King Country Chronicle SATURDAY, DEC. 7, 1912 NATIVE AFFAIRS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 524, 7 December 1912, Page 4

King Country Chronicle SATURDAY, DEC. 7, 1912 NATIVE AFFAIRS.

There does not seem to bo any reasonable gxcusb for the new Government affecting to consider that residents in native townships are under no disabilities ,with respect to dealing with township sections, or that the native question generally is not in urgent need of attention. For many years past the members of the present administration have been making a special feature of the necessity for strong action in respect to the native land problem. The establishing of native townships was strongly criticised by them, and the methods of the Liberal Government were held up to ridicule. The only action yet to the credit of the now administration in respect to native affairs is the opportunity offered to qualified natives to become Europeanised. How far this proposal affects the real problem has yet to be revealed; it probably ha 3 the negative virtue of being harmless. It has to be said for the present Government that during its short term of office it has accomplished considerable work, and it is not £o be expected that a political policy can be framed and carried out witty the waving of a magic wand. The Ministers, moreover, have adopted a 'comniendably frank and straightfonfvard manner of dealing with applications brought before them. However, in refusing to accede to the rer/juest of the Taumarunui Borough fo/r an endowment for the township, ,'and in asserting that the township /was under no disabilities with resroect to township sections.

mente has always been a sore point with the residents of these townsips. The fact that tha towns were planned and laid off by the officials of the Native Department without a single reserve being set apart for public purposes, and that the leasee were forced to undertake the work of forming the towns from the turning of the first sod, has thrown a heavy burden on the local residents. In the circumstances it is an obviously reasonable request to ask that provision should be made to remedy past neglect. The assertion that no disabilities existed with respect to the transfer of township sections, and the asumption that the conditions in respect to Taumarunui were similar to Te Kuiti and Otorohanga indicates a lack cf knowledge of local conditions which should not exist. Ths problems created by the manner in which the native question has been dealt with in the past are not to solved by a broad generalisation,and it is the duty of those entrusted with the administration of native affairs to become acquainted with every phase of the question. Until that is done sensible remedial action is impossible; progress is retarded, and the burdens of the settlers are multiplying. Such matters as towship endowments, the sale of township sections, and the roading of rural native lands are of vital importance to the King Country, and are not to be handled without an intimate knowledge of the local conditions being first obtained. It is the urgent duty of King Country residents to co-operate with a view of impressing the authorities with the necessity of acquiring the necessary information.