EXPLOITING THE MAORIS

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1050, 18 November 1903, Page 4

EXPLOITING THE MAORIS

PLAIN SPEAKING WADE IN DEBATE. Th<- question of prohibiting the purchase of timber from the-Maoris was (says the Wellington correspondent of the I-lawke’s Bay Herald) revived hy the Premier during the debate on the Native Land Laws Amendment Native Minister said that he had agreed to drop tiie clause which proposed to render contracts with natives for the purchase of timber illegal. Mr Carroll concluded with an enthusiastic eulogy of the work of the Native Allairs Committee, The Premier just then appeared in -the House. Mr Scddou at once went out of his way to say. that he couid not compliment the committee )u their desire to give away the timber ■belonging to the natives at unfair prices. 1 Mr Houston defended the committee/ He said that it had been proved to them that the timber purchased from the natives had been paid for at a fair price. The Premier’s attitude seemed to be due to a letter handed by Mr Hogg to the Premier and read by the Premier to the House recently, but when Mr Hogg was called before the committee his evidence was not worth a snap of the linger. Mr Herries said the evidence taken by the Committee showed there was no justification for the statements which the Premier had made. He ,(Mr I-lerries) had seen the agreements, and he would not care to have a share in any of them, as ■prices had been given for timber which experts on the committee said they had never heard of before. air A. L. D. Fraser also resented the Premier’s remarks, and as an indication of the evidence given before the committee, said that Mr Ellis, from the King Country, gave evidence to the effect that he had leased -800 acres of native land lor which the Government offered 3s an aere. The natives did not sell, and Mr Ellis had now cut out GOO acres, and iiad paid the Natives nearly £7OOO, leaving 200 acres yet to be cut our, and thu land still belonged to the Maoris. The Natives had been exploited by the Government, and their lands purchased practically at the point of the bayonet at 75 per cent. Jess than value. He referred to the Tamaki Block of 31,000 acres in the Hawke's Bay district, which the Government purchased at 10s an aere, ‘ although eighteen months ago the Natives were offered £OO,OOO for half of it. The Natives, he said, could not get justice in this country, and they were taking steps to bring their grievances before the King. Mr Lang said he knew of a . case in which the Government purchased land at 3s per aere, and a sawmiller in his district gave £8 an acre for the timber on the adjoining land, leaving the Natives the. freehold. The Premier said that no land had

been purchased from natives without price being first fixed by the Sur-veyor-General. Mr Carroll, in reply, said it came out in evidence before the committee that a certain firm of lawyers held the patent fo*r having devised a deed by which the law With regard to the alienation of native land baa been evaded. What the Government contended for was that all contracts of this kind should be brought before the Executive Council or some other tribunal, in order to prevent any monopoly. He advocated that, but he. did not support legislation to destroy existing rights.. As to the Tamaki Block, Mr Carroll said that ■the Government had purchased the land subject to a lease which had ■eleven years to run. The whole of the thirty-four thousand acres had been leased through a private agency for £3OO. The wealth coming out of that land was not going into the pockets of the natives.