THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1906, THE VISIT OF THE LAND BOARD.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 248, 2 March 1906, Page 2

THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1906, THE VISIT OF THE LAND BOARD.

The visit of the Commissioner of Crown Lands and members of tbe Auckland Land Board to thia district last week was an event of importance and we sincerely trust that close attention will be immediately given to tbe various matters brought under their notice, some of which we know beyond tbe Board’s control, but stii 1 advice could be given to those in authority. Tbe one thing needful: tbe removal of lestrictions on ail native lands surrounding the harbour, appears to be the w/mmum bonum. We ask for roads and are told that at present it is not judicious to make roads through native land?, that it is not fair to the ratepayers to spend their money on work that will improve tbe land of those who do not pay rate?, and if reasons are shown why this excuse is untenable, then it is binied that these lands must not be int ffared wilb and ircreas< d in valu? just a l . pnitn-, because the Government h we views, e'e , etc. At present we are anxious Jo got our dairying industry started on tbe best possible basis, •nd the waterway of the harbour is determined on as a highway to bring oil ’ba produce fr< m various points to a eantie, but again tbe locked up native land i are an obstacle. Not above a f.entb p irt ot the land on the foreshore is available for pasture on ac I count of a proper tills for either lease or other hnpre being obtainable, and I

tfee is littJe chance of tbv bn’k of tb> datives nr ’king. There are the tim bar, coal and other nr neral industries held in abeyance and p 1 through lb Government’s puri- airimity in cka’iop with ibis momentous question—mo men to us to us as residents around the Kawhia harbour beyond the knowledge of outsiders. The policy of ’‘Taihoa" is going well to strangle this place, and if sometbiog is not done speedily the flickering remains of life will soon . bej < xtinguished. If wj were ask iing fir an injustice it would be a loosl absurd thing to &tk, but we can safelj assert tbit three cut of every four ua lives would not only rejoice at the change, but from being poor, half nouridbed, despondent creatures would, become infused with new energy, knowing that they could deal wit! their surplus lands and have capital to work their papakaingas to advantage, or have an assured ingpme from theii leased lands. If the Government carried out there present policy honestly they would at once put all the people in New Zealand on the same level and provide every landless person with a " papakainga ’’—all our unemployed, all our tramps (and there are a few), all tbe useless ne’re do-wells who are only outside jails on sufferamqe, wou|d have their plot cf they are tar worse off than the Maori and perhaps as deserving. But tbe Maori does not want to be pampered; the pamperfed child never tbriyes till he feels the lash of the outside world and has to battle alone. When, as obtains here, tbe Maori is in competition with the Pakeba he wants a fair field and no favour, and granted that he . will soon assert himself; he wants to be exactly on tbe same footing as the Bake ha and tbe Pakeha wants hinvthere too. It is an easy matter to try on an araa immediately round this harbour, where it is so palpably evident that a whole district is being ground down and hampered by the existing restriction and both Maori and Pakeha pining through it. But we suppose the question will be left to a lot of Southam members, who have neither tbe knowledge nor the inclination to tackle the question, and will stir the matter up with the Prohibition ladle. Prohibition has nothing to do with this question. It is a question as to whether New Zealand is to be enrobed by the opening up of a district before which even Taraniki will have to bow in the matter of dairy produce, timber, and minerals, or whether thousands of pounds of revenue are to to be smothered out of existence. It is too late far the Southern capitalists to try and crush it out altogether. 1 Those who are on the land will not give it up and allow others to come in and reap tbe harvest. No, they will stick to their work here, and in spite of all the injustice done to them by tbe almost criminal neglect and Governmental obstruction will bring up their families on the land and teach them to dispise a Government which will persist io refusing justice to the King Country.