"NOT EXTRAVAGANT"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 396, 3 December 1932, Page 5

"NOT EXTRAVAGANT"

("Post" Special Commissioner}-

THE NATIVE DEPT. VIGOROUS DEFENCE BY ' SIR APIRANA NGATA s TRIBUTE FROM OPPOSITION

Wellington, Friday. Declaring that he was very sensitive about the charges of extravagance levelled against the Native Land Department, Sir Ap-irana Ngata, Minister of Native Affairs, told the House to-day that h'ef resented it and denied its accuracy. Moving the committal of the Native Land Amendment Bill which will facilitate the re-organisation of the department and its associated funetions, Sir Apirana said that he had been trying to get at the cause of the charge that there h'ad been extravaganee in the administration of his department's management of native land settlement and its widespread activities in the development of native land. One thing was certain, that there had been officers of State in the past and perhaps in the present, who regjhrded th'e Native Departn\erit (as a sort 'of inferior department which he resented very much. "This Prejudice" This prejudice might be bound up with the big prohlem of the two races? being associated together in the same country. He had been told that the Maori land boards sh'ould be abolished because they were either not doing their job or not properly looking after the money or perhaps something worse. Hq had gone to a great deal of trouble to find if these statements were justified and he had come to the conclusion that in the administration of its monies no department of State had a better record. Up till March 31 last, the Maori land boards had found it necessary to sell up seven mortgagors. One was a Maori who owed £75, and his assets realised £100 but there were six Pakehas who owed £12.700 and the boards took over half the properties and sold the rest making a loss of £6,300. Not Tbp Heavy It had been suggested that the department had grown out of all proportion. He was sensitive about this criticism and resented it because it was not -correct. Mr. W. E. Barnard (Labour, Napier): It it not in the commission's report. The Minister: No, but it has been stated in the newspapers. Not Despotic If people liked to call the Minister a "rubber stamp" they could do it, continued Sir Apirana. They could either have the Minister or a board and the people would say "Why does not the Minister do his work?" The commission had said that the Native Minister possessed despotic powers. He had looked into this phase and could not find that his powers were more despotic than thoSe of other Ministers. Mr. M. J. Savage, who is actingLeader of the Opposition, during the absence of Mr. H. E. Holland, assured the Native Minister that the thanks of the House were due to him and he would require evidence better than that of the Royal Commission to featisfy him that Sir Apirana had not been doing his duty. He had heen termed a rubber stamp in charge of an important department and to call his department "a one man show" unlike that of other Ministers, was not fair. Apparently the commission simply acted on reports, probably biassed, which had been handed to them and heard certain people who were probably also biassed, but that did not ltelp anyone. There was a good deal of overlapping in the Native Department hut he had yet to learn that the Native Minister had done any worse than other Ministers.