THE MAORI ON HIS FEET

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 57, 4 September 1926, Page 12

THE MAORI ON HIS FEET

CLEARING TANGLE OF THE

PAST

A TASK FOR STATESMEN

PRESENT MINISTEB'S KECORD,

(By "Pakeha.")

The attention devoted by Parliament during the last few days to Native affairs and the legislation connected with them is an indication of the increasing interest taken by the public and public men in the welfare of the Maori race, an interest to which the proceedings at the great hui at Tikltiki, East Coast, in February last, gave a distinct fillip. It is in the maintenance of that public intsrest and the continued enlistment of the loving care and wisdom of statesmen that the hope of the race lies, and it may be said, for the present at least, that the prospects are Dright. The administration of Native affairs constitutes no unimportant page in New Zealand history. Tho names of men great in tho history of the country have been associated with this work from Grey, Donald M'Lean, Cadman, Seddon, Carroll, Mac Donald, Herlies, to the present Prime Minister. Mr. Coates's record as Native Minister since March, 1921, though not so well known as in the case of his other administrative portfolios, has really been no less admirable, and the practical results achieved during his tenure of the office of Native Affairs are very considerable. Mr. Coates attempted nothing on a wholesale scale. His administration has been characterised by, and has been singularly successful in, the piecemeal solution of long-standing problems. The purchases during the regime of Sir ■William Herries had caused confusion in Native land titles in many districts, such as the Native Land Court in its ordinary jurisdiction could not disentangle. It became not merely a question of. partitioning what the Crown had purchased, but of aggregating the Crown' interests into sizeable lots suitable for selection. The scattered residual interests of the Native non-sell-ers had also to be considered and provided for.