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Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 469, 22 October 1879, Page 2

Last Friday Mr Bryce, the new Native Minister, made a very lengthy and very temperate Native Statement, the main

points of which we will set before oar readers. He wished to see a radical change in the Native Department, and thought that the time bad come for the present system of personal government to cease, as it inevitably led to abuse. “ So great had the abuse become* that his predecessor coitld scarcely move about even in .Wellington, without being followed and waited upon as though he was a prophet. He had been even waited upon in this way in the post and telegraph office. It was no unusual thing for him to have received a hundred or a hundred and fifty telegrams in a single day. He would read to them a specimen page to show what he meant. (The speaker read a telegram in which a native had made a request for £2,000, so that he—the writer—might settle upon land.) That was the sort of telegram of which the Native Minister received such large numbers.” The amount of money under the control of the Native Minister is astonishing. “ Last year there was a sum voted of £20,000, although that sum was in the Public Works Department, which department absolutely received recommendations from the Native Minister as to how this money should be expended. There was another item, £15,000, voted to open native land purchases, but it was under the control of the Native Minister. It had been proposed to increase those votes this year to £50,000 —that was to say, £35,000. Some portion of this was to be paid to local bodies—for instance,ThamcsCounty grant for roads, £4,450. In the county of Coromandel, for native roads there was a sum expended of £1,400. There was another sum of £2OO for the Thames, and another item of £4,000 for the same county, and yet for the same county another item of £SOO. There wore other liabilities for the same county of £2,000, making a total for the Thames county of £12,550. There was also a further sum of £SOO for the Thames borough, but of course that was a mere nothing. It was not possible for a Native Minister to understand from his own personal experience the requirements of the county in question in such an extended way as that he had mentioned.” Besides all this the Native Minister at present has a very long tether in the matter of patronage. There are in the colony native pensioners and native assessors to the number of about 200, who receive among them about £9,000 a year. The native police also receive £1,313 a year. All these are the retainers of the Native Minister, who sets up or pulls down at will. Mr Bryce proceeded to other illustrations of the Native Minister’s command over public money. “A chiefs wife (Wi Tako) had died, and a bill had been sent in for the sum of £3OO. The Maori who telegraphed for £2,U00 got it. Tn,„+ o,aaa r ..i. i ■ michief repaid £I,OOO, and the remainder now stood in the bank, which was pressing the Government for payment. He would mention another case. A number of native chiefs have sent their sons to school, and given them a good education. In some cases the lads were sent down to Wellington, with a request that they should enter the public service. Five of these lads had been sent down to Wellington, but there was no work for them to do. Two of them wore employed, and the others were comparatively idle, the whole costing something like £7OO a 'year, and doing themselves more harm than good. And the number might go from 5 to 50. It only showed the growing danger of this personal mode of government.” Mr Bryce then proceeded to give some figures respecting the expenditure of his Department. Last year £2,000 had been voted for contingencies, and £SOO for the first quarter of the present year. The expenditure in those fifteen months had been £18,599. The meeting at Kopua had cost over £4,000, and the meeting at Waitara more than £1,500. Respecting the Land Purchase Department, the hon gentleman complained that worthless land was purchased at a high figure. About £1,121,000 would be required to complete the purchases that were in progress, and much of the land would be 'of no use for generations to come. He then proceeded to indicate some desirable changes in the Native Department. “He would advocate the native schools being handed over to the Education Department. He would deal with other votes in precisely the same way. He would place the pensioners under the Colonial Secretary’s Department, and the assessors under the Department of Justice. This would make a very great reduction in the expenses of native affairs. With respect to the alienation of native lands, he held pretty positive opinions on that question. Any system was open to objection, but he would take that which was open to the least. The greatest facilities should be given to the Maoris for surveying the boundaries of their land, and the title being.decided they should be allowed to place it under some body popular with the Maori, so that it might be sold by public competition.”