LOCKED UP LANDS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 340, 25 February 1911, Page 5

LOCKED UP LANDS.

! 480,000 ACRES INVOLVED. The Waikato - Maniapoto District Maori Land Board which finished its sitting on Wednesday lias disposed of the greater pnrL of the private applications. for lease, sale or transfer tn-oilghi be aire it i>V interested partie.', and affecting It',(ion acres oi native lan! in the lower King Country. lln I behind this apparent activity is a condition of things which is absolutely unparalleled in other portions of the country. The board has vested, in it a number of large and small areas of Ian:!, situated in the district roughly bounded by the Punui ; river on the North, the Kawhia coast on the West, the Wanganui river 0:1 the south, and running into the Tuhua i country on tlie. east. This land is of a total area equivalent to roughly 300,000 acres; and not more than 15,000 to 20,000 acres has been dealt with so far. The Act providea that, before th& vested land can be leased or otherwise disposed of, it must be surveyed and roaded. Admirable provisions, in a general way of speaking. But look how it affects the particular lands under consideration. There are plenty of people who are willing to occupy and work these lands, and, while paying a fair rent, take the responsibility of providing their own roads. No surveyors are available for the work of the board and nothing is being done of any moment, One illustration of the way things are affected may be quoted: Three years ago 1500 acres of native land near Te Kuiti was offered :o Europeans at Is Gd per acre per annum. The would-be leseess were on the point of completion, and would by this time have paid the native owners between £3OO and £4OO in rent, hut the Laud Board stepped in, the land was vested in it, and the lease was not completed. People who know do not blame the Native Land Board so much as the legislation which prohibits it from using discretion when suitable occupiers come before it. It may be added that the board is at present pushing through the' leasing of the Taurnatatotara block, an area of 9000 acres, but even including this, it is doubtful whether the vested lands dealt with so far have exceeded 20,000 acres. Bad as this locking-up of native lands is, it is not all. By recent Orders-in-Couucil it was decided to prohibit dealings in certain native lands in the Thames, Waikato and King Country, for a period of 12 months from the dates of the orders, and 181,000 acres additional are withdrawn from the possibility of being usefully occupied. Why this should be no ono knows. It is not a3 if the land would fall into the hands of the wrong people. The Native Land Act clearly limits the amount of thirdclass land any person may hold to 3000 acres, of second-class to 1200 acres, and first-class to 400 acres. Every acre of this land is in one of these classes, and would be taken up and legitimately occupied if the board had power to enable it being done. Some of th 3 small blocks of land are a further difficulty. Perhaps they adjoin land occupied by European settlers. The settlers may be willing to occupy and lease the native land, and have roads of their own, leading to their own land, which serves all the purposes needed. But the Act says the native vested land must be roaded and to road it would diminish its value, apart from the question of whether it would pay to road the lands at all. Some amendment of the Act is seriously needed if the occupation of these wasted, idle, native lands is to go on with any certainty or speed.