MOKAU ESTATE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 380, 22 July 1911, Page 5

MOKAU ESTATE.

A SYNDICATE'S ACQUISITION

MR. MASSEY DEMANDS INQUIRY In the course of criticisms on the disposal of the Mckau Estate, Mr W. F. Massey, M.P., made some trenchant statement at the Choral Hall, Auckland, on Wednesday night. When the Royal Commission appointed to consider the conditions of the original lease of this 50,000 acre block found that the conditions had not been complied with, and that the lease was accordingly void, Sir Robert Stout and Judge Jackson Palmer, who comprised the Commission, advised the Government to set apart a sufficient area for the use of the .Maori owners, and to sell the balance on behalf of the natives for European settlement. This block, said Mr Massey, contained 50,000 acres, and it was sold, but how? The interest of the mortgages was sold in Wellington for a nominal sum, and the purchaser approached the native owners with a price, but they declined it. Subsequently, however, he obtained the freehold. Now how did that man know that the Government would give him a title? A clause in the Act of 1909 said that no European could purchase more than 4000 acres of first class native land. Another clause, however, said that if ; it were considered to be in the public ; interest, the Governor-in-Council could j issue a title to a man for his purchase. \ Apparently the sale of this 50,000 i acres was considered to be in the pub- : lie interest. (Laughter.) That block, \ consisting of fairly good land in the | T aranaki district where the land j hunger was well known, was allowed ! to be sold for practically 10s per acre, j and this man turned round and sold the j land to a syndicate at a profit of prac- ! tically 100 per cent. The firm of ; lawvers who acted for that individual j was"Findlay, Dalziel and Co. and the I gentleman who signed the Order-in-Council was the Hon. James Carroll, •while the chairman of the syndicate which purchased the land was an exMinister and a man of very strong leasehold proclivities Mr Robert McNab. (Cries of "Oh!") He, the j speaker, had been given to understand i that the same syndicate had managed j

to purchase a further 17,000 acres since. And there had not been a single acre of all that estate reserved for the use of the native people. Although Sir James Carroll had evaded the autsnen a few nights ago in Wellington. Mr Massey asserted he would call for an inquiry in the. House of Representatives, and would force the thing to a division. If there was nothing wrong in the transaction, well and good, but the country should be afforded an opportunity of judging whether it was. a right and proper transaction or otherwise. (Applause.) Mr Massey maintained that Sir James Carroil had done more harm to the natives of this country than any other man in it. If the majority of members in the House said thai: no inquiry should be held in this Mokau affair, that was their business, and would become a matter between them and their constituents. (Applause.)

THE SYNDICATES' DEFENCE. Hastings, Thursday. Interviewed this morning regarding Mr Massey's criticism of the Mokau lands deaf, a member of the syndicate stated that the-e was no truth in the statement that the syndicate had acquired a further 17,000 acres. The facts regarding the transaction were very different to what Mr Massey madethem appear. There are several blocks reserved near the coast for the use of the natives. The £25,000 paid them was considerably more than they would have received in rents for land 3 which were leased for 20 years. The order-in-council was signed long before the syndicate was formed, and Mr McNab and other members had nothing to do with it. The Mokau estate was now vested in the Chairman of the Maniapoto Land Board, and titles would be given by him to purchasers found by the syndicate. This compiled with the Land Act in regard to limitation of area, and the syndicate had to dispose of the sections within three years. The Hon. T. Mackenize recently stated that he was oniy too pleased that a syndicate had taken the settlement of the Mokau lands in hand, as it was far too complicated a business for the Government to undertake. The Commissioner of Crown lands at New Plymouth told the syndicate that it would be a great advantage to the Department if the syndicate would purchase and cut up the block of Crown lands at the top end of the Mokau estate. It would facilitate settlement and remove roading difficulties almost insurmountable in any other way. The syndicate, however, has not purchased this land, and Mr Massey has evidently been misinformed. The interview concluded with a statement that, had the syndicate not taken the Mokau estate, land settlement there would be delayed for a long time—probably another twenty years.