NATIVE LANDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 94, 11 December 1931, Page 6

NATIVE LANDS

THEIR DEVELOFMENT MAORI TRUST FUNDS INVESTED IN •SCHEMES. By the Native Trust legislation, Parliament, says Apirana -Ngata, "rendered the Maori race useful service by organising the accumulated funds which belonged to various sections of it for assisting, among others, those Maoris or Maori Committees who had sufficient seeurities to offer." In order words, Maori trust money j (the direct or indirect revenue of | Maori beneficiaries) had accumulated with the Public Trustee. Like all money, it needed investment. Parliament decided that some of it at least could be invested to promote Maori farming, on sound seeurity. The Maori Trustee was ereated to do the work. In a few years he has lent Maori money to Maoris to the extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Native Trustee does not lend the Government's money, after the manner of the Advances Department. He lends Maori trust money. Lending Maori trust money implies all those obligations to the Maori beneficiary (the real lender) as are implied in the case of the Public Trustee or any other investing trustee. The borrower must be in a position to give the prescribed seeurity. Native Trust Lends Half Million. Many people would arrive at the hasty conclusion that there cannot be very much Maori money to lend, and that few approved borrowers would be discoverable anyhow. But in the recent statement, quoted above, Sir Apirana Ngata says: "The total amount lent by the Native Trustee on mortgage to Natives, Native institu.tions, corporate bodies, and individual farmers at 31st March, 1931, was £546,241; the number of such mortgages was 505. It should be noted that these funds are the property of, and are held in trust for, Native beneficiaries." While the Native Trustee is thus ;nly part of the movement for finaning Maori farming, he is a most nteresting part, because he works lot on Government funds, but on

:rust funds. Whether viewed from the angle of Maori borrowing or of white borrow•Og, an institution which has over half i million of trust funds is a big force n national development, and its work s wortli studying the more so in that t not only lends but has itself tackled the actual -farming development )f big areas of Maori land, and emqloys a special staff of property super/isors and field inspectors. A good leal of its work is in other provinial districts than Wellington, but here is on the Wairarapa East Coast xn example of big scale farming derelopment by the Native Trustee — he Aohanga station of 17,722 acres, ;ituated between the Aohanga and Mataikona rivers, with frontage to :he sea. From Pakeha Lessees to Trust. The Maori owners of Aohanga block lot very long ago asked the Native Trustee to assume control of the vhole area upon the cessation of the ,hen current lease, and to work it as i complete farm for the benefit of the >wners. Legislative authority to do hat was given in the 1929 session, xnd in the earlier part of last year he Native Trustee took over the land, ts carrying capacity had been much •educed, and measures were taken iccordingly. In this connection be t noted that 9000 sheep were shorn ast year, and this year 21,000 are jeing shorn. There are also 2074 attle. These increases in carrying .igures, in a year, tell thir own story. Ind it is estimated that the total :ost of the development scheme will ie less than £4 per acre. The national importance of such de/elopment, at a time when exports ire needed in quantity as a set-off to :he fall in values, need not be emphanised. This investment of Maori trust nony to develop the 17,000 odd acres )f Aohanga is a matter not only of

•oncern to the Maori owners but to -he workers — pakeha and Maori — for vhom employment has been ereated. Aohanga development absorbed many memployed for many months in cuting the scrub (mostly tauhinu) that xad in years past invaded the land, o the detriment of its carrying capa--ity. Scrub-cutting, Costs. Scrub-cutting costs are important in any scheme to bring back scrubby land. Under the contract system the Native Trustee had succeeded in relucing the scrub-cutting costs to £1 3s per acre. Then a special unemploynent scheme was undertaken. It 3s lot denied that the cost of scrubbing )y unemployed will be above £1 6s per acre, but the transaction includes a subsidy paid by the Unemployment ' Board. - Every facility has been given to .ndustrious Maoris to engage in the .vork of the station. To the Maori owners the Native Trustee guarantees the rental they •eeeivd under the former lease. An indication of the financial scope : )f the operations is that over £50,000 has been expended on development and stock to date. Proviously the Lands Department had rejected a prooosal to acquire the Aohanga block for closer settlement, consi'iering :hat the cost of subdivision and roadng would be too heavy. Investigasion had also shown that, with the rueans at their disposal, the Maori owners would be quite unable to vork their separate portions.