COUNTY RATES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 September 1924, Page 4

COUNTY RATES.

MAORI REFUSES TO PAY

COWS SEIZED AND SOLD

For some time past the Hawera County clerk (Mr. J. W. Harding) has been experiencing considerable difficulty in collecting native rates, many of the Maoris being under the impression that they could not be forced to pay. This misunderstanding has now been dispelled to a great extent as the result of extreme action being taken against a* influential native who resides at Okaiawa. The native in question was determined mot to pay, and consequently an order on a judgment summons was made against liim at a recent , sitting of the Hawera Magistrate’s Court. Still the Maori held out, and one morning a constable with a warrant in. his pocket walked on to his farm. The Maori had anticipated this move, for he had made all arrangements for his absence, and on being interviewed by the constable, said he was quite ready to go to gaol. Unfortunately,' he was to be disappointed, for the"constable then stated his intention of taking the cows, which he did, yarding them and giving instructions to a drover to take them to the saleyards. : “You can take them, I get some more,’? was the Maori’s only comment; There was a good attendance of buyers at the sale; many of them natives, and good-prices were realised and enough money obtained to pay tjie rates. " ;

“This is the first procedure of its kind in the country that I know of,” said - the county clerk, “and it is having . a great moral effect upon the natives,” He said that before the occurrence the natives a,t Okaiawa had been quite jubilant; They knew that the court had ordered the native in question' to be imprisoned ’if he did not pay the rates due. and thev were under the impression that the County Council was not “game” to put; him in gaol. “I think "they have different views on the subject sow,”, saicv the clerk. ; • 1 ’ -