MAORI PENSIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 317, 30 March 1928, Page 9

MAORI PENSIONS

DISABILITY DISCUSSED j PROTEST TO MINISTER “What would the European say if he had to get a certificate from Chancery in England to prove he had no interest in any claims there, before he was granted an old-age pension in New Zealand?” This is said to be a corrollary to the position the Maori applicant for a pension finds himself in at present. The Akarana Maori Association had a long discussion on native disabilities last evening. It was stated that magistrates will not issue a pension to a Maori unless he can show a certificate from a judge of the Native Land Court that the native does not own land of sufficient area to disqualify him from receiving the pension. There is said to be a reluctance on the part of judges to issue the certificates, and the insistence of the pension office for them has resulted in many poverty-stricken and aged Maoris being refused pensions. The association decided to write to the Minister of the department about the disabilities, and also to state that the idea the Maori did not need a full pension was false. Most natives needed the same food and clothing as the European pensioners. NATIVES WANT SCHOOL Natives at Waitakaruru wrote asking for assistance in getting a school in their district for 50 children of school age. There was no European school near enough at present. The association decided to support the request. The destruction of volcanic cones was again discussed. It was stated that arrangements should be made by local bodies wanting stone to use the Harbour Board’s quarry at Rangitoto. There was no necessity whatever to open up more land. The association decided that it was absolutely opposed to any further quarrying of the city’s cones unless competent authorities gave a certificate that the work would not affect the scenery. No reply had been received from the Minister of Defence to the protest against the mimic onslaught of “rebel Maoris” during military manoeuvres at Ngaruawahia. Arrangements for the building of the na at Mount Fklon were in response to a letter from the Mount Eden Borough Council.