NATIVE GRIEVANCES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1957, 13 December 1906, Page 3

NATIVE GRIEVANCES.

In the course of festivities at the reception to JSir Johu Gorat, Wirihana lutere, iu a vigorous speech, brought up the question of the grievances of the Maoris in regard to their land, and the abrogation of their rights as subjects of the British Sovereign. “ The land ! The land! Let us have our lands in our own hands to manage in our way,” was the burden of hia complaint. “ Our lands are dwindling, our mana is decaying, let us have some measure of justice ere we die.” Old Wirihana declaimed most earnestly against the iniquities of the New Zealand Governments in its dealing with the Maori laud question. He ended quite dramatically by chantiag a Waikato Kingite war song, which was sung everywhere in the Kingite camps during the early sixties. All the people instantly joined in tho song, and chanted it with intense force and feek ing. Translated, it was as follows :

Quivers and shakes the solid land, Our homes are slipping away ; Whore shall man hnd an abiding place ? O Euaiwoko J God of the Lower Depths, Retain our land and hold it fa3t, Be firm ! Bo firm ! Nor let it from our grasp be torn ! ”

A speech by Tupu Taingakawa followed. He recapitulated tho land grievances, and said he wished Sir John Gorst to assist them in placing their troubles before the Privy Council and His Majesty the King. He announced that he himself intended to proceed to England and endeavor to obtain that measure of justice which the New Zealand Government had denied to his people. “We want full power to deal with our own lands," he said. “ For years wo have tried to get the Government to pass equitable laws dealing with Maori lands. IV ow we see that it is useless, wo must go to the drown of England. I intend to present a petition to the King enumerating our grievances.” A draft of this petition, recapitulating the wrongs of the Maori from 1810 up to the present time, was then read to (Sir John Gorst.

Mrs C. O’Mara, of Stanthorpo, Q., fell while coming out of church and broke her shoulder and died shortly after from the effects of tho shock,

Mr John Duthie, ex-M.H.B. for Wellington City, leaves Wellington in February next to pay a visit to England and the Continent, travelling via Suez. Mr Smart, superintending engineer at Dunedin for the Union Company, was a through passenger for the South by tho Mokoia this morning with Mrs Smart, after spending a few days in the Northern city.

While being taken to a Sydney private asylum, Robert Henry Oravlin (37) threw himself in front of a tram in Cook’s River-road, and was killed, The Wellington Foal states that a oase which emphasises the necessity for some restriction of the size of gram sacks is at preeonl engaging the attention of Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.ii. There is in the Masterton Hospital a man in the primo of life who is believed by tho doctors to be permanently disabled so far as manual woik is conoorned. Two years ngo ha was handling wheat (in Backs weighing 2401 b eaab) in a grain store at Timaru. Ho was carrying sacks up a plank and stacking them, when one caught on the corner of the pile, In endeavoring to prevent it falling, ho severely otrainod his book, Borne time afterwards he endeavored to resume work, but was unable to da anything,and fiftotn months ago ho became an inmate of tho Masterioa Hospital, where he has been praoiically confined to bed ever eiuor, Though not suffering great pain, he is quite unfit to do any work, and is oiien unable to maintain an upright position. Too Masterton Hospital has only iimiicd accommodation, and Mr Hogg is endeavoring to get the unfortunate man into a Wellington msiiiution.