NATIVE LAND.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 376, 8 July 1911, Page 5

NATIVE LAND.

From the "Lyttelton Times." Those six million acres of Native land " locked up from settlement," of which Mr Massey made so much when he was touring North Canterbury, seem to be gradually melting away. They were reduced to four million by the time the leader of the Opposition reached Nelson on hia way home and now they are down to a little more than a million acres. Great things must have been happening during the last few weeks. Sir James Carroll stated the facts in his speech at Invercargill. The total area owned by the Maoris in the North Island on March 31 last was 6,018,371 acres. Of this 3,916,342 acres were in profitable occupation, 369,112 acres were vested in the Public Trustee and other trustees, .and 279,002 acres were incorporated for settlement. If we deduct these areas from the 6,018,371 acres we have a balance of 1,4539,15 acres that represents the foundation on which Mr Massey built up his stories of " shiploads" of people being driven out of the country by the Maori "monopolists." It is quite true, of course, that much of the Native land is held in large blocks on leases that do not conform to our own ideas of what i 8 good for the country, but this is a point with which our friends of the Opposition do not concern themselves. They want the native lands opened to European settlement and speculation without any sentimental regard for the rights of the present owners and they want them opened quickly. In another few years all the land that is not needed by the Maoris themselves will be required by small farmers and then the opportunity for making money out of the freehold will have disappeared for ever. Probably it is this prospect that has moved Mr Massey to rather overstate the gravity of the situation, but with Mr Herries at his elbow to put him right on the facts we should hear no more about those six million acres.