MAORI GRIEVANCES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9100, 20 March 1908, Page 5

MAORI GRIEVANCES.

SPEECH BY THE GOVERNOR

Per Press Association. Hamilton, March 19. A representative gathering of natives was held at Waharoa yesterday to present to His Excellency the Governor the petition to be forwarded to the King regarding the alleged grievances of the-uatiyes in connection with the confiscation of their lands. The Governor was presented with an address of welcome, and the petition piaying the King to right the native grievances was presented with it. Tohanga Kawa, chief of the local tribe, told the Governor that the Maori race and their land were disappearing, and asked him to try and save them. Lord Plunkett in his reply, said that the petition stated that the Treaty of Waitaugi was not being kept, and he had been further informed that if the natives did not §et a satisfactory answer to it, they intended to send Home a deputation to His Majesty the King. If they were so fooolish as to send a deputation Home they would be told, as they had been told before, that the affairs of the Maoris-and Europeans in New Zealand concerned the Government of New Zealand, not the Home authorities. No one denied that the Treaty of Waitangi was not carried out as originally specified, but times had changed. It was a question of fair treatment, not of a particular clause and the New Zealand Government meant to do right by the Maori people. He f Lord Blanket) advised them not to throw away the substance for the shadow. He advised them to turn their attention to modern education for their children, the teaching of agriculture in native schools, a modern and better system of farming, and improved sanitation and drainage in Maori homes and villages. Let them ask Parliament to improve their laws where they needed it, leather than make such an impossible demand as to have the laws repealed. The Prime Minister, in the course of his remarks pointed out the Government had helped the Maori in many ways not provided for in the Treaty—notably by the Old Age Pensions Act, and their advancement of money for the improvement of laud. There was every desire on the part of the Government and Parliament to have a practical settlement of the native laud difficulty. The Hon. Mr Carroll upbraided the Maoris for inconsistency. In one breath they complained bitterly that their lands were slipping away from them, and in the next they besieged him with applications for the removal of restrictions in order that they might sell it. He urged them to give up squabbling amongst themselves, and to unite in a common cause with the determination for educating themselves in dairying, farming, sanitation, and other matters, and they would not only promote their own material prosperity, but would remove from their doors all cause of complaint and gain the assistance of willing workers to their progress. He advised them to make the most of tho presence of the Native Land Commission when it came amongst them.