KAIANGA RESTRICTIONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 339, 22 February 1911, Page 3

KAIANGA RESTRICTIONS.

A public meeting of Taumarunui residents was held on Wednesday last to promote a petition to the Governor for the removal of the kaianga restrictions. The petition shows that the newly-formed borough forms part of a Maori district etablishing a Maori Council, which authority has power to make by-laws respecting the health of the inhabitants of any Maori village, the registering of dogs owned by Maoris, the control of the water supply, drainage and other matters. Confusion has arisen concerning the attempted collection of dog taxes. Petitioners believe nothing has been done to improve sanitary or other conditions of the Maori inhabitants of the Borough by the Maori District Council: and that it is inexpedient to have two elective bodies covering one area They further say that in 1904 a certain area of land, forming the major portion of the borough, was Gazetted a Maori kaianga. Its population was then exclusively Maori. Now out of 1200 persons within the

borough, it is estimated that Jess than 100 are Maoris, the rest being Europeans. Prior to being Gazetted a kaianga a number of undesirable Europeans, corrupted the natives by supplying intoxicating liquor to them, but the conditions have now completely changed and it is no longer desirable that the restrictions of the Maori kaianga should apply to the Borough of Taumarunui. The petitioners therefore ask that the jurisdiction of the Western Maori District Council be excluded from the borough and the area Gazetted as a kaianga cease to be a kaianga. A large number of residents have signed the petition.