THE KAIPARA AND WAITEMATA ECHO Helensville, Thursday, June 24, 1915 PATTING THE NORTH

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 24 June 1915, Page 2

THE KAIPARA AND WAITEMATA ECHO

Helensville, Thursday, June 24, 1915 PATTING THE NORTH

With which is incorporated " The Kaipara Advertiser &Waj.tema?a Chronicle."

HON.. HERDMAN EiNTHCJSES KAIKOBE NATIVE LAjnD.-; AL'.D WHO SCOOPED THE POOL V It will be remembered that during the recent Bay of Islands by - election, ihe Attorney-General, Hon. A. L. Herdman, who travelled round in the interests of the Government, had a lot of- nice things i to say about the North. "There is no place like it in the Dominion,'5 This has been but just discovered by the Reformers, who were on the Opposition for nearly a quarter of a century, and for the period Messrs M'assey and Co have held the reins of Governmont they have certainly done nothing in regard to opening up country further than a few miles of railway left uncompleted by Seddon, Ward and Co. And it is quite fair to ask, when the latter were in power and knew all the potentialities of the North, what they did towards openening up and settling the North ? The writer, who for thirty years never rested day or night until he got the line completed from Whangarei to Kawakawa, knows the sequel, and has much to thank Hon. Hall-Jones (when Minister for Public Works) for managing a "re-start" from where Mars den, Thompson, and Hon, ±x. J. Seddon bailed-up the boundary at Hukerenui, the dividing line between Whangarei in Marsden County and Kawakawa Riding the Bay of Islands County. Here the line was stopped for years simply because Kawakawa or the Member for the district (Mr R. M. Houston), though a hard and fast Liberal supporter, h.id not the same amount of influence as Whangarei and Marsden Thompson. But perhaps we are digressing somewhat,

The Wellington "Dominion* (Government paper) has had an. interview with the Hon. Mr Herdmao, who is reported to have said : —

" It is true," said Mr He-rdman, when asked by a reporter to give some impressions of his trip, " That there is much waste land in the Far North which appears to be useless, but I passed through thousands of acres of Crown and Native land fit for settlement, and even the so-called useless land will, in the opinion of many competent judges, some day be utilised for fruit-growing. The great part of the Native land is not being used by the Native, and Mr Herries is doing his best to speed up the settlement of the large areas that are lying unproductive. With regard to the Crown lands of the district, the Minister is of the decided opinion that something should be done to bring about their settlement. Unless, he said, timber cutting rights granted make speedy settlement impracticable, I cannot see why steps should not be taken to get every acre of good land settled. Railway construction, roading and bridging, of course, only add to the value of Native land in a district. It seems to me, therefore, that unless the surplus Native lands are purchased soon, as time goes on the Crown will be forced to pay more for the lands in the district in which it is spending money upon public improvements. The Crown will be forced to pay the added value which it is steadily creating by expending public money." Why didn't the Massey Government buy up Kaikohe, the cream of Bay of Islands?

We feel sorry for Mr Hevdinau when lie presumes to know so much about Native lands, but his Government was in power wlien the cream of the Vaikohe. made double and treble move valuable by the railway going through, passed out of the hands of the Natives into those of a wealthy syndicate promoted by a few sharp lawyers. No, Mr Eerdman omitted to tell either his

Northern audiences or the ''Dominion" about Kaikoheand other land syndicates, which might have been very interesting to electors and .the public generally. For our part we would ask the. pert question: — How much interest have Messrs Blomfield (Parr and Blo'mfield), Reed and Millar and other solicitors, and the new Member, Mr Stewart, in the Kaikohe and othe** Native land syndicates of the North? All the tall-talk regarding Native lands

and the poor Maori, which has been going on for years, is mere by emptying the gas-bag, the game all along has been to play into the hands of capital.