THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. THURSDAY, OCT. 21, 1909 THE NATIVE QUESTION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 201, 21 October 1909, Page 2

THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. THURSDAY, OCT. 21, 1909 THE NATIVE QUESTION.

IN referring to Mr Ngata's recent speech in Parliament on the Native question the Canterbury Time 3 in an article on the subject has the following:—

"It is not an easy matter to decide Inw the question can be settled in the best interest of the Natives themselves. The clamorous critics of the Governmenat arc anxiou3 only to obtain Native lands for European settlement. They have no concern with the welfare of the Native}*. But instead of encouraging the intrigues of the land agentj and louts, Parliament ought to be guarding very jealously the interests of the Maori owners, and we commend Mr Ngata's speech to our readers as a sound and clear pronouncement from a man speaking with knowledge and authority. Parliament will this session be called upon to deal with the whole question of 'Native lands, and the people of the South Island should endeavour to remove the reproach that they know nothing of the problems involved. They could not bave a more competent guide than the Minister representing the Native race."

The naive admission that the people of the South Island know nothing of the problems involved followed by the exhortation to choose as a guide a member o" the Native race's a striking example of how some people are carried away by special pleading. The idea that any question involving equity and fraught with great issues to thp State can better be settled by a member of any race but our own »eems preposterous, and the sentiment which inspired the idea is certainly difficult to fathom. Not the best interests of the Natives; not the best interests of the Europeans, but the best and truest interests of the whole Dominion, with the progress and prosperity of which the future of both races is merged should dominate the issue. This atti- ! tude is hardly to be attained from a course of tuition at the hands of a Maori advocate. It has been suggested that representative pressmen and politicians from the South should be invited to visit the King Country during the persent sitting of Parliament in order to study the question as it exists. J edging by the sentiments expressed in the article referred to such study is highly desirable. Such an experience would be infinitely more illuminating than accepting wholesale the utterances of a clever advocate. The people of the North are not posse «ed of a frantic deisre to act in any manner calculated to prejudiciallyafTect the interests of the Natives, though Southerners are apparently obe4sed with the idea that North Island residents are a set of seeming and unscrupulous agitators, whose energies are chiefly directed towards the undoing of the Maori. A little pesonal experience would soon correct this idea and enable our friends to form a correct estimate, uninfluenced by Mr Ngata's innuendoes. The invitation to South Island politicians has already been extended through Mr Jennings, member for the district, and it is to be hoped a closer knowledge of the subject will prove a more reliable educator than even Mr Ngata. j