duly put through. Despite tho Bill the Urewera of today seems very much the Urewera of twenty years ago. It may be that in our hurried search wo havo missed the essential documents, Perhaps it is as well that wc should explain what we actually did find.

The Urewera Country—to begin at tho beginning—was rigidly closed to Europeans up to 1895. The Natives were warlike and fierce, and had periodically issued from their forest fastnesses to raid the lowland tribes. They were our most bitter foes in the Maori wars. In 1895 a road line was surveyed through the Urewera from Rotorua to tho East Coast. This work was completed without serious trouble, and thereafter the Natives do not appear to havo been opposed to tho opening of portions of their lands. In 1896 the Urewera Native District Reserve was consti-. tuted, containing approximately 646,862 acres. The inevitable . Commission was then set up.- It investigated the titles, and the Natives appealed against its findings. A Commission of Experts was set up to investigate the first Commission s report. _ It began the work in 1897 and finished it in 1907, finding the owners of all but one block of 7500 acres. In 1908 another Commission, tho Native Lands Commission of that year, appeared on-the scene and presented Parliament with its views on the Urewera. It discovered that tho control of the lands had been Vested by the Act of 1896 in Local Committees and a General Committee to be elected by the Lochl Committees. Provisional Local Committees had been set lip, but the General Committee—the body to deal with the lands—could not be constituted, as the Department had forgotten to draw up tho necessary regulations uudor tbe Act. The Natives in 1908 were found to be desirous of selling 28,000 acres, and the Commission recommended that the missing machinery should be provided to enable them to do so. In 1911 it was stated that the Government was in treaty for tho purchase of 100,000 acres, but wo cannot say that we are at all clear as to the progress of theso negotiations beyond ono purchase of 30,000 acres. The greater portion of the Urewera Country, though somewhat rugged, is understood to be suitable for settlement, and it contains much milling timber. It is time that an effort was made to open it for good and all.