TAXING NATIVE LANDS

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 18 November 1920, Page 3

TAXING NATIVE LANDS

A SURVEY OF THE PAST

Mr A. S. Ormsby, of the King Country, writes as follows to the Waipa Post so that the public may understand the position the Maoris take up in regard to the rating of native lands and their objection to paying rates : —■

In the year 1890 the late Hon. John Ballance had a conference at Kihikihi with members of the Ngati Maniapoto tribe and urged the natives to give land for roads and railways. He stated that roads and railways were essential for traffic and that it would also enhance the value of Maori lands. If the natives gave the necessary land the Government would construct the roads and railways.

Sir Robert Stout repeated the same advice to the Maniapotos at the turning of the first sod at Puniu of the Main Trunk railway, saying roads were like arteries in the human body: if they were good the body was healthy. The same applied to land ; that by having roads and railways the value of iand would be enhanced from shillings to pounds. Encouraged by these statements the- natives consented to have roads and railways constructed.

The first road to be made in the King Country was the Kaw-hia-Pirongia.road, the land for which was given by the natives, together with necessary timber for construction of bridges, etc. The land for the Main Trunk railway from the Puniu river to the southern boundary of the King Country, together with necessary land for stations, was given by the natives on account of the Minister's statement re enhancing the value of native land. It may be mentioned that the land from Te Awamutu railway station to the boundary of the King Country, a distance of some two miles, was owned by Europeans who received substantial compensation for portions traversed by the railway. It may also be mentioned that after the natives gave the land necessary for the roads and railways previously mentioned the Government then took all the land it required for these purposes under the Public Works Act without compensating the native owners for same. The Hon. Te Hehou Tukino c on behalf of the Ngati Tv "Wharctoa gave the national park -Tongariro, Ruapehu, and Ngaruahoe —to the people of New Zealand, and thousands of acres of land in the Hawke's Bay district were brought at from 2d to 4 ]/id an acre. The site on which the Otorohanga public school now stands was given by the natives as was also the ground on which the Te Kuiti school stands ; and recently the late Te Mihinga (Mrs Lucy Josephs) gave the land for the Oparare school ; and there are numerous similar gifts of this nature. It is well here to refer to the Taranaki war, which was provoked by a purely family dispute between a chief 'called Teira and another named Wirimu Kingi. By a private agreement the dispute was to be settled by the payment of a sum of money on the part of Kingi. I The sum was paid, but, listening to the suggestion of Government representatives, Teira insisted on taking Kingi's land at Waitara, and he sold it to the Goverment. Surveyors were put on, but Kingi's people interfered and pulled up the pegs and turned the Government surveyor off the land. Soldiers were sent up, and so a great Taranaki war was initiated and went on. Eventually the Waimate Plains was confiscated, ns well as thousands of acres of other land. Protesting against confiscation resulted in the Government setting up a commission of enquiry under Sir W. Fox, and he reported against the confiscation as not having been justified. Notwithstanding Sir W. Fox's report as commissioner, the land was never restored to the natives, and so it may rightly be said that the greater part of Taranaki has been stolen from its rightful owners. The Waikato County from the Mangatawhiritakihiri creek to Pirongia mountain was wrongly confiscated, and showed that the then Government did not appreciate the services of its friends and allies, the Waikatos, who under Potatau saved the city of j Auckland from being burned and its inhabitants from being massacred by the Ngapuhis under Heke. The Arawas, who were ' staunch friends and allies to tl c 1 whiles in many ha tiles, are b.;- ---; ing rewarded by the Govon:----j ment endeavouring to confiscate their rights to the Rotom-i lakes. j The South Island, too, \v;is p.nc- ' tically confiscated.